Internal Debate

To be perfectly honest, I debated with myself for months now, trying to figure out what to put on this blog now that the ‘assignment’ was done. I definitely wanted to continue it. But what was good enough and what wasn’t? I decided it should be artistic. But what is artistic enough? I just argued with myself back and forth and got nothing done in the way of this blog. So, I suppose I will just have to get out of my comfort zone and try and wing it, and try not to think too hard about ‘what is artistic enough’, and just and show my art, my interests, things that made me stop and think, and so on.

In that spirit, here is the most mesmerizing and interesting thing that happened to me over spring break.

This is the jawbone of what once was a deer, something I have never seen in person. I’ve only seen a deer in person a few times before, and it was all within the past seven months. I’ve never seen a dead one. Perhaps that’s what made this stick with me? The only animal bones I’ve seen before are an alligators, a skull which is on top of a bookcase in my grandmother’s house. But this is completely different. The gentle curve of the line, but it’s rough to the touch. I oddly always imagined bones being smoother. It’s so fascinating to see the teeth, and know they’ve gone through a lifetime of meals. It makes me reflect on life, transition, and the past.

It also reminds me of a project from co:lab in foundations. For the memory box, one girl’s memory was that her father would take her out and they would find animal remains just like this, and they would collect them. I don’t plan to collect a bunch of these, but it was the very first one I found. I collected the very first red leaf I found in fall, which was the very first I ever saw in person, so why not this?

I wonder why some people pick to collect some things and not the other.

The Focus (Documentation Part Two)

This one was a doozy. I always bite off more than I can chew, but I know I would never be happy if I did a project that was ‘easy’ by my standards. But I always end up going for overkill. Oh well.

This is my Foible Filter.

The Focus (Documentation Part One)

I didn’t get much on my sculpture while I was sculpting it, I really got into it.  But here are the photos I do have of it before it was completed.

The Proposal

For my three ideas, only two of which I was really feeling, I made up these proposals. It’s a bit obvious which one I preferred since I gave it all the space of an entire page. However, after talking to various people about them, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do the first or the second, but after some reassurance, some solid thinking, and some reworking, I was back onto the idea I loved the most out of the three.

Since it is incredibly hard to see my writing, that, and in my fervor I wrote a bit sloppier than I normally do, I will be re-typing the most important parts.

Also, after brainstorming with one of our grad students, Bridget, I was finally able to decide on this one, because it was the one I really wanted. I’m honestly really glad she came with us to b block. Although, after a good and long talk, it was decided this wasn’t going to be a table. Instead, I’m going to focus on the concept of it, and less of what it is. So this is not my “Foible Table.”

 

This is my “Foible Filter.”

Basically that shape in the upper left hand corner is going to be my main membrane/filter. Those blank sections will feature a carved pattern, some ideas I’ve played around with seen faintly below it. I’m leaning more towards the one on the left though, since it reminds me a bit more of a leaf. It will all trickle back to the middle, where a single brown leaf will be attached, and have written on it “My only foible is that I’m human.” 

The Word Part Seven

The last thing I did, although I was doing it for the longest amount of time, to be honest, was make a video. I wanted to collect people’s foibles, but how? I didn’t want it to be boring. So I thought I would shoot a video, and collect people’s foibles that way. I found random strangers, and even a few friends on the line, and asked them to tell me their foibles. A few of them are hard to hear, so I added speech bubbles on youtube to help make it easier. This was honestly my favorite thing to do, even though I was worried I wouldn’t get it done, and it was a bit stressful.

 

The Word Part Six

The next thing I did was get pictures of foibles I found that I couldn’t carry back with me.

This was one of the trees in front of the Inamori building, and it seemed very odd that caution tape was attached to a tree and then ripped apart.

The Word Part Five

For my next exploration, I went out and collected objects relating to my word, foible, that were on the line. People drop some weird stuff on campus…

 

Really. Broken salt shakers. I don’t even know what to think. There were at least three or four others that I left there. They’re a foible in two senses. One, they can no longer hold salt because they are broken so that is a weakness. Two, it’s really odd there were four of five broken salt shakers on the ground in one place. I don’t have that many in my house, and those are whole.

The Word Part Four

The next thing I ended up doing was collecting patterns of foibles, by doing rubbings, three pages to be exact.

 

In the upper left hand corner, are the heating grates in Harder hall, because to me the heat is distributed unevenly. It can be incredibly cold in the foundations area, warm and cozy in moka joka, or sweltering near the elevator by the gallery, all in the same minute. A minor flaw, and a foible by all means. A keyhole, because although it isn’t the one we use in Cohen, it reminded me of how we couldn’t access it, a minor flaw when the data for our keycards was lost. The next one over was a grate that you speak into, from outside Harder hall. I thought it was odd, simply because the place it was at hardly ever has those doors locked. the bottom half of the page is a huge crack in the concrete on the side of Harder hall.

The Word Part Three

The next thing I decided to do, was to document my thoughts throughout the day whether I was on the line or not, as long as they pertained to the line or my word, foible. I wasn’t surprised to find out that the line seemed to be permeating throughout my life. In the order they came in:

1. It’s strange how area and upbringing can affect whether or not something is a foible to someone or not. (In relation to thinking about a few objects I had collected)

2. A foible can be either good or bad. I had been used to the mindset that a foible was bad before.

3. She’s really pretty from behind. Her only foible is that she always wears a braid when she has such pretty long hair. Oh god. Why am I using the word foible so much more than usual now?

4.How the hell did these broken salt shakers get here? And why are there so many?! I left at least 3 or 4 behind!

5.There are a lot of weak or broken trees. It’s odd. You would think there would be more broken trees in Florida from all the hurricanes we get. Is the wind here that strong?

The Word Part Two

Continuing with the combination of my word, foible, and the line, here is a list of observations of foibles I have noticed, that I did not record/get a picture of/etc, for various reasons.

1. A woman sitting with an entire cup of lemon slices.

2. Someone wearing few layers of clothing when it’s cold out. (Although I’m from Florida, so they just may be used to it, so maybe it’s me who has the foible in this case?)

3. It’s cloudy almost every day, but I’m used to it shining almost every day in Florida. The more I think about it, the more I think it’s me who has the foibles, and not others…

4. There is a girl I saw with one blue eye, and one green eye.

5. I saw various people smoking, a vice.

6. The cars will usually stop here to let you cross the road. It’s a nice foible.

7. I was walking to dinner and I encountered some deer on the line, they were oddly unafraid of humans and didn’t run as we walked past them. What an eccentric character trait.

8. When the bridges we had to cross iced over during the cold, that is a major foible since it is a little more than a minor weakness.