Process: Sculpture Project 4

This week I continued to work on the tree that will form the center of my sculpture. I finished the main central branches, and made a couple smaller off-shoots that I formed around pieces of the high-temp wire to give them a little more stability. I also had to make a decision about the texture of the tree, as the clay has been slowly hardening. My initial thought was to make the tree as realistic as possible, so I thought about how to represent bark. I tried taking a bit of clay and scribing lines into it, however that looked nothing like bark. I also tried taking some of the wood I had experimented with earlier in the process and pressed it into the clay to try to get the same look. Unfortunately, that just made it look messy and incomplete. I came up with another idea, somewhat based off of Raina's work, to make the tree geometric. I liked this idea somewhat better because the result would look much cleaner and more finished, whereas the "bark" texture would just look sloppy and unfinished. I decided that that really was the way to go, and that it wouldn't really harm or change the content of the work. With the geometric shape, it merely further emphasizes the role of humans in the shaping of the natural world. Next I have to work on the frame - which should be relatively simple. I just need to make a solid plan so the construction of it goes smoothly. I'm really excited for how this project is going.