Drawing with yarn

I wanted to point out the frustration I feel whenever I walk into the gazebo as a non-smoker. I created letters with yarn to spell out "When the smoke clears..." which refers to the literal smoke in the gazebo but it also has a metaphorical meaning. The metaphor refers to the fact that so many college students life an unreasonable lifestyle that can only be sustained while in school and that eventually when they graduate they have a reality check.

Wood

I thought it the properties of wood and how it can be manipulated to create drawings.

First I took away pieces from this piece of wood to create a calligraphy pen.

I used this same process to create a paint brush.

Next I used wood blocks to create prints.

After creating prints I stacked the blocks up and glued them together to create little buildings.

I created two prints using a piece of wood.

I took a woodchip and painted on it to create a gradient.

Last, I pulled all the scraps together from the calligraphy pen and brush to create this image.

Water

I wanted to show the power of water. I placed a piece of cardboard in water and as the cardboard got softer I was able to push it down further into the glass as the water slowly started to eat away at it.

Knowing that one of the properties of water is that it takes on the shape of whatever container it is in I decided to put it in lost of different shaped and sized containers.

Another property of water is that it is composed partly of hydrogen which with hydrogen bonding is able to climb up this paper towel. Hydrogen bonding is also the reason it climbs up the sides of containers and the reason for surface tension.

I used water to clean my skin.

I put water on fabric to show how the fabric can hold onto the liquid and how it can change the color of it.

Next I attempted to use water to create an image.

Transparency

When I thought of using transparency as a drawing material the first thing I thought of was tracing paper which is actually one of my favorite materials to use in general. I used tracing paper in combination with other materias to manipulate light and combine layers of otherwise transparent things to create something opaque.

First I used tracing paper as a screen to diffuse light coming in from my window.

The second piece I did I used the transparent properties of tracing paper to lessen the brightness of the orange ink. I layered together pieces from a magazine then covered them in orange ink. Next I put tracing paper over it to create a softer color.

For the next two pieces I wanted to try to create an image in a stain glass style. This is something I have  attempted in the past but was never this successful. The use of the black lines and the wood which holds the paper tight helped to achieve this look which I wasn't able to before.

For this next piece I put hot glue on tracing paper. Both of these things are normally transparent and by layering them over each other I was able to create an opaque area.

After cutting several pieces of tracing paper I had all these pieces left behind, I layered them over each other to create other shapes.

Tape

I wanted to show how many different ways tape can be used.

I used it to create replicas of my hand and both of my feet. 

Then I used it to block out areas on paper before painting it.

This was for the same purpose however I loved the black and white so I decided not to paint over it.

Then I used the tape to create an image.

I cut out this piece of a letter that I wrote but never sent. I was originally going to put tape over it to block areas however when I saw the words that were on this piece of the letter they felt so constricted and scared that it made me feel as though wrapping the piece in tape as though its being constricted was more fitting.

Fiber

I wanted to show the versatility of fiber. First I tied a marker to a string and swung it similarly to a pendulum. 

I crocheted a large piece of fabric out of yarn.

I put pieces of yarn in this paper pulling in separate directions to show the strength of the fiber.

I thought about the amount of fiber in fruits and vegetables so I arranged these fruits and vegetables to create this pattern.

I used yarn to create a snowflake pattern. 

This is a sock which was hung with a piece of yarn to create what reminds me of a hammock.

Gravity

For most of the gravity pieces I melted crayons to make patterns.

For the last two pieces I created with gravity I dropped food items to see how they were affected by gravity.

Eradication

For eradication I wanted to create pieces through the removal of something.

I used a juicer to completely eradicate solid fruits and vegetables to create juice. This shows the nature of life and how things can be used to create something totally different.

I drew a face on this piece of paper and then covered it in ink and used water to eradicate the ink from the paper. This actually took a lot longer than I expected, the ink kept coming from the paper and my shower is still a mess!

After the paper dried I used fire to completely eradicate this piece from existence  The fire ate away at the paper slowly which created an interesting pattern with the ashes and the way in which it burned the paper.

I used eradication to completely eradicate the food from this plate. 

I cut away pieces from this paper to create snowflakes.  

I put paint on my window and cleared away areas to make an image and patterns.