Scholastic Art Award

   My sculpture, Behind the Mask, got a Certificate Award in Scholastic Art Competition last week!

   Unfortunately, "Mom, it hurts!" did not get any award but it is now on display in Kingswood building hall way.

    I have been disappointed for several times in the Scholastic for the past two years. However, I understand that judges have different standards. My sculpture teacher, Gary, explained to me that the reason my sculptures don't do well in art competition is probably that they are too delicate and the judges just don't want to send them elsewhere for higher level competitions because they might be damaged in the transportation process.

    Winning award is never my purpose of making sculptures. I make sculptures for fun, and for an outlet to express my thoughts and to send positive messages to the world. Like many other things, awards and compliments are merely by-products of the hard work. For me, inner fulfillment is the most important thing, and I will continue to create more art work as I have deeper understanding of the world around me.

   By the way, I am presenting in our school's World Affair Seminar in February and this year's topic is Cultural Talk. Shirley (my partner) and I just made our poster last weekend and Behind the Mask fits perfectly with our theme.

The Final Look of "Mom, it hurts!"

Two weeks after Christmas break, I finally finished my sculpture, "Mom, it hurts!" .

Different from the previous human head sculptures, this sculpture includes only the face of a crying baby, a baby's hand, and a lot of scene setting. This was my first time working with natural materials, such as rocks, moss, and twigs; I felt that I was shooting a tragic movie scene.

Also, the facial expression of the crying baby was another challenge for me. Surprisingly, I started to feel the twisted muscle and bone structure flowing beneath the baby's skin as soon as I touched the clay. I've always been wondering if there is really some "spiritual connection" between me and the clay because magic happens when my hand touch the clay every time..... ;D

I will still be in Sculpture Studio next semester and I can't wait to make another human head sculpture! Also, I'm picking up drawing again because I'm curious about how much my drawing skill has improved and I want to test it out!

Sculpture Project: "Mom, it hurts!"

After more than two months' work, my sculpture, "Mom, it hurts!", is almost done!

This sculpture was originally called Cry,  but I decided to change its name a few days ago when I read an article about the shocking earthquake in Sichuan, China, three years ago. May, 12th, 2008, Huanhuan Kindergarden collapsed completely in the 8.0 degree earthquake in Sichuan province; the disaster happened during the nap time and almost all the children were buried under the ruins. When the rescuing committee arrived, they heard a child crying, "Mom, it hurts!......" However, when they finally removed the   heavy steel bar on top of this little boy, he had stopped breathing.

Looking back on the original white clay head before it got fired, I am quite surprised to see how it has turned out. My goal was to make the baby head look as realistic as possible; in addition to the skin color,  I also put on a thin coat of a shiny metal color which made the skin look even better. Thank you, Gary, for showing me such an amazing color and a useful technique! :D

As the sculptor, I find it very hard for me to evaluate my own piece because I work on it everyday and see it develop gradually. There is nothing strikes me or surprise me when I see the final project because I have been staring at it for months. However, others do have interesting reactions. For example, one of my classmate told me after seeing my sculpture, "It's sick, and I love it!"

As soon as I began to make my first human head sculpture a year ago I realized that my sculptures would make a lot of people feel "sick", "uncomfortable". It's just the nature of human head sculptures. I always have this question in my head, "Is it OK to make people feel 'sick' about my sculpture?" My intention is to make something beautiful, not to scare people off.

Last week I visited the Cranbrook Art Museum and a pair of sculptures with the theme of Comfort caught my attention; especially the one with a woman licking and spiting green jelly seductively. Both sculptures are "sick" and provoke a strong sense of discomfort; yet I was unable to erase the images from my mind long after I saw them.

Discomfort lasts. Thinking back on my natural disaster memorial sculpture, Cry, I do not hesitate anymore; I decide to make it as sick and scary as possible in order to provide the discomfort which will make people think about the balance between human and the environment.

My next step will be creating a scene of ruins and put all the elements together: the baby face, the hand, the new shoot, the rocks, the grass, and the ruins. Now I have finished all the college applications and my plan is to finish the sculpture in 10 days after I go back to school.

New Pictures During Thanksgiving Break

    I'm enjoying my Thanksgiving Break in my friend's house and I finally find some time to draw.

    I began to teach my friend's younger sister sketching and fashion design a month ago. This is my first time being a teacher and I really start to feel the responsibility of being a teacher: to give the best I can give. There is a huge difference between Chinese and American education: in China, the student is forced to learn whether he or she likes or not; in America, it is all about "interest", and you can never force a student to learn.

