Loneliness and Skip work

For the past few days I've been trying to think more about the concept behind the work that I'm making, looking at why the shapes that I'm creating start with a square and what that may mean. The square side of the work is rigid and un-inviting, whilst the dip is circular, which promotes a slight softness. This made me think about how the sharp corners of the outside are kind of like a wall, protecting the inner circle. This could reflect how one makes a protective wall to hide their true feelings/emotions. I think this meaning works well with the overall concept, of moving forward in life, making it a little more personal to myself, but at the same time allowing others to reflect on how they let people into their lives to look at their true selves.

I feel that I need to work on this a little more, before I completely decide on this concept. So I need to spend a few days simply writing down ideas in my sketchbook, which will probably happen next week, or later this week. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Today I went to Butley to work, in the morning I shovelled and crushed grog, which isn't so bad when you haven't done it for a couple of weeks. After this I took part in a little skip work. I then cleaned up the metal shed (the space where cutting metal takes place) and had to sift through dust to find small bronze pieces to re-use in the pouring process. This was made bearable by listening to This American Life, a podcast that is centred around interesting stories told by a range of different people. I thoroughly enjoy the weekly episodes, as well as their incredibly popular Serial series.

After lunch I was allowed to make my own work, so I made another wood mould. I'm slowly trying to improve my wood cutting technique using the band saw, so that by the end of this project I will be able to cut straight.

I also took apart the large wax sculpture that I made last week, by hammering nails into the work. At the beginning of this process I was simply doing this to re-use the wax, but as I broke off pieces, I realised that the break in the wax created an interesting contrast to the clean straight lines made by the mould. So this may be a new avenue to go down with this project, deconstructing the lesser work that I make to create more interesting work. Obviously the meaning of this would be distorted, but it could be manipulated to fit into the general concept, thinking about breaking down the barriers between my own inner changes to share with someone else? I don't know, it's something that I need to think about more if I feel that the destroyed versions are interesting enough to be their own thing.

I also used my two part mould again today, experimenting with making the dip bigger using a drill. This worked well, so it means that when I make some more moulds I can subtly change the same sculpture every time I pour the plaster.

Towards the end of the day I went to an exhibition of all the end of year A Level work at my old school. It was really weird to see how far (in my opinion) my work has come in only a year, the change between sixth form and foundation is staggering to see. I wasn't a big fan of any of the work that was displayed, and the few pieces that I did enjoy I couldn't find any information about them, what the work was about, etc. So that was a shame.

Over the weekend I played an outwardly simple game called Thomas Was Alone. On the surface the game has very basic 2D platformer gameplay, but as you play it the blocks that you are manipulating on the screen are slowly given their own personalities, which allows you to have an emotional bond with a coloured block on the screen. As a whole it was very enjoyable.

As well as this I went to see my sculpture in Framlingham, which is still there. Unfortunately it had fallen over, and been defecated on by multiple birds, but this is all part of the work. I also checked on the other sculpture near my house again. I only need to go and see the one in Dunwich and I will have checked on all five.

Tomorrow I'm working at Butley again, which I'm sure will be exciting and enriching in its own way.

Daily Snapchat: