FDM Rendering and Sculpture

I found a beautiful piece of coral on Miami Beach several months ago and I have been wearing it around my neck ever since. I am completely enamored with the form so I decided to use the fused deposition modeling project to abstract and recreate the small coral piece on a slightly larger scale for the table. The FDM process is really great when I think about how it can be used for casting. I would ultimately want to cast this in both bronze and in plaster. For now, here it is painted and mounted on mahogany. I designed this piece to stand up straight and then a good friend came along and knocked it over. Best thing that ever happened to it.

This is my rendering of the Coral FDM that I printed. I placed it outside of the "The Deep"- An aquarium in Hull, East Yorkshire that was designed by Sir Terry Farrell. I couldnt decide which color I liked better so I posted both.

Laser Cut Waffle

This project was very important to me. My father died July 6, 2008 and I have been running from conceptual art ever sense. I didn't want to be the girl who "just makes art about death," and "needs to get over it." Instead, I decided try and get over that attitude. Death is something that everyone in the world experiences and can relate to. Art is another thing that everyone in the world experiences and can relate to. So why not make art about death.

This piece was created by waffling a sphere and printing it out on luan. I wanted the sphere to be large enough to get inside but I was restricted by the size of the laser cutter bed. Tired of restricition and ready to solve problems, I cut the sphere into four pieces in Rhino and waffeled them seperately and then bolted them together once they were constructed. The skin is made out of spandex that I sewed together from a template constructed by using the "smash" command on my sphere in Rhino. I made the clock in my enamaling class using the process of "burning out" organic matter to leave a ghost in its place. It represents death going by its own unstoppable time and the loss and memories that are experienced by the living left in its wake. The sphere acts as an egg or a womb. I sit inside and wait for my spiritual rebirth after my fathers death.

Milling Maquette

I treated my milling project as a maquette. The ideal placement for this piece is in a large field surrounded by woods. It would be made out of bronze and the rock in the maquette would be the size of a boulder for sitting on. When putting this sculpture into context I was greatly inspired by Henry Moore's sculpture "Sheep Piece". I loved working with the REN foam. It sanded so nicely and I feel like I was able to paint it as a 3D object and enhance the highlights and lowlights successfully.

Coral (in progress)