Creating marks with Light and shadow...this was fun...and yes the title is a pun.
This was an interesting process for sure since I started out working vertically and suspended in air. I got out a nice roll of tracing paper and sliced it up with my x-acto knife in hopes to slip and weave coffee stirrers through, to create interesting little nuances of shadows as normal light hits the tracing paper. The whole thing was crazy looking but way too big to work with considering the only thing keeping the stirrers in place were small cuts and hope.
A top down view from off a stool. Still had to stand on my tippy toes to take this shot but I originally wanted this to be my movement piece instead of the muse thing. A sense of falling was originally the theme, but those interactions of shadow and lines forming behind the paper were too good to leave as just a trip down a flight a stairs.
Still it was an interesting depiction of falling....it's funny since I almost fell twice while taking these pictures and while putting on the stirrers.
Here's where I decided to change entirely. Scrapped the paper and went with a thick plastic sheet instead. This way the entire piece could create different light and shadow marks and relationships in three dimensions. You can interact with it and it comes complete with a internal light that you can press down twice to set the brightness.
This little bundle of bright has different line interactions with light and shadow all over the surface, beneath the skin and inside the guts too. Gross wording aside, it was allot of fun to make this one.
The lights in the room are still partially on so it gives a dim effect to the shadow relations. Still the light pink created behind the plastic surface as a stirrer pokes from one side and exists in the other is really interesting/
maybe I should turn the lights off more to sort of see what it'd look like then...it still looks interesting enough as it is but darkness would really bring this thing to life.
Using the top stirrers I can push the thing down a bit and press the button too. It actually creates an even more interesting amount of surface integrity and shadows. Probably going to ruin something this way honestly but it's fun since it goes back to normal on its own.
and now with the lights off completely....
Now that's bright. Those shadows get more intense while the light pinks beneath the surface got redder .
ah, looks like some of the stirrers fell our of place when I smushed things down.... still nice to have an inside view.
Some of my favorite shots are right here. You can really see the pinks in this one and the shadows created in the exchange make for some neat line making.
Close shot seems too blurry but you can see the idea behind the line making this way.
Zoomed back like this looks nice but the line work gets lost a bit since you'll be looking at a three dimensional object rather than the full on exchange of light and shadow...and plastic making lines.
This top shot is also neat. Love those shadow lines.
Internal view...
This thing has allot of stirrers, that's for sure. I really love that red color. It's so candy like.
I really hoped that glue stick residue would have been enough to keep them in place, but it only allows them to stand while the thing is staying still. Moving around causes the internal structure to lose a few bits.
All in all, I enjoyed recreating the whole thing from my original idea. It was a pain to get material to work with for the new plastic sheet, but an oil change at wal-mart changed that when one of the mechanics lined the floor of my car with one of those sheets. Instantly thought I could use it and sort of fold it to create this project. The coffee stirrers are actually ancient and from like, 2010. I had them in my old art bag and just decided to utilize them throughout the entire project. I always wanted to use them for something and this project made it possible.