Sculpture in a Built Environment

Today two peer partners and myself presented this "BRIGHT IDEA for TEACHERS" (aka. BITs) to our university class. The intent was to complete 5 BITs and "create" one that we could then visual present to the class. The BITs was to fit the Alberta art curriculum of 11, 21, 31 which "complements the Art 10-20-30 course in high school. It examines the role art plays inpeople's lives, how it comes into being, and how people respond to it. The curriculum sets three major components of learning in visual art of Function, Creation, and Appreciation."

This is what I wrote on our proposal sheet for the BITs....
Project Description: The figurative subject is evidently important as many of the worlds’ cultural societies depict its form in various mediums. As with any sculpture, a consideration must be made on who the audience maybe and where the piece will be installed in juxtaposition with its environment. An automatic relationship is generated when the piece is installed due to the proximity and position of the work in relation to the architecture, built and natural environment, and the surrounding geography. Students will work through the art problem of a subtractive sculpture with a concern for the whole environment in which the form is to be set. It, therefore, must be conceived as a whole rather than individual part and to engage the culture and nature of the set environment.

Project Art Exploration*: Movement, figure and sculpture are essential elements in any artists learning experience; therefore this project examines a figure in motion, abstraction in reduced simplified form, and placement within a built environment. The teacher will select a built environment in which students will analyses, discuss and design a 3 dimensional sculpture. The sculpture will be completed by implementing the subtractive sculpting method.

Each member of our group then took the project description and "created" a three dimensional sculpture for the quad on the University campus between the Arts buiding, Business buiding, HUB mall and follage in front of the Rutherford library. We made the sculptures from a 5" x 5" x 5" block of white floral foam purchased at a local craft store using a subtract method similar to a sculptor who would carve a block of stone. Today as we saw each other's sculptures for the first time, it was amazing that all three were completely different. I carved the foam block using an exacto and then plastered the surface----i now understand why the suggested lesson plan online recommended 50 hours----Everything takes time to dry, to sand smooth and to paint.

My piece is called the culmination of minds...she did get her head glued on prior to presenting but not prior to taking the pictures. She had lost her mind---- i lost mine at midnight when I was sanding the plaster bodies. Overall, the piece was exceptional with many "best practices" learned for when presenting to students.