Oops

I forgot to blog. I really have no excuse for forgetting, because it was laid out very clearly that this blog is still supposed to be a thing. And it shall be! Now that I have remembered. So here is a bit about what I have been doing the past couple of weeks and, you know, also a bit about why I may have forgotten to actually post here.

This quarter got crazy in a hurry, but I feel as though I've hit the ground running, so to speak. At least I hope I have. Week one got me off to a fairly good start. It was spent writing a lot about this macrocosm I have decided to create; I have pages upon pages of notes about how their society works, how the people who inhabit this world perceive time and light and space, their mythologies, histories, city plans, and anything else I could possibly think of, including a list of about 45 completely fictitious constellations which I have recently started drawing and which will be incorporated into my work. I will probably write more. All of these notes ultimately helped me finalize the plans for the structures I intend to make for the BFA show. I have chosen to create three large pieces based off of artifacts used (historically, and presently) by this fictitious society (namely, a calendar, a compass, and a clock).

here are a few images:

Presented here are three structures which will ultimately be blown up and created out of a combination of .5" plywood, paper, and which will incorporate my skills in printmaking and in drawing. Please pay no attention to the color (or the somewhat-less-than-impressive coloring job). The red and green are in no way representational. Rather, the different hues are a way for me to code which pieces will be wooden (red) and which will be paper (green). 

After finalizing these plans and talking with Chinn (who suggested I code the pieces in this way, which was absolutely brilliant) on Monday of week II, I took scans of my images, turned them into vectors in Adobe Illustrator, and had those taken to Kinko's and printed out in the size that I wanted them, in order to make templates that I will use for cutting my other materials. I brought those big printed things (as I have so lovingly named them) back to Nagel, cut out each piece, and have taped them to larger pieces of butcher paper so I may see what everything looks like and how much space it will ultimately take up, in order to make installation in the gallery easier later. Most of the pieces will be cut individually, in order to create more depth and dimension by having each of the three structures sort of "exploding" outward. And to help with this explanation, I have images: 

That basically all happened yesterday. 

Now that I have these large-scale plans, I will take these templates, trace them onto my pieces of plywood, and paper (when I get it) and begin cutting. Then sanding. Then painting. Then printing. 

My plans for the surfaces of these structures are as follows: 

Each of these structures will, essentially, be black. For the structure that looks mostly like a flower exploding outward, I am planning on painting the surface of the wood black, perhaps with black gesso, and using a combination of screen printing and drawing to create a star-chart that will cover the entire surface. The constellations on said star-chart will be the ones that are specific to this fictional world. As for the other two, one structure will have to do with this world's lunar cycles, but I am not exactly sure how that will manifest. And I basically have no idea what will be printed/drawn on the other. We will see what happens.