To Sketchup or not to Sketchup?

I have to admit, I'm not so sure about what I am going to do for my final perspective drawing. We have to draw our chair in some type of environment. I'm trying to decide if I should emphasize the meaning of my chair (and my relationship with my mother) through its surroundings, or if I should go for the opposite and make the environment totally surreal or completely unrelated to the chair in terms of content. I was also thinking about something one of the other students said about the chair top opening up like a flower. That could lead to something interesting. The other option for the final piece is to create it using Google Sketchup. Right now that seems a little intimidating given that a majority of my chair, as I have said before, isn't square. It also isn't totally circular either... I'll try it and see what happens!

Chair part 3

So the third part of our chair project is to make a couple drawings of our chair using two-point perspective. It was definitely a challenge to draw my chair in perspective just because a majority of my chair isn't square and I honestly don't have much practice drawing non-square type objects in perspective. However, I think I just needed to get started. Once I did start, it was a little easier. In the end I think they turned out pretty good! What do you think?

Chair part 2... part 2

Based on the suggestions of Margie and my classmates, I redesigned the seat cover so that it was still comfortable to sit on, yet revealed parts of the inside structure. Hence, people would be more likely to unfold the cover to view the intricate interior of the seat. In the end I wanted my seat to represent the relationship between me and my mother. We are very close. We connect so well, we finish each others' sentences and seem to be on "the same wavelength" all the time. She is my rock. She is solid and steady, and I love her deeply. Hopefully my chair shows that :)

Chair Part 2

 Success! I am definitely liking part two of the chair project much better than part one. Being able to use more than one piece of cardboard is much easier and made me feel much more creative, I think, in generating ideas that would work more efficiently. I have finished my preliminary chair for the in-process critique tomorrow, however, I'm not sure what else I can do do improve the chair for my final submission. My only idea would be to go through with my original plan and make a back for the chair. So far, my chair works very well. It's solid and doesn't shear or bend in any way. Opinions?

Puryear and Buster

Martin Puryear's works provide some examples of interesting forms we can make or base our chair ideas off of. All of his pieces are very organic, both in shape and material. I think they are beautifully thought out and executed. They are natural, rhythmic, and abstract forms and play with your senses. His wood work is my favorite. I think his most intriguing piece, although fairly basic, was his ladder. It is short, but appears long because it is leaned against the wall and increasingly gets thinner the higher the ladder goes, making the work an illusion of depth. I am partial to the organic, rhythmic, and quiet nature of, well, nature. So, I really like his work because it is so unique in the way those concepts are portrayed. I can just imaging his exhibit smelling like earth, pine trees, and the crisp air commonly found in forests. I think he's trying to tell us to keep the environment in mind. To see its beauty as something we should care for and appreciate.

Kendall's work feels very structural and sculptural. They almost look as if they are a real-life version of some 3D digital creation. They are very dimensional and grid-like. Yet, they are very organic and appear light, almost airy. Some of them actually look like lanterns, once again conveying the idea of being light, only now literally. Her works are layered and look sturdy and strong. Some of them are layered, yet feel almost buoyant. They also seem to imitate natural objects, like clouds or bubbles, in addition to almost futuristic exhibits. One piece almost looks like a skyline from a space colony of some sort. They are meant for people to interact with them. Same as our project. For our project part 2, we need a structure and form that we can utilize and actually sit on. Kendall's pieces exemplify support and structure, which we need to take advantage of.

My cardboard throne

I think I have an idea for my cardboard chair. It's a work in progress and am going to continue to mess with my models this weekend, but I think I'll be ready and (hopefully) successful by Tuesday! My theory is that if there is more surface area to support me, my weight will be distributed more evenly and therefore will hold me more effectively. My 12"x12" model was able to hold up a heavy Paula Dean stoneware casserole dish and a metal tea kettle with water still in it. That gives me hope my legit chair will work! I still need to figure out a way to get the base to not flip back out from the folds. Like I said: work in progress.

Working towards the final

Ok, so I've been steadily working on trying to integrate people into the right side of my "map." I'm definitely glad Margie is letting us cut our images, because if that couldn't happen, my project would be looking all sorts of weird. It's still somewhat difficult trying to figure out how to place them so it doesn't feel as if there is a big horizontal line drawn down the middle. I'd still like the viewer's eye to follow along the movement, but make it not so obvious. I've also tried to put in a few more of the grayer photographs to break up the monotony of the Johnson County Beige. Hopefully I'm on the right track.