Critique

Today was our first critique in class. Let me just tell you how it all started for me. I was at my house for lunch before class and I felt like I had more time than usual. I'm looking at the clock thinking, "hmm I still have 30 minutes." So I stayed home until about 1:30 and thought that I better leave, just to be safe and get to class a little early since our projects were due. I'm in the car driving and realize that class starts at 1:40 and it's 1:30! I was thinking that class started at 2 for some reason. So now i'm rushing to get to the school. Luckily I found a good parking spot and I dash off to class, which is about a ten minute walk. I get halfway and realize that I left my artist statement in the car, ugh! So I had to hurry back, grab it, then hurry to class again. The good thing was that I really wasn't that late. I had time to set my project up and get to all the other classrooms to see everyone else's creations.

I'm really happy with the way that mine turned out. I did title it Triangles because the triangle shape is what I emphasized. I really like that from the beginning I had no idea what it was going to look like in the end. I've never done something like that, and I always like to have plans and go by those plans. I'm not much of a big risk taker, or a spontaneous person. So in that way I feel like I was out of my comfort zone for sure. I used plastic wrap as my skin, which was pretty difficult and I attached it by using clear finger-nail polish. It dries clear and it hardens, so it worked perfect as glue. I only filled in true triangle shapes. Once I had the plastic wrap secure in the triangles I actually painted them with silver finger-nail polish as well. I just painted my finger-nails with this color and looked at them and wondered what the plastic wrap would look like with that on in. I practiced on a little scrap piece and really liked it. I painted it very messy, so it gave it almost a pearly, stained glass look to it. I think that it changed the look of the plastic wrap and at first you might not even know that is the skin I used. I'm actually just going to add my artist statement here. It explains my sculpture a little more.

Triangles
By: Jillian Nightingale

Triangles portrays geometric shapes and repetition with emphasis on the triangle. The armature is made out of found wire for the structure and purchased wire for the “joints.” It’s linear qualities are geometric, while also being a bit organic. I was inspired by Andy Goldsworthy when I saw him putting together twigs in a similar pattern. The wire that I used is sort of mimicking how the twigs looked. I wanted to stick with straight lines and not use any curves for that reason. I also didn’t try to have the wire perfectly straight. I straightened it to the point where it was straight, but still has some bends in it to give it more of that organic look. The wire that is used for the joints is also messy for the same reason.

For the skin I wanted something that would be transparent so you could see all the lines and shapes that the wire makes. So I used clear plastic wrap. To apply the plastic wrap to the wire, I actually used clear finger-nail polish. I used this because I knew that when it dries it hardens and I knew the plastic wrap would stick to the wire that way. I also used the clear nail polish on some of the joints as well to keep the wire in place. I pulled the plastic wrap somewhat tight to the wire, but not extremely tight. I wanted some little crinkles and what not so it wouldn’t look extremely neat. The armature is the same way, not perfect and neat and that’s why I wanted the skin to be this way. To me it gives it the organic feel, by the materials just coming together how they are and not being perfect. To give the plastic wrap the look it has I also used a silver nail polish. I painted it on in uneven and messy strokes to give it this look.

I arrived at my final structure without even knowing what it was going to look like. I didn’t have a set plan I was following and so I could use trial and error to put it all together. I had my original sketch of just putting wires together however I felt they looked the best and I just progressed as I went. I started with pieces, then connected them and realized that the triangles made were the easiest and most sturdy shape in the armature. So I decided to make the whole thing one triangle. I also liked that I had this strong shape in my piece, but the sculpture as a whole is quite delicate. After I added my skin to all complete triangles, and painted the plastic wrap, I was finished. It can sit on any side and be moved around to see a different view each time.

Okay so that's mine. I was really impressed with everyone else's too. Everyone's looked different. I really like how all of us had the exact same assignment and not one person came up with the same idea. It just shows how different everyone thinks. I noticed in my section, everyone mostly used curvilinear lines instead of geometric shapes. There were just a few of us that used the geometric shapes. I thought that was kind of interesting. Almost everyone also used wire as their armature, but a few used other things such as glass, wood, aluminum, that's all I can remember.

I thought the critique went well. Everyone just commented on how they liked certain aspects of the person being critiqued's structure. We did have a little lecture about being polite and saying positive comments due to someone at Ellen Scott's lecture last week. Everyone seemed to genuinely like everyone else's too so I don't think it was hard to come up with nice things to say. I can't even come up with my favorite structure because I thought they were all really good and very different. Everyone had good qualities that I liked. One thing that was different, or hard, was to talk about my own piece. I really don't like talking about my work in front of people because I become self-conscious and worry if everyone will like it or not. I realize that everyone is not going to like everyone's and so that is okay. I am still going to have to get used to this part of the class though. I guess it's good to have to do it, if i'm going to be majoring in art.