WP3: Pre-Writing 1

I have quite a bit of experience with art-objects. I was in art classes all through High School and enjoyed going to various museums and exhibits. In my sophomore year, as a class project, we went to our art teachers home and worked with some of her tools to create metal sculptures. These were usually fairly small. They ranged from being turtles to small ladybugs to taller flower sculptures. We worked mainly with scrap metal, which was quite challenging, but in the end all the sculptures turned out very cool.

Another time I’ve made a sculpture is my junior year. We had to create a sculpture from aluminum and copper wires. This proved to be quite challenging as well, because those two media were all we had to work with to create the initial frame of our sculpture and then also to wrap it and give it some substance and stability. I created a seal that stood about 3 feet high and weighed around 20 pounds at least in the end.

One of my favorite sculptors is Dale Chihuly. He creates brilliant sculptures from glass. The way he comes up for his idea for his sculpture is part of the reason I enjoy his works so much. He simply lays paper or canvas down on the ground and throws and splatters paint onto it. This creates a work of art in itself, but then Chihuly examines what he’s just created and finds certain area of the painting that intrigues him and he creates a sculpture from it. He does all his glass blowing in his studio with the help of some workers.

Last year while I was at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, I got the opportunity to see some of Chihuly’s sculptures in person. They are absolutely magnificent to me. It amazes me how a person can make such beautiful objects out of glass. Each of his sculptures is completely different from the rest, which is another thing that I absolutely love about his work.