A sculpture I did for my final this week. It’s a maquette of a larger piece that’s going to deal with burial rites. The full size one will involve moss and a lot of time/patience as I’m getting it to grow and decay the form. Because I was pressed for time, I used wildflowers to establish the beginning of the burial process. The larger piece will follow the figure as it decays into moss and soil. Sprouting out of the figure where the bellybutton should be, I’ll have a small sapling planted so that it will be the only vertical growth in the terrarium which will be big enough to fit full sized body (hopefully).
Sometimes my sketchbook devolves into a mess of word banks and notes to myself so I can remember a feeling I want to communicate more fully later. And other times I draw things that peak my interest: he turtle shell as a home that’s sturdy and protective but empty of life, the fort of sticks I built as a child with my brother and cousins 150 feet from the bank of the Withlacoochee River. These sketches are ideas and further reminders, sometimes even more communicative than the notes I write myself because they hold a memory that’s stronger than words can ever allow.
The last three pages are plans I have for my senior thesis and show how my pages develop as I’m just in the beginning stages on the last two. I usually pencil out the general shape of things before I go back through in pen to create dynamic drawings with shading and everything else that goes along with that.
I use a sketchbook that has cotton rag paper and I’m absolutely in love with it. It’s the right size, texture and just wonderful. It seems like I’ve been searching for it for years.
More pages from my sketchbook. I use it as a way to research and study other artists’ work and practice my drawing skills. There’s a couple of projects evolving over these pages: the painting I’m working on now and varying incarnations of a sculpture piece I’m going to start this summer.
When I showed my professor the Aron Demetz sketch, the first thing he said was, “the legs are too foreshortened”. And I was like yes, yes but did you SEE how awesome this work is? Because sometimes I just get so overwhelmed by another artist’s work that I want to take around a picture and show it to everyone I know.
Sketchbook pages detailing the planning behind a sculpture I’ve done and the start of the painting that I’m working on now. I had just decided on going full force with the plywood, really embracing it as a medium and running with it.
(Source: withlacoochee)
Kevin Champeny
Copper Winter Grove
30”wide x 38”tall x 17” deep 62 lbsGrove of miniature bonsai style trees constructed from 5000+ feet of 14 gauge copper coated steel, 2000+ feet of 32 gauge bare copper wire. The trees are hand tied to the stone, no welding or glue of any kind was involved, tension alone holds the trees to the stone.
Trees!
I’m going to be posting some scans of my sketchbook pages over the next few days. My Junior Portfolio Review is tomorrow.
Here’s a study in stippling of the Venus of Willendorf on the right and an abstracted version of the image of a pregnant woman on the left. I didn’t realize what I was drawing until well into the shaping of the figure. The page is a little purple from the pomegranate juice I dyed the preceding page with. Overall though, this sketchbook has been wonderful and doesn’t bleed through much.
(Source: withlacoochee)
I got some feedback on initial sketches for my next big sculpture piece today that made me feel really great. My professor got really excited over what I thought was a fairly terrible sketch and completely understood my concept from it. Today was good and I’m excited to begin again.
I found out that I got two pieces into the literary/arts journal at my university: my Scars and Self Portrait #2 (freckles).
I’ve been eyeing this space for an earth works project. My senior thesis is coming up soon but before that I have a junior portfolio review. I have to analyze and explain the work I’ve done up to this point before I can get cleared to begin thesis work. But I still like to keep this beautiful little water retention area in mind. Getting beyond the gallery will be wonderful.
(Source: withlacoochee)
My dog died last week. He was old and it was time, but it’s still been rough.
I took this when we were young together. I was just picking up a camera for the first time, this was my first roll of film. It’s fitting that he is on it in between my fingers covering the corners of the lens.
(Source: withlacoochee)
I miss the old cigar factory I used to take photography classes at in Tampa. This was in some other old building around town that we explored together. In the end, it doesn’t matter. The photograph is more than that semi forgotten memory.
(Source: withlacoochee)
