As I wrap up the class I really am so proud of everything I’ve done and where I started.

Beginnning

In the beginning the three projects I were looking at were polar opposites on one hand I wanted to do something on the scale of the campus and on the other I wanted to do a very classic studio photography set up. Below, is the orignial concept for what I had envisioned my work to look like.

Its funny how my final project didn’t actually change that much along the way. I am glad that I stuck with this vision and built off of it as I think it was much more manageable in scope.

Testing:

The initial tests I did were first in my living room, the first idea also consisted of putting things in the vases and seeing how that changed the shadow but as I experimented further on I moved away from this.

I then moved into SL115 where I began to manipulate the shadows and here is where the first spark was born. I knew that I wanted to show off the ridges and shapes only shown when projecting light through it.

This night is also where the first branch broke off of my project. Unfortunately, I have no captured evidence from that night of it but as I was cleaning up I was taking the light down and as I moved it the way the shadow change left my friends and I in silence and in unison went “wow” at how it moved. This really is making me rethink how I wanted to approach my project.

Next Steps and Roadblocks

At this point I knew I needed 1. A dark space, 2. A way to light the objects in a way in which best highlighted the aspects of the glass I wished to show and 3. Interesting glass objects, not in a shape kind of way but rather what could be revealed from within them.

I then set off to the Odeium which at that point was the only space large enough and what I thought would be dark enough to use. Boy was I wrong.

The first problem with this space I realized was that even at night, light shines in from the hallways through the space in the doors, and the exit signs illuminate a large portion of the floor around them. Another problem was using the space, there are events in there constantly, the only time the doors were unlocked for me to get in that week was right after accepted students day when the room was filled with chairs making any sort of room-wide artwork impossible to practice.

I was also running into issues with light sources so far, these were all the light sources I had tried:

only 3 of which had actually projected the shadows in a way that showed the details I was searching for. And even within those lights some were too dim to really show any large shadows, and some were so bright that they washed out shadows created from lights 10 ft away.

Finally however, I was able to create a set-up which finally I would stick too for the rest of the project:

This set up had two light sources shining at opposing angles only overlapping at a few pieces of glass adding levels of dimention to each object that I was thrilled with.

Finish Line in sight: Last second miracle

Honestly, the second to last week I was disheartened about my project because I felt like I wasn’t capturing the vision I had in my mind, and was beginning to brainstorm other projects I could switch to. That was until I tried to get into the Little Theater (didnt work out yet), and Riley Commons.

I still wasn’t feeling what I was doing and was just about to pack up when something magical happened.

I knocked over one of the lamps.

I instantly fell in love with the way the colors interacted and how everything fit together so perfectly that I knew this was what I had to do.

I also at the same time, with the help of suggestions from people in class (Thank you btw!) was able to get in contact with the little theater and was finally able to make every dream I had come alive.

Final Chance:

As I entered the little theater I first just sat down in the middle and looked around, I saw infinite possibilities as I finally had a spce with full control of any light, and an open floor to use as my canvas. So much so that it overwhelmed me and in the 2 and a half hours I spent there that day the only thing that I was able to set up was this.

Just a simple light through a vase that shone a few details onto the floor.

The next day I came back and got to work.

Here are what some of the areas looked like before I began to work

While not realizing it at the time I split my project into multiple works across the same room all addressing a different problem I had throughout working which I named each work after.

Hanging Angles

The biggest issue I had over the entire term was getting the angle I wanted on the objects as getting underneath or on top at the exact angle I wanted without having a surface cut off part of it was almost impossible. So, I removed the surface. By hanging the objects off the orange scaffolding with fishing line I was able to show only the shadows and get them to be from whichever angle I felt like with relative ease.

After about an hour of micro-adjusting each piece’s height and rotation I finally found a set up I liked.

Then I moved onto my next piece:

Origins

This work replaced the one shown above held up by a roll of painters tape. I used this mock set up to pay homage to the original sketch I made all the way back in week one. Nothing crazy. Just light shining through glass.

Often times when working on projects I begin to think so big and far away that I loose sight of the original goal and I didn’t want that to happen here. I think I captured that perfectly, to me the light projected out feels like the equivalent of a professional ballet, its intentional, soft, yet bright and impactful. This also was the first glass object I had that inspired the whole project which as the weeks had gone by I was beginning to find difficult to pair with other glass objects and almost omitted from the project entirely.

Layout

This is the work that I spent the most time on for sure. This one I meticulously crafted after weeks of trial and error and it finally came out perfect. The final project looks very different than the previous iterations where the objects are much closet together and all over the place. I felt like this layout was too busy, and with the feedback I recieved when discussing this in class I knew that if I had a larger space I could lay them out in a line allowing each shadow to extend to its maximum. There were many different layouts I tried, I literally watched all of a movie in the time it took me to make enough adjustments to the location, angle, rotation, etc. for me to be happy. This work felt like such a major success finally my vision had come alive and I couldn’t have been happier

Movement

This is the piece that was the most out of my comfort zone. I don’t like kinetic art, its just not for me, so when given the openhandedness of this class I never wanted to do anything related to it. That was until I didn’t feel quite satisfied with everything I had done yet, I felt like I could do more, so I did. I built a really shoddy pendulum out of a weird light I had and some fishing line and let the magic happen. I documented this work in two ways, first I took some long exposure shots, I was hoping to be able to capture the shadow in multiple directions but the light was too bright for anything longer than a 2 second exposure, I still like how the photos came out though. I like the movement in it because it just feels more fluid. I feel like movement often adds an element of rigidity to the piece as motors and pumps and robots often move at precise angles but I see art as a much more rounded idea. The way this light can sway means that no two seconds will be the same, it can rotate around its vertical axis while still swinging from side to side illuminating the shadow in all directions.

Final Thoughts: The end 🙁

It’s so weird that the seven weeks have all ready gone by, I feel like I’ve accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. However, as is evident throughout this post my doubts and fears about the project weighed on me heavily right up until the end. I felt like other people’s work required so much more hands on time actually building things that my stupid little flashlights shining through glass would look like a mockery of their time. That was until I was finished with the final work Movement I distinctly remember going “Well this looks so pathetic” as I stood up, but then I looked around. I saw everything I had done, every vision I had, everything looking just right. In that moment I realized how wrong I was, what I had done was incredible. It was art. Not the same art, but not art of less value than anyone else’s. For once I said to myself “Wow. This is exactly what I wanted, I actually did it.”. Usually in art I’m extremely hypercritical of my work seeing every slight imperfection that no one else would ever notice, this honestly keeps me from sharing a lot of my art because I don’t feel its reached an acceptable level. But now I feel differently, I feel like a lot of what I’ve done in my art both in this class and out was exactly what I wanted. Finally, I’d like to thank Professor Rosenstock as well as everyone else in the class, I never would have been able to accomplish all of this without your helpful feedback each week in class.

Thank you,

Brian Leverock