Project 2 Process
Box 1 Toxic Love
This wooden box will depict heartache. The time I gave it my all, only to be deceived by the very person who said they loved me.
I drew up an anatomical heart, lined it in black felt pen, then colored in with oil pastels. After it was done I sprayed it with varnish, glued it to a piece of cardboard, then cut it out. I then put a layer of heated wax over the top in keeping with my theme.
Now I need some daggers. I will use the exact same process as above.
I drew up and colored a set of daggers. I was thinking of using 4, but decided on 2. I glued them down to some heavy cardstock and when they were dry, I hit them up with some spray varnish to seal the oil pastels.
Next I will Iron on some hot wax and cut them out. It would have been easier to cut them out first and then wax like I did the heart, but today I seem to be doing everything backwards and difficult.
I painted the inside of the box a nice clinical white to house my heart. After it was dry I gave it a shot of varnish
The box looked too white so in a good/bad decision moment, I decided to add some wax blood splatter on the inside with my heated stylus. It quickly became a murder scene.
Box Assembly
I had some of these furniture pads so figured I would stack them to raise the heart up from the background. They worked well and were nice and light.
It is never pretty when someone rips out your heart.
Knives got upgraded. I added the script Toxic Love onto them with gold ink.
Now to figure out the schematics of the moving part of this whole piece. First I will make a template, then cut and bend the wire.
I found an old coat hanger to use and bent it into shape.
Used the electric drill to drill a holes in each side of the box .
After inserting the wire, I needed to create a handle for winding the automata. I found this clay bead and glued it onto the side of the box. I bent the wire and rolled a tube of cardboard around it. This was finished off with some black duck tape.
When turning the handle it makes this weird screechy sound. I don’t know if I like it or not, but it is what it is.
I used a finer silver wire and fed it through the back of the cardboard. this will be attached to mechanism inside box.
I added some extra wire on each side to keep it in the middle.
The box makes a horrible squeaking sound when the handle is turned. That might go away over time, or maybe not.
Gluing the heart down into the box.
————————————————————————————————————–
Box 2 Pinned Down
My first marriage was very abusive. My husband was controlling and kept me ‘pinned down’. One of the hardest things I did was to pick up my 1 year old child and leave with nothing. I couldn’t let my baby boy grow up into that sort of man.
I am using the symbology of a moth pinned to a board to represent that relationship.
A lot of women in abusive relationships do not, or can not speak up. I chose the Death’s Head Hawk Moth as my specimen to pin to my board. Many people are familiar with this moth from the movie poster Silence of the Lambs.
I always loved this super sarcastic anti love song by Annie Lennox. I listed a lot to my Eurythmics tape after I left my abusive marriage. This song became a personal mantra for me.
I would love to use that song in my piece, but that thing called COPYRIGHT exists! Time to do some free flow writing and see what comes out.
Well it is a start. I will revisit it later when I need it.
I selected this wooden box to hold my moth specimen. I painted the inside black.
Using a piece of paper cut to fit inside, I painted it a dirtyish yellow. This is going to contain my text
Now I need to make my moth that will be pinned to this board. I started by drawing in my sketchbook with pencil. I used a black marker around the contour of the moth.
I decided to use the oil pastels to color it in. They seem to provide an interesting background with bits of white speckled on this paper.
Close up of white speckles.
I cut it out and gave it a spray of varnish.
My beautiful moth with a coat of wax on it.
I used a scrap piece of paper to figure out where I wanted to place my text.
I wanted this text to be in my own handwriting, not some fancy text.
I decided the moth needed more structure. I glued and duck taped 3 rows of wires on the wings, and a cardboard strip vertically down the body. This will help hold the final shape.
Box Assembly
I used my little iron and beeswax all over the paper.
I was remembering the wax trays from biology class a lifetime ago.
I bent a piece of wire to act as the pin. I glued it to the bottom of the box.
I glued the paper down after I placed it over the pin. I used a couple of plastic baskets to prop up the moth as it was gluing to the pin. I cut out a small round of tin and glued it to the top of the pin to act as the head.
————————————————————————————————————–
Part 3 Head Installation: Words Hurt
I had this styrofoam head kicking around. It was pretty beat up but I figured that would not matter as I would be gluing paper onto of the surface.
I cut up some strips of paper and started writing down all the toxic, abusive things my first husband use to say to me. I cut them up and created a big pile. I can’t’ believe I lived that life for 5 years. I cant believe how long it took to get those words out of my head.
Using white glue and a paintbrush, I just started randomly gluing the pieces on. I had to write out another 3 sets of words as it took a lot to cover the head.
I then used my oil pastels to add some color to the piece.
I think this piece photographs with strong visuals.
I like to take my art and play with it and make new art. I have included a few examples below.
————————————————————————————————————–Installation and Critique.
Lots of great things were said during critique. Some I agree with, others, not so much.
My Intention of this piece was to explore visually the negative emotions that can be carried with you long after the abuse has stopped.
Box one explored visually the very act of Toxic Love. A person is there physically putting energy into the toxic environment.
Box two explored being “Pinned Down”, the object of a persons toxic love. How they now control you and decide your movements.
The Head shows visually all the horrible words people are called, what I was called, by my first husband.
People had many things to say about my piece, and some people felt super strong connections with it due to their past experiences with abuse.
Reflections:
One thing the Instructor mentioned was my text written in my own handwriting. The emotional side of me likes it, the professional side hates it. I am going to change that right now with this piece. I want it to look polished.
I printed out the text onto white card stock. I then went in with my oil pastels to cover up some of that white.
A little bit of spray to protect the oil pastel from smearing when I apply the wax.
I added a good coat of beeswax onto the underside. They using my iron, I fused the strips onto the background over my handwriting.
Yes! It looks so much more polished now. I am glad I spent the extra 2 hours to change that.
Seize the Day