Mid-term artist's statement

   Throughout the process of building our modular relief piece, working as a design team kept a set of ideas flowing and made problem solving easier. While our design as a whole was simple, the individual parts were complicated and time consuming to make. All of the parts ended up working well together, after several different attempts at their arrangement. The design and purpose of our modular relief is simple, but has a strong aesthetic presence when displayed with the right light.

    Making the serial plane samples was both basic and challenging. The ideas to make them seemed simple, but as you start to build upon them, more thought goes into the process than expected. I feel that they were a great exercise and first step into beginning to learn three dimensional design. Many of the techniques I  had used to make them, I brought into my architectonic structure, which was what made it so successful. The curvilinear sample structure was also a good starting point for getting into the architectural piece. I mostly experimented with paper in this piece, while sampling other materials. I also began to form ideas around which transparent materials I would use. Here, I experimented with a sheet of plastic and bubble wrap.

     The project I’ve enjoyed most has been the architectonic structure. I had started out with a very general idea, rather than a specific one. As I had started to build upon it, the ideas developed from there. I feel that I had to develop it this way, because drawing ideas out for a three dimensional piece does not give you the same result as simply building it does. Repurposed materials had also played a major part in the development of ideas. As I experimented with them, I found a unique place for nearly all of them in my piece. So far, this course has been more challenging in thought than in practice. Developing ideas on how to use the materials is more of a challenge than putting everything together, which creates a balance in the way we’re learning.