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Consider Being More Lighthearted as You Journey through life, Step by Step

Project: Positive Fragments

Statement of Intent:

Utilizing 25 lbs. of clay, create either a single or a series of negative impressions taken directly from architectural-related objects and situations.  Upon creating negative clay impressions, cast positive reliefs of said architectural impression/s in plaster.   Create a sculpture to address, relate to, intervene, or activate a specific architectural situation or entity. Utilizing steel, preferably scrap and other material/s, create a work that addresses ideas relating to line, structure, architecture and space.

Structure:

Impressions of the wire fence outside of the sculpture building were made on step stone size pieces of wet clay. Actually each ‘stepping stone’ was pressed twice upon the fence. Positive reliefs were made with plaster.  The plaster stepping stones were dipped in a diluted solution of Nutmeg Brown acrylic paint. This color complimented the metal of the ladderl oA class member kindly allowed me to use his metal ladder sculpture. Studio scrap metal was used to elevate the ladder  to a 40’ angle off the floor.  The stepping stones were placed on the ladder.

Inspiration of the Sculpture:

Parsa’s art work has always made me smile and laugh.  I wanted to incorporate one of his pieces into this sculpture.  His metal ladder, with its top rung playfully slanted is the backbone of this piece.  Metal scraps give it height. The stepping stones give it a direction and motion. Together they represent a journey. 

In this case life’s journey with an underlying suggestion:

Consider being more lighthearted as you journey through life, step by step.

Vickie Siegel

December 4, 2023

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Onto a Beach of their Own

Project: A Structure within a Structure

Statement of Intent:

Create a sculpture to address, relate to, intervene, or activate a specific architectural situation or entity. Utilizing steel, preferably scrap and other material/s, create a work that addresses ideas relating to line, structure, architecture and space.

Structure:

Incorporate scrap metal, metal bars and home debris, into a sculpture. The scrap metal came from the studio work area and the shutters were from a 3 bedroom 2 bath  1950’s house being torn down to make way for a 6 bedroom 5 bath home.

Three shutters are one foot off the ground on thin, square metal re-bars, as if floating, and only one shutter is touching the back wall to further give the sculpture an ephemeral effect.  The shutters were arranged to create a shadow configuration on the wall.  The shadows then played on the 8x11 photos of my children.   

Re-bars extending from the base on three of the five legs to the light source, incorporate the light source into the sculpture.  The light source is framed with scrap metal. 

The sound of waves lapping on a shore accompanies the piece.

Inspiration of the Sculpture:

I wanted to address the reality that parents are just observers of their children’s lives.  Imagine a parent looking out through a shuttered window at their children playing on the beach.  A floating shutter, not a rigid structure is all that separates them because the separation is never defined.  We can only watch from a distance and only witness a slice of their lives.   

The photos are of my children on the beach.  They grew on up on the beach, collecting shells in the wrack line, chasing seagulls and listening to the rhythmic pulse of the waves.

They are adults now that have walked away onto a beach of their own.

Vickie Siegel

November 8, 2023

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Babies Now Birds

Project: Building Dwelling Thinking

Statement of Intent:

Create a work in response to the Building Dwelling Thinking reading by Martin Heidegger.  ‘Building as dwelling unfolds into the building that cultivates growing things.’   Construct a project resulting in a subjective and individual work, one which is consistent with your interests and concerns. Project is to be centered around wood and other have material process.

Structure:

An antique mahogany baby cradle, which is no longer used and yet was the embodiment of a peaceful dwelling in the past, was to be revitalized into a structure that cultivates growing things.  In this instance, birds have reclaimed it for their hatchlings.      

Placing the cradle slightly upright and at an angle was to allude to the cradle no longer being used for infants.  It is to appear as if it was thrown away.  Additional legs were cut from scrap wood to achieve the tilted appearance.  Recently dropped palm fronds from a bottle palm and a Christmas palm were arranged in the cradle to give the sculpture an outdoor look.  Both were rusty red and still full of life and complimented the mahogany stain of the cradle.  Burnt red coconut fibers filled the inside of the cradle and draped over the edges.  Actual bird nests were nestled in the fibers.  The presentation included the sound of birds singing.

Inspiration of the Sculpture:

Consumerism has promoted a 'throw-away' society – one in which people do not keep things for very long, preferring single-use and disposable items. This societal approach leads to overconsumption of short-term items instead of durable goods that can be repaired.

Dwelling structures can be revitalized to cultivate growing things.  We have only to look to nature to get inspiration as to how to reuse items.

Vickie Siegel

October 11, 2023

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“To preserve the fourfold, to save the earth, to receive the sky, to await the divinities, to escort mortals- this fourfold preserving is the simple nature, the presencing, of dwelling.  

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The Nature of building is letting dwell.

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QCQ Building Dwelling Thinking

By Martin Heidegger

Quote:  “To preserve the fourfold, to save the earth, to receive the sky, to await the divinities, to escort mortals- this fourfold preserving is the simple nature, the presencing, of dwelling.  In this way, then, do genuine buildings give form to dwelling in its presencing and house this presence.”

Comment:   The presencing of dwelling reminds me of a Henry David Thoreau quote.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,

to front only the essential facts of life

and see if I could not learn what it had to teach

and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

             Thoreau

Question:   Are humans truly capable of presencing- receptivity to other people and the persistent awareness of the other’s shared humanity.

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