03220082013
“Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to see a painting.” - Barnett Newman
As an art major, I'm sure it's somewhat blasphemous confessing that I have agreed with this statement (I even laughed when I first heard it because I took it as truth) up until this last quarter studying at UCLA. So what has, in having such a passion for art for over a decade, finally changed my thoughts about sculpture? It has been actually taking a class on the subject. Sometimes you have to be forced to learn something in order to gain anything out of it, as uninspiring as that sounds. Before taking Sculpture 1B, I had my preconceptions of what it was going to be like: traditional, classical, nude figures, marble, and stone. I have no idea why I had these thoughts, because they were contrary to everything else I had been exposed to at UCLA. Because of these preconceptions, I was bored before I even set foot in the lab! Sure, I admire the work of names like Michelangelo, who considered himself a sculptor more than a painter, I sort of appreciated what they (sculptors) put into their work, but it was hard for me to connect with them. Especially pieces of abstract shapes formed out of sheets of metal that stood outside of corporate business buildings. I was wrong to judge. Instead, in the first class session, we were shown slides of Tom Friedman's work. Pieces that were made out of toothpicks and aspirin, sugar cubes and fecal matter. Pieces that would have never come to mind if someone had told me they were studying fine arts, specifically, sculpture. Afterwards, the lab technician explained for two hours how to use band saws, table saws, chop saws, welding, jigsaw work, and everything else that I never in my wildest nightmares thought I needed to know about or operate. I wanted all my limbs intact at the end of it all, thanks! However, as we were introduced to more contemporary artists and as I dove farther into the world of 3D art, I became fascinated. By the second assignment I was using every type of saw you could name, and to my own surprise, actually made something. But that's what art is: creation. It wasn't perfect, by far, but it feels so good because the struggle makes the end result worth it.
As an art major, I'm sure it's somewhat blasphemous confessing that I have agreed with this statement (I even laughed when I first heard it because I took it as truth) up until this last quarter studying at UCLA. So what has, in having such a passion for art for over a decade, finally changed my thoughts about sculpture? It has been actually taking a class on the subject. Sometimes you have to be forced to learn something in order to gain anything out of it, as uninspiring as that sounds. Before taking Sculpture 1B, I had my preconceptions of what it was going to be like: traditional, classical, nude figures, marble, and stone. I have no idea why I had these thoughts, because they were contrary to everything else I had been exposed to at UCLA. Because of these preconceptions, I was bored before I even set foot in the lab! Sure, I admire the work of names like Michelangelo, who considered himself a sculptor more than a painter, I sort of appreciated what they (sculptors) put into their work, but it was hard for me to connect with them. Especially pieces of abstract shapes formed out of sheets of metal that stood outside of corporate business buildings. I was wrong to judge. Instead, in the first class session, we were shown slides of Tom Friedman's work. Pieces that were made out of toothpicks and aspirin, sugar cubes and fecal matter. Pieces that would have never come to mind if someone had told me they were studying fine arts, specifically, sculpture. Afterwards, the lab technician explained for two hours how to use band saws, table saws, chop saws, welding, jigsaw work, and everything else that I never in my wildest nightmares thought I needed to know about or operate. I wanted all my limbs intact at the end of it all, thanks! However, as we were introduced to more contemporary artists and as I dove farther into the world of 3D art, I became fascinated. By the second assignment I was using every type of saw you could name, and to my own surprise, actually made something. But that's what art is: creation. It wasn't perfect, by far, but it feels so good because the struggle makes the end result worth it.