More Animal Research

My tutors keep asking why I used animals to portray the emotions, and how other people may think otherwise to my decisions. However, I thought about it and released that people relate to animals via spirit animals.

So I looked at a website so spirit animals and searched for the animals I'll be sculpting and this is what I found.

If Bear is your Animal Totem:

You have a great deal of patience in manifesting your ideas and projects waiting for just the right moment to spring them on the universe.. You have a great deal of confidence in who you are and where you are going in life. You are looked upon as an authority figure. You are nurturing and protect your children well.

Additional Associations for Bear….

Introspection
Subconscious/Unconscious mind
Strength
Grounding
Inner energy of soul to find answers
Judgments, are you too critical or not critical enough
Inner power to taste the honey of life
Peace
Nurturing and Protection
Resurrection
Confidence and Authority
Powerful
Patience and Connection
Benevolence
Aggressiveness
Sovereignty
Motherhood
Duality


If Deer is your Animal Totem:

You have the knowledge of how to use the power of gentleness to touch the hearts and minds of the wounded beings in your life. You have a propensity to see new innocence and freshness in life everywhere and you constantly feel the lure of new adventures. Often you have a link to the arts, especially poetry and music.

You are also a keen observer, able to see well in low light. You are also a very compassionate, gentle and loving person.

Additional Associations for Deer…

Gentleness
Love
Alertness
Camouflage
Attention to subtler outside influences
Connections to children and people for best interests of all
Vision
Hearing
Smell
Helps discern what actions to be done
Grace
Peace
Beauty
Fertility
Humility
Swiftness
Regrowth
Creativity
Spirituality
Abundance
Benevolence
Watchfulness

I am also using animals to give depression and anxiety as a physical form in hoping that people believe they are real.

Sculpting

For making the sculptures I'll be using different materials such as I will be using thick, study flexible wire instead of using chicken wire, as my sculptures will be more right angled and will need straight edges, this also means that the sculptures will not have a weird wire texture to them. Then I will need wire cutters which I already have for cutting the wiring to the right sizes. I found a wire sculptutor and emailed her for some advice on what wire I should use. I have tried to research what wire to use but no one has has documented on what wire they have used. I have thought about Floristry wire but I would need to see the gauge sizes before buying so the wire isn't too thick or too thin.

Of course after that I will be needing a white matt paint to put over the to cover over the newspaper so I can then go over with another matt colour, however I'm not sure about the matt colour and how to get the colour that I want as tin paint is very expensive and the sample size will not be enough to cover each sculpture I am going to look into the possible route of using food colouring in white paint to create to create the desired colour. After looking to see how to colour the white matt paint that I use for painting sculptures it says not to use food colouring as it doesn't mix as well as you think it would, the best option is too buy dark acrylic paints and mix it in to the white.

Acrylic Paint

Gesso White paint

Then for the stocks themselves I will be needing seven little LED lights to place inside the sculptures and seven speakers that I'll be able to play the sound pieces with the LED lights all be battery-powered and hopefully not could not connected to an external plug and the same with the speakers I have found some very simple LED lights on Amazon, possibly pulsating ones, but I am struggling to find them and some decent battery powered speakers.

Battery Powered speakers

LED Lights

What I need to get for making the sculptures:
- Study/flexible wire
- Wire cutters
- Newspaper
- PVA glue
- Paint brushes
- Gesso White paint
- Matt Coloured Paint
For final presentation:
- 7 LED lights
- 7 Speakers

Estimated budget = £131.21

More Updated Budget

Mood board

Light Sculptures

I looked into light sculptures due to how much I enjoy them, to see if there were any animal/geomectric type light sculptures. Too my luck there was and take a lot of inspiration from them.

Animal sculptures

Paper mache animal sculptures

Geometric sculptures

Geometric animal sculptures

Origami sculptures

Artist Studies

Using the characters, from the video game Entwined, to inspire the art direction of the animals. 

Along with the work of Ben Foster, Arran Gregory, and Paperwolf all of which have created geometric animal sculptures and Paperwolf which is a site where you can build your own DIY geomectric paper animal. And Bruce Nauman’s Raw Materials sound piece was inspiration for the speakers whispering words, re-enacting those emotions.

 

I love the simplicity of Ben's work, the simple design is detailed enough that you can tell what each animal is and the colour is very sutble due to the natural lighting and the shape of the sculptures.

Ben Foster 

Arran's work inspired me the most with how to plan the making part of my sculptures. As the desired shape in my sculptures are very geomectric I was unsure of how to shape the skeleton of my animals. Coming across Arran's frame work of the wolf gave me the idea to use straight wire to create the skeleton base. 

Arran Gregory

Paperwolf is a company rather than an artist however they have a similar idea/look to the animals that I wish to create for my own. Also with these sculptures created by Paperwolf being made by paper, I felt like this was a good inspiration/influence.

Paperwolf

Beth Cavener

Without thinking about it, I realised that Bruce's piece Raw Materials that was shown in the Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern, has a similar feel to what my sound pieces will be like. The mumbling voices overlapping each other when you enter the room and as you draw closer to a speaker you can hear more clearly what is being said. 

Bruce Nauman