Momento

 

Lunchbox

Materials: Blue fabric, cherry wood, blue zipper

4"W x 4"L x .5"H

Artist Statement:

This sculpture reflects when Nana would pick me up after school and take me to swimming lessons. She used to pack a navy blue lunch box with snacks for me; at the bottom of the lunchbox would always be chocolate, which was my favorite. I used navy blue fabric to represent the lunchbox and hand-sewed it together. I also used a navy blue zipper to represent the zipper on the lunchbox and the act of opening and closing it. I also added a piece of fabric to represent the handle. The chocolate bar is made out of cherry wood and represents the many chocolates my Nana would pack for me.

Figurative Bust Sculptures

 

Plastic

Materials: Plastic doll, doll's hair, air dry clay, wood, white ink

8"L x 4"W x 5"H

The Gap

Materials: Wood, acrylic paint, crushed pastel, air dry clay, colored ink

4"L x 4"W x 15"H

Artist Statement:

The work titled Plastic reflects the upcoming phenomenon with plastic surgery and "beautification" procedures, specifically targeted towards women. I chose this social issue because it is becoming apparent that the use of surgeries and injections to enhance the body is becoming more prevalent; young women are feeling the effect and pressure of today's beauty standards. These procedures are becoming normalized, and these ideals are not natural to young and grown women. Plastic reflects the need to change one's body to fit the advertised beauty standards. The doll is cracked; she is half plastic and has bleached blonde hair. She is also sitting on a hospital bed. She represents numerous women who fall prey to the need to "become plastic."

The work titled The Gap reflects the gender wage gap between men and women in the workplace. I chose the gender wage gap because I find it frustrating as a woman that I may not get paid the same amount for doing the same job as a man does. I wanted to portray that in my sculpture by splitting one bust into a man and a woman. The woman's and the man's heads are broken; inside their heads, the viewer can see that the woman is thinking about equality, and the man is thinking about money. They are sitting on top of a very tall office building that resembles the numerous workers in the world who suffer from the gender wage gap.

Research:

The effect of people being on Zoom since 2020 has been that people are noticing that their appearance could use some enhancement. Botox is as normal as getting a haircut nowadays, the article says. 

https://connect.uclahealth.org/2022/02/03/zoom-face-phenomenon-has-people-eyeing-plastic-surgery/

There is a discernable gap between men's and women's hourly wages. It is averaged that each woman makes 80 cents for every dollar a typical man makes.

https://www.epi.org/publication/what-is-the-gender-pay-gap-and-is-it-real/

Pay discrimination was made illegal over half a century ago, but the gap between men's and woman's wages is still prevalent today. Different groups of women experience different gaps in pay based on race, ethnicity, age, education, and disabilities.

https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/simple-truth/

Memento On-Longing Exercise

1: "The souvenir speaks to a context of origin through a language of longing."

This is a picture of my best friend and me in our Sophomore year of high school; this was our homecoming picture that year. Ever since I moved away from Washington state in 2020, I have missed her more than anything. I long for our late nights of laughing too much, getting into trouble, and driving in her 1994 Volvo with no destination. When I was with her, nothing mattered.

2: "The souvenir exists as a sample of the now-distant experience that only the object can evoke." 

This is a picture I took in the summer of 2017 in Maine. My Nana had passed away that February, and we were spreading her ashes in the ocean at her favorite point and lighthouse. She always said that she wanted her ashes to be put inside a carved-out watermelon with sprinklers sticking out of the top and to be floated down a river. However, we could not find a convenient river, so we went to her favorite point. We put her ashes in a carved-out watermelon with sprinklers sticking out; we also put her twin sister's ashes in the watermelon as well. When we put the watermelon in the water, it immediately sank. When it hit the rocks below the water, the watermelon burst open, and she and her twin sister's ashes floated to the top. The ashes had dried rose petals mixed in with them; we all laughed and thought she would laugh at the beautiful failure too.

3: "The place of origin must remain unavailable in order for desire to be generated." 

I took a picture of Lake Tahoe while spending my summer in California. My family and I moved to Florida two years ago. They decided they did not like Florida, so they wanted to move back to California, where we lived when I was very young. I have wanted to be with them since they moved to California. However, I am in Florida.

4: "Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss."

