Here are some detailed shots of the Necco. I took a little pause on this piece (I moved) but I was able to finish it up at the end of last year. Stay tuned for the final photos. Or go see it at the Atlanta Contemporary.
If you’re in Atlanta, come see what’s in this tube tonight at the Atlanta Contemporary’s ART PARTY.
SUBLIME at ART PARTY
@atlantacontemporary
June 21, 7pm-12am
In my current body of work, I explore classic American toys and candies, magnifying them into hyper-realistic fiberglass sculptures. Inspired by the Pop Art movement, much of the subject matter is pulled from popular culture of the era. The pieces are built with every detail to allow viewers to see and connect with the familiar. I want the viewer to fall into the nostalgia of the toy or candy, to be able to recall their own memories; the way it tasted, where they would eat or play with it, whom they shared it with, and/or how it sounded when opened. These memories are so embedded into our psyche and all at once, they come flooding back to us full of emotion and meaning. Not only that, the work is meant for the masses, injecting irony into the white-wall space so anyone off the street can connect with the art. At its core, the work is for the everyday person, to show them a piece of themselves and, just for a moment, recall being a kid again.
With the biscuit made and all the parts cleaned up it was just a matter of glueing them down. I used epoxy adhesive and CA glue to do that. Once glued, I had to check the whole cookie for any undercuts. If any of those shapes tapered beneath themselves then the sculpt would have problems coming out of the mold. Any undercuts I found were filled in with clay.
And the sculpt is done!
Commission coordinated by @artrepreneur_og
Headed by @victoriacgildersleeve_projects
#sculpture #art #artist #studiopractice #fabrication #composites #fiberglass #moldmaking #demolding #sanding #sculpting #carving #surfacetexture #installation #artinstallation #candy #chealseamarket #artrepreneur #oreo
To make the biscuit look like the real thing I had to include some surface texture. My first attempt at the biscuit was too flat and perfect that I had to throw it out. So I did a bunch of surface texture tests to make it feel real. To get the right look, I dented the foam with rocks to create deep divots. This was to break up that flat surface of the foam and create something uneven and random. I then brushed on the first layer of epoxy which I sprinkled with sawdust (fun fact: polyester resin eats foam but epoxy resin does not). I sanded this surface to knock down the high points which left these tiny plateaus across the biscuit. (Unfortunately, I didn’t have any detailed shots of this, sorry). This then gets one final layer of epoxy to flatten it and make the texture a little more subtle. Next part was the sides, luckily they didn’t need that same textured surface quality. If you look at a cookie, all the high points and sides are smooth, that is because the friction of the mold compresses the dough and leaves it smooth in those spots. But smooth means lots of sanding 🤢 Lastly was the underside, I debated what to make it look like for a long time. I ended up making it a whole bunch of random crummy bits; I figured in 1912 they had crumbly-ass cookies. I just sculpted it by hand with a rasp.
A lot of time went into addressing the surface and sculpting it just right. It’s these details that no one will ever notice, but if I didn’t do it, everyone would notice that something looks a little off. Also, I just couldn’t help myself 🫠
Commission coordinated by @artrepreneur_og
Headed by @victoriacgildersleeve_projects
#sculpture #art #artist #studiopractice #fabrication #composites #fiberglass #moldmaking #demolding #sanding #sculpting #carving #surfacetexture #installation #artinstallation #candy #chealseamarket #artrepreneur #oreo
Once I had the shapes sculpted, it was a matter of making more of them. There are eight different shapes that repeat across the whole pattern. Rather than sculpting 59 individual shapes I just took a mold of the first shapes and casted them out of resin. These are basic silicone molds backed with plaster. They are what I call short run molds; they will only be used for a couple castings, just to get a simple job done. I used Oomoo 30 silicone by Smooth-On—their silicone is easy to get and fairly cheap. Casting these shapes was fun, I was using up old resin I had in the shop that was close to expiring. At this stage, the look of it doesn’t matter so I had fun coloring the resin all sorts of colors. I did thin layers of resin, so I had to put scrap pieces of foam into the castings so that they would glue onto a flat surface easily. Then I sanded them down to the correct thickness. I showed the sanding process here and you can see me dying in real time. This is only a fraction of the total sanding time for all these dang pieces 😫 59 pieces in total.
Any questions, put them in the comments. I’d love to answer them.
Commission coordinated by @artrepreneur_og
Headed by @victoriacgildersleeve_projects
#sculpture #art #artist #studiopractice #fabrication #composites #fiberglass #moldmaking #demolding #siliconemold #silicone #smoothon #oomoo #sanding #renshape #corafoam #sculpting #carving #installation #artinstallation #candy #chealseamarket #artrepreneur #oreo
Here is a view into the very beginning of the project—making the sculpt. The client wanted the original imprint design of the cookie from 1912. I started with a super low res picture of the old school Oreo (I guess they didn’t have dat 4K back in the day). I worked out the shapes and broke it down into simple elements. I cut the shapes out of Corafoam, sculpted the contours and sanded them down. I didn’t include much of the sanding process in this video, because it is the bane of my existence🫠 but you can see a snippet of it with the letters. Lastly, I coated them in epoxy and sanded them to a polish (bane of my existence).
Comment with any questions you might have about this process. I like making these posts to explain my process and give some insight on how my art is made. So feel free, ask away.
Commission coordinated by @artrepreneur_og
Headed by @victoriacgildersleeve_projects
Design work by @trvdychn
#sculpture #art #artist #studiopractice #fabrication #composites #fiberglass #moldmaking #demolding #sanding #renshape #corafoam #sculpting #carving #installation #artinstallation #candy #chealseamarket #artrepreneur #oreo
Project in 60 seconds. Don’t let this video fool you, this piece took more than three months to make.
If you want to see details about each step of the project I will be posting more in-depth posts of the process soon.
Wrapper design by the talented @trvdychn
Commission coordinated by @artrepreneur_og Headed by @victoriacgildersleeve_projects
#sculpture #art #artist #studiopractice #fabrication #composites #fiberglass #moldmaking #demolding #painting #automotivepaint #sanding #renshape #corafoam #smoothon #oomoo #waxpaper #candywrapper #sculpting #carving #installation #artinstallation #candy #chealseamarket #oreo