    I have to confess that sketching is extremely "boring" for most people: staring at a cube for three hours and trying to distinguish and fix the tiny mistakes in the 3D structure of the drawing. Inherently interested in drawing, I found no problem drawing ten hours a day when I was in a drawing camp in 6th Grade. However, everyone is different. As a teacher, I start to consider how to make my student interest in sketching.

   I've been teaching Hanna (my lovely student~~:D) basic 3D shapes, dress sketching, and knowledge about human body proportion. Hanna is making considerable progress; she is genuinely interested in dress sketching and fashion design. Also, as my mom and Dr. Dostert suggested me, an important aspect of being a teacher is to model what it is to be an artist and show Hanna how to apply art into our daily life.

    So, I did some intense drawing these days for my own interest and also to show Hanna how "complete" a drawing can be (comparing to rough sketching). Both pictures are based on photos I found online. I used ball pen for the goldfish and color pencil for the girl picture.

Video of My Sculpture: Behind the Mask

 Gary and I made this video for the sculpture: Behind the Mask. Our idea was to make a one-minute-long video for the sculpture which is on display in the Kingswood hallway. We will create a QR code (a certain kind of barcode) for the sculpture, and people can scan this code using their Smartphones and actually watch this video on their Smartphones while they are examining the sculpture.      

It was a cool experiment, and we had a lot of fun making the video. A big Thank You to Gary for making this wonderful video and Joe for helping me firing the sculpture. 

Hope you enjoy it!

Sketches for Fun

Here are some sketches that I use to decorate the wall in my room. They are random sketches from the past. I keep the habit of signing my name and the date on every drawing so you can actually see when I made them.

JUST A FUN FACT: the cursive signature on my sketches is my Chinese name: 江帆. I designed this signature in 6th grade because I believed I would sell my drawings for millions of dollars one day! Just kidding... However, after I finished my lectures about "the Dream and the Future" in Chinese middle schools, some students came to me and asked me for my "autograph"; that was the first time my signature was actually put to use. I felt so honored...

The sketch for the metal skull of my sculpture: Behind the Mask. I used it to study the 3D structure of the skull.

 The reason I started learning sketching was that I was so interested in Japanese Manga that I wanted to become a cartoonist when I grow up (of course my dream has changed now!).

A cartoon version of Michael Jackson.

This sketch is for the snow sculpture I did last winter. I have the tradition to make one snow sculpture every winter. If I have any chance to create another one, I will probably make a Steve Jobs or Marilyn Monroe!

Another unfinished sketch of Michael Jackson. This quick sketch took me about 10-15 minutes; I just laid out the basic structure and shadows.

Unlike drawing intensely and consuming hours on one single drawing, quick sketches help you catch the movement and the 3D structure of an object. My old drawing teacher used to make me do one quick sketch every day because "practice makes perfect"!

I hope you enjoy these sketches!

Sculpture Project: Cry

I'm in Sculpture Studio this year and my new sculpture project is called "Cry", which was inspired by one of my unfinished sculpture.

For this one, my idea is to create a movie setting and the theme is about the natural disasters. The crying baby's face emerges from one end of a board, and there will be a little hand stretches out in the middle trying to grab a new shoot, which symbolize the hope, on the other end of the board; the whole surface of the board will be covered with soil, grass and building remains just like the earth surface after an earthquake.

How did I come up with this idea? Different artists have different approaches to their art; I use pictures as inspiration and combine various features on several pictures to make the final design. It is sort of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle; you search for clues in individual pieces and form the whole picture in your head. For Cry, I first thought I was going to take the previous sculpture (a wax crying baby head) on to another level. I went on google and found pictures of crying baby, baby's hands, a new shoot, and earthquake surface. Once I got the pictures, I thought about ways to combine these elements in order to make the scene as dramatic as possible. The advantage of sculpture is that, you materialize a idea into something which can be observed and touched, and maximize its dramatic features in order to give a direct, strong impression. This is the power of image that word can not convey.

The most exciting part of the sculpture is the tortured baby face because this is my first time making face with such strong facial expression using clay. To my surprise, the face was not that hard to make and I felt how the muscle structure moved under the baby's skin once I touched the clay.

This is my third clay head, and I begin to feel a strong connection with this material. The clay becomes part of me as my fingers slide on this cool and smooth object.

Sculpture room has become a place for me to temporarily escape the craziness of Senior year and spend time to meditate in solitude. The clay has the power to calm me down.