#please return

Starting point; looking for inspiration in my random materials bin and found an old planner from 2019:

Clock disassembly:

Painting and glueing pieces of the planner+shells/sequins:

Adding ocean waves out of hot glue! this was something I figured out a long time ago like a year before I made this piece; I was hot gluing two pieces of cardboard for something else but then was like uhhh nope nevermind and tried to rip the cardboard apart again. I was like woahh the 'ripped apart' hot glue looks like ocean waves... So I kept that in my back pocket and tadaah in this piece I got to use my fun lil technique c:

I do wish I hadn't used fishing line to attach the clock hands though lol; conceptually I was like ah its hanging precariously thats why I don't want to like glue a lil stand to the back of it so it sticks out. But. I think it just looks bad lol it's too visible while trying to be invisible haha

Here's how I wrote about this piece back in 2020 for my ib art class:

After spending 6 months in a pandemic, the boundaries of time were blurring even more than usual. I was trying to come to terms with my last year of highschool, my unstable-looking future, and what felt like the ending of the world all happening simultaneously. I found an unused 2019 planner I kept, inspiring me to use it. I also wanted to experiment with an unintentional discovery I made in 2018: pressing hot glue between two surfaces and pulling them apart quickly makes the glue look like ocean waves. The sea resembles a crescent moon and the shore, the sun. Broken seashells and glass symbolize struggles, and whole seashells and sequins symbolize successes in everyday life. I love putting unassuming phrases into different contexts to create a greater impact, so I used a part of the planner’s “please return to” message on its front page. I suspended the clock hands above the painting to represent time on a grander scale, never to be fully understood by the smallness of human life.

another description I wrote of it in 2020: