Project 2, Part 2: Soap Changes

Artist Statement:

Following the long and tedious carving of these two piglets it was very liberating being able to completely destroy one. The aspect that I enjoyed most about the soap changes was that I was able to put more of myself into this work. During the initial carving phase the only thoughts in my head were already made-up, like I knew what the piglet needed to be and because of that I felt more boxed in to what the sculpture had to be. With the soap changes, this all shifted because the project became much more personal and alive. I had to interact and discover new meaning in this sculpture. This new form made based off a piglet soap sculpture ended up becoming something much more abstract and somewhat goofy. After critique I became more and more aware that my soap destruction sculpture resembled a Pinterest cake recipe gone wrong. In an attempt to embrace this new found form, I decided to mount the sculpture on painted wood resembling a cake stand. To make the 'cake' seem more attached to it's surrounding plate I singed the side wax in an effort to melt it a little onto the stand as if it is a cake that is continuing to melt.

Original Sculpture:

Change 1: Hit with golf club (subtractive)

Change 2: Burn candy corn onto (additive)

Change 3: Behead and chop in half (subtractive)

Change 4: Cook in oven at 275 degrees for 15 minutes (subtractive)

Change 5: Dig crevice with seashells (subtractive)

Change 6: Pour hot wax over (additive)

Change 7: Stick DVD pieces into (additive)

Change 8: Stick noodles in with tin foil balls attached (additive)

Final Solution: Front and Side Angles.

                         

Project 2: Soap Carving

Artist Statement: 

This was the perfect project to follow the masking tape shoe because I kept thinking during the tape shoe how building up an objects has its limitations. What I didn't know then was that carving soap has very difficult limitations too. The biggest struggle that I noticed with this project was getting overzealous. The soap carves away so easily that sometimes as an artist I lost my visual on how much I actually didn't need to carve in the beginning. What saved me on this project was using the banning wheel in order to make sure I wasn't carving to much away too soon. It also allowed me to begin seeing the negative shapes which altered the way I tackled the project. After my first carving I found that I worked to hard to create the pig instead of the shapes around it, and because of this my second carving ended up being the more successful. 

In process photos:

Final Compositions:

 Rear

 Front

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