Urban LandscapeSize: 32cm x 32cm
|
Artist Inspiration
IFor this project, I was inspired by Antoine Predock and César Pelli. At the beginning I wasn't inspired so I had an extremely difficult time coming up with my urban design. I then started to look at many famous architects and I stumbled upon Pedrock and Pelli. The buildings that they designed inspired my piece inmensely. The shape of their buildings gave me ideas on how to design my small buildings and how they can be arranged the way that I felt that seem right. Pedrock's slanted buildings inspired the buildings in my urban landscape. Pelli's Petrona Towers inspired the connected buildings that I wanted my landscape to have. Combining the two architechts' work made me create a fine piece that I can be proud of and that (at least to me) looks good. They made feel focused on designing the buildings in a more interesting way. In addition to my artistic inspiration, I was also inspired by the architecture of Milwaukee's buildings.
|
|
Brainstorming |
Planning |
When this project was introduced, I was excited to start it. However, I had no idea how to approach it at all. I did see many urban landscapes that was presented to us, but there was no idea in my head so that I can create my own. These landscapes were well-done and very creative. I was starting to get confused as to I was supposed to do. I jotted down ideas on how I want to approach this project and some designs that I felt right for the base and the future landscape. These ideas were not easy to come up with since I needed more time to get my head straight and to grasp at what our goal is. Many of my designs were not good enough, so that's why I was so frustrated and confused as to what I wanted to do. The lines didn't really seem appealing which was a limitation, but with the small amount of time I spent on the planning, I ended up with a very simple one, but I liked it anyway.
|
|
(cont.)
I first started by grabbing many blocks so that I could see how I would approach it and what I might create or get more inspired by. Getting the blocks and actually creating a new urban landscape was not really clear so I started to experiment with all the materials provided. I had too much freedom in my hands, but I didn't have any ideas of how to approach it at all. I then started to make random shapes with my blocks and photographed the process. This helped me come up with better ideas later on. I also tried to emulate some of my artists and some of Milwaukee's city landscapes. I kept picturing Milwaukee in the night and how the buildings bounce off of them. This process was done for the creation of the landscape as well. It was difficult because I didn't have the base light source to put my piece on in order to see the effect that it does. That didn't matter, so I then continued with the designing of my landscape. I began to use a small knife and sand paper to shape my small buildings so that they won't be as plain looking as before. Every block was not the most appealing and it didn't compliment the base alot. However, I still continued to continue with the piece and experimented with different materials.
|
|
Meaning
The meaning of the piece is to inspire people to look at their cities more closely and admire its own beauty. We all need some time to relax and just calmly look around and see how the shapes created by different architechts compliment each other and how they give the city a unique look.
Reflection
This piece was a success due to the fact that I felt , in my opinion, that it had a laidback. My failures were that I didn't use different types of materials in the piece. This made the piece look plain and too simple which was not what I wanted. However, I came to accept the outcome of the situation. Also, the arrangement of the buildings were not that effective when it came to reflecting the light. In my eyes, there seemed to have been a high amount of light. The light was basically more focused in the middle rather than all around in places. It didn't really make the forms give a significant shadow. My difficulties when creating this piece was that some woods would get chipped when I shaped them. Also, the wood was also difficult to shape into something I wanted which caused several minor cuts since the wood was hard. The small knife often got stuck trying to shape the wood and it often chipped some of the wood. Nonetheless, my successes were that I was proud of the work created and it had its unique image. Another difficulty was that I had artist's block because we had to create an urban landscape that looks good in the eyes of the viewer. If I could do this again in the future, I would rethink everything and research more thoroughly on what I want to do (what inspires me to do better). However, I don't think this architectural project was for me since I am impatient when it comes to designing. I did learn a lot about working with wood and architecture. This project was a great learning experience for me as an artist.