Artistic Statement from Ms. Zhang:
Summary: In this passion project, I made a dreamy solar system, including a black background and eight planets. I first made a cosmic background board. I put a piece of shiny black foam paper on a piece of wood to make a background board. Then I paste a circular piece of wood made by laser cutting on the lower left corner of the black foam paper as the "sun". I draw the orbits of the stars on the foam paper by a silver highlighter. Then I stick a laser-cut small piece of wood between the two orbits, making an "asteroid belt." After that, I paste a rainbow I made with craft sticks in the middle of the background board. Then the background board is finished.
Then I am going to make eight "planets." The prototype of my project is the solar system, so I plan to make the planets as the eight planets of the solar system. While keeping the color of the planet as the real ones, I want to make these planets a little more abstract to preserve a "dream" feeling instead of being too real. I mainly used laser-cut wood chips to form these planets, and then glued different colors of shiny sand to the surface of the chips to color the planets. This process took a long time because I needed to make some details to make the combination of small pieces look more like planets. But I really enjoy this process. After making the "eight planets", I tried to put them on the track I painted. I wanted to find a proper position and stick them on the background board, but during the time of finding the proper positions, I found this process of freely placing planets very interesting. If I keep this feature, it will allow each viewer to participate in my project to find the location they think fits to place the planet. So, in the end, I decided to put them on the side rather than fix them on the background board.
Inspiration: I used to make some small pieces by laser cutting. I also made some handicrafts with craft sticks, such as pencil case, candy box, xylophone, rainbow and so on. In the process of exploring in Thingspace, I found myself more and more like laser cutting. Once I did laser cut on black acrylic to make a star with star map pattern on it. This small object was my initial source of inspiration. I like the theme of the universe, night sky, and stars. So I decided to combine the small objects I made and create the universe in my mind.
Research: I searched for some astronomical knowledge and celestial images. When making planets, I try to restore the relative size and color of the stars.
Process: I have already completed the work of Dream Orbit. I also made a craft stick pen holder. In addition, a laser-cut wooden box decorated with small art pieces is being made. When I put the crafts I made on my desk, I feel better every time I see them, which encourages me to make more crafts.
In this course of this semester, my passion for artistic creation has been inspired. I have discovered a lot of interesting art manufacturing techniques and found that their combination with traditional art is very interesting and often brings me surprises. Next, I will use more laser cutting chips, craft sticks, and glitter sand to explore and make some handicrafts.
Visual Documentation (see photo album)