This is a picture of me and my old dog, Sophie. I was probably in 5th grade in this photo. My family and I never stayed in one house for more than a year, and no, we are not a military family. My parents would get bored fairly quickly, and the best way to cure boredom was to move, or so my parents thought. The house in which this picture was taken is still in my family; it is now one of three of my grandparent's homes. So, I say it is the house I grew up in. But, of course, I didn't have a place that I grew up in because we moved ten+ times while we were in Washington from 2010 to 2020. I am nostalgic about Christmastime in that house since it is where I have enjoyed Christmas many times. The house is not lost, but the childhood enchantment of Christmas has faded.

5: "The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body." 

This is a picture of my Grandfather and me. I remember being completely enamored by the little porcelain miniatures my grandparent's collected when I was little. Mini dogs, cats, birds, and anything else I could imagine. They also collected miniature instruments, which I thought could actually play like real instruments at the time, and I was disappointed each time I tried to play them.

Artist Event Picture

 

Experimental Sculpture Collection Photos

 

Power Lines

Balsa wood, black thread, white ink, black ink, hot glue

9"x8.5"x5"

 Dripping

Blasa wood, white paper, black ink, masking tape, black thread, wood glue

9.5"x6"x2.5"

Jelly Fish

Blasa wood, black ink, masking tape, clear packaging tape, black thread, hot glue

9"x8.5"x3"

    

Water Fountain Replica Photos

 

To Have and To Hold Presentation

The Ark Abducted

-John Tradescant The Elder, famous naturalist, gardener, traveler, and collector of strange plants and oddities

-Gardener for royals 

-He created “The Ark” which was a museum of sorts and a Cabinet of Curiosity featuring seeds and bulbs from all of his travels

-The Ark was the first museum ever opened to the public in England in the early 17th Century

-The museum became famous all over Europe

-Tradescant knew that unicorn horns were all the rage, so he got one for his museum and cataloged it

-A frequent visitor, Elias Ashmole convinced John the Younger (John Tradescant The Elder’s son) that they should let him take over the museum since John the Younger and his wife, Hester, were suffering from the loss of their son

-Hester did not like this idea, and a feud began between her and Ashmole

-John the Younger willed all the items in the museum to Hester and after she died the items could go to the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge

-Ashmole took Hester to court, and he won the case; he had all of the items 

-Hester died from drowning in her pond, and Ashmole took all of the remaining items 

-Later he decided to give up all the items to Oxford University where you can still see some items today

https://www.ashmolean.org/the-ashmolean-story-gallery#listing_210771_0 

The paintings that Ashmole took from “The Ark” after Hester died.

This picture shows the wide arrange of paintings the collection had and they were the first thing to be taken by Ashmole.

https://www.ashmolean.org/the-ashmolean-story-gallery#listing_210771_0

The Ashmolean Museum, but it really should be called the Tradescantian Museum.

This picture proves how large and valuable the collection is, further reinforcing the idea that people came from all over the world to see it.

The Exquisite Art of Dr. Ruysch

-The chapter opens with a description of a painting, a painting of a dissection of an infant by Dr. Frederik Ruysch

-Anatomists at the time of the 17th century were fascinated with mortality and the idea that bodies themselves could be objects, dead matter

-Public dissections of criminals were a form of entertainment 

-These dissections were theatrical; dissections were seen as a valuable moral lesson

-Dr. Ruysch was the most important anatomist during this time, and he had performed over thirty public dissections in his 93 years

-During the summer, dissections couldn't be performed without it being too smelly; the operating room was transformed into a cabinet of rarities during the summer months

-After 1620 the venue was expanded into a true cabinet of curiosity with all sorts of oddities and rarities with even mummies on display from Egypt

-Theatrum anatomicum, the art of the anatomical artist, became so widespread because this was a time when death was everywhere, and people were curious about the inner workings of our bodies

-Tsar Peter the Great had a fascination with the rare and odd, collecting dwarfs and caging them, extracting teeth from people who would pass by, and spending large amounts of money on collections

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/frederik-ruysch-the-artist-of-death

A drawing of one of Dr. Ruysch’s displays of body parts and infant skeletons.

This image demonstrates the desire to learn about the human body and the curiosities that arose from that fascination, such as live dissections and showcases of skeletons and body parts.