For my Q4 project, I decided to create a 3D sculpture of a city made of out nothing but pencils. The sculpture includes 3 buildings with interesting structures in between each building. The pencils are held together by glue and sit on a cardboard foundation. I wanted this sculpture to communicate the idea that our society is slowly evolving before our very eyes. I wanted to show that today’s buildings may be there at the moment, but today’s technology shows us that tomorrow could be a very different story. I include the “X” shaped pencils to hint at the fact that change is coming to our society’s infrastructure but it is still a mystery.
In order to create this sculpture, I need material to represent to final product, something to hold the material, and something for the material to stand on. For these reasons, I used pencils, hot glue, and a sheet of cardboard. Pencils are very tall and narrow so I knew they would be great for representing buildings, the hot glue was the most efficient way of holding the pencils together, and the sheet of cardboard was the most accessible form of a foundation I could find. In terms of relation to my previous projects, this project reminds most of when I created a 3D sculpture of an hourglass. I say this because I was used smaller objects to create one large object, like I did with the pencils.
To create my 3D sculpture, I first did a preliminary sketch what the finished product would look like. This sketch included a combination of different skyscrapers and buildings. I then opened a pack of pencils and began gluing them together with the hot glue gun. I went about creating the sculpture building by building, gluing each structure to the cardboard once it was finished. The artist who inspired me to do all of this was Tara Donovan. She is a minimalistic artist known for creating large structures out of nothing but household items. I was examining her work when I stumbled upon ounce of her sculpture of a city of pencils. It inspired me to try my very own take on the sculpture that was unique and similar to hers at the same time.
In terms of technique, I think using hot glue to hold my pencils together was the very best choice. I say this because hot glue not only dries fast, but has a clear color and is somewhat difficult to spot from a distance. It allowed my sculpture to look alot less tacky then it would if I had used regular glue or tape. Using the hot glue gun at all was a new technique I had to get accustomed to. The hot glue had to be spread in between each pencil for them to stick together properly, so I had to practice aiming the glue gun in the perfect position.
One thing I am proud of in terms of this project is completing it in a reasonable amount of time. Due to issues with the glue gun early on, I was worried that the issues would put me at risk of not being able to turn it in on time. Luckily Ms. Hertz took care of the problem which allowed me to once again work efficiently and complete the sculpture. If I could change anything about the project, I would get a bigger sheet of cardboard and make an even large city with more variety when it comes to buildings.
In conclusion, I think I did my very best to create a 3D sculpture made up of nothing but pencils and glue. I feel as though I was very successful in creating work that mirrored the work of an artist that I studied for quite some time. I would surely complete a project like this in the future if I had the chance. I learned that when little things come together, it can make something big and beautiful.
