Making Layers: My 'not Mushrooms'.

Following my drawings, which are inspired by mushrooms or other organic growing forms, I decided to make one of my designs. I don't want the work to reference mushrooms, that was never my intention, but I do think these pieces are very resemblant of mushrooms.

These clay forms I have made were meant to be layers of a long, tall, structure. I began making the separate sections first, so that once I poured expanding foam over them the clay can be knocked or carved out (if I did it all in one go it would be extremely heavy and not all the clay could be removed). I plan for the expanding foam the be covered in the flip paint, perhaps a little different to my last sculptures so maybe not with a black base, maybe a different colour or multiple colours, still keeping them quite dark.

To start the process of pouring onto the clay with expanding foam, I covered the 'mushroom' in sections of plastic sheeting - which I later discovered was a bad idea, as it would have been easier to pour straight onto the clay (as it was hard to remove the plastic as well as the clay.

These forms are by no means my final idea for the degree show. They are just as a starting point to lead me to something new but still sticking with similar materials and colours. Perhaps I will end up adapting this idea, or may keep it in addition to something else.

Getting the Ball Rolling: Initial Experiments.

- Layers of expanding foam

-Tarmac/resin in some areas

-*NEW TO TRY* Plastic acrylic spikes, perhaps created by dripping down a sheet of plastic and peeling off? Then spray painting black.

Rachel Harrison: Freedom of Form and Objects.

Rachel Harrison is best known for her clumsy looking sculptures (the shape of which not even she can describe, as she intends to make them indescribable) using styrofoam, cement which is then painted with acrylic in whatever way she feels like, completely un-calculated. Her sculptures always interact with objects which is something I aim to do with my work. The title of the piece below left is 'Hoarders' (2012), which is interesting as I have recently learned about Philosopher/ecologist Jane Bennett and she explains her theory using Hoarders. 'EVERYTHING IS ALIVE', Bennett explains, in relation to all matter around us - in the same way hoarders see their collection of things. In this sculpture, colours give it meaning and variation, the form could be suggestive of a 'pile' and the objects could be what is in perspective to the collector at that moment in time. Whilst everything is still thriving in the background, for now we see the foreground- the bin and TV monitor.

"Her work suggests standard categories of modern art—assemblage, construction, readymades—but evades them all, attaining a stalemate between figuration and abstraction."

-The New Yorker