One Week Critique--Finished

And it actually went pretty well, despite my last-minute scrambling to get the tights totally covered, as well as making something for them to go on. We don't have leg-mannequins here, and I always feel really stupid putting them on, or asking someone else too. I also didn't want to wait for the entire costume to be finished to start giving the work some context.

So, night before the crit, I decided I needed a pair of legs.

So I bribed my dear friend Betty with a bag of gummy bears to let me wrap her in duct tape.

After an uncomfortable half-hour, Betty shed her skin and regained feeling in her feet.

Stuffing the duct-tape mold with whatever scrap I could dig up. They're really pretty heavy and solid!

Threw on a hastily constructed cover. Thankfully I had some nude-ish colored knit lying around. The chair was another lucky find. I picked it up a few days ago, originally planning just to salvage the upholstery brads on the bottom. I started ripping it apart to get at the springs on the inside, but stopped because I needed to work on the tights. As I was posing the legs on it, I really liked the contrast between the texture and color of the tights, and that of the chair. So in it goes.

So, at 12:30 last night, I was done and set up.





My critique went well, though I wish the little wrinkly feet hadn't stuck out, it brought up some old people/memory connotations that I didn't really intend. It was also an interesting conversation about the work, as a whole, being a finished piece of sculpture, even if it wasn't a finished costume. I think I'm going to get a lot of sculpture/fine arts associations, but the pieces that the works focus on are absolutely Crafts work--I just feel like that's not enough.

The critique also stressed that less is more in the case of the narratives I'm working on--they thought that this piece (which I personally felt was a little vague and rushed, and had little to inform it) was enough--an indication that when/if I start doing film, I should keep them fairly abstract and plot-less. As much as I love my story, I need to let the audience contribute too.

Anyway. Now I've got a million other things to work on...But hey, I'm doing quite well on updating, I think!