#neiu

This building now serves as the Northeastern Illinois University Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies, 700 East Oakwood Boulevard, Chicago.

Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) El Centro Campus, Chicago.

“Art is in the eye of the beholder” is a phrase often said when it comes to expressing an opinion about a piece of artwork. To that saying, I have to say that I agree quite a bit.

Hello everyone! This blog will show you some bits and pieces of things I consider to be artistic in one way or another. Through different mediums and materials that they come in, I hope you are also able to find them interesting and even share them with other people. Let’s have fun!

For this introductory post, I wanted to show you something I’m currently working on for my Sculpture I class, which I have dreamth about taking since I started my college experience. It’s a toy made out of clay. The plan is to later cast it into a mold made from plaster and be able to do many more replicas using different types of materials. Some of these materials include different fabrics, paper mache, wax, hot glue, etc.

This is a picture of what you need: a toy, clay, and simple tools. 

I opted for this toy because I mostly base my art on things that inspire me or are special to me. My mom knew about my love for turtles, so she brought this to me from Guatemala a few years ago and it became such an important possession to me. Often, I don’t really pay attention to how much it cost or how popular a piece is, but instead “What is the underlying purpose? What was the artist thinking as he/she was creating it?”

The purpose of this project is for us to have fun and create something inspired by an already made object while still adding our own twist to it. It really is not hard to start with. You can simply pick up some clay and start building your design. You don’t have to have a perfect sculpture from the beginning, and you certainly should not have to have a detailed one either. My professor once told us that the whole base of a sculpture is like the outline of a house, while the details are the windows, doors, furniture, etc. You don’t want to start building your windows before you have an actual layout, right? Therefore, don’t be afraid and pick up your tools. You’ll eventually reach your desired piece, I promise :)

I also want to share a tip with you: ADD YOUR PERSONALITY TO ANY WORK THAT YOU DO. In this shot, you can see that I’ve started adding some details to the back of the turtle (like the little snail). The toy went from being a candle decoration to some story I made up. Basically, turtles and snails are both considered to be slow animals. So, I decided to make them both look like they are running away from each other and involved them in a competition to see who is slower. I’m not sure what else I want to add as of right now, but I will for sure update when I’m done!

Art comes in different types of ways, which means that there isn't a right or wrong way when it comes to creating it. Art through the means of sculpture allows people to be artistic and creative. You can be literal and make such a sculpture like the one I just showed, or you can do an abstract piece and let the viewer make his/her own opinion about it. In the end, what's important is that you enjoy the process and are proud of your work!