Initial Sketch of Blobject and Cube Idea
Venus Eye Trap
As an artist, one of the things I am always intrigued by are eyes. Without eyes, we as humans lose our sense of sight, which greatly hinders one's everyday functions. With the concept of sight, I brought in a plant that I am interested in: the Venus Fly Trap. As the name suggests, the plant traps organisms that come into contact with it and dissolves it slowly. For my idea, I wanted imagery of melted eyes that resemble cracked egg yolks in terms of consistency and shape. A single large melted eye with be the center blobject, while two Venus Fly Traps emerge from the goo. In the clutches of the plant will be more melted eyes. The feelers on the plant further push this eye imagery because they resemble human eyelashes. The faces of the cube is either going to be enveloped in a gooey substance or painted to have more eye imagery.
Conceptually, the object is commenting on the narrow-minded view that some people have. They choose to view events and information from only one viewpoint. This single viewpoint often gives an incomplete or biased view on said event/information. The longer one stays in this narrow minded mentality, they become trapped, and it becomes hard for them to open up and become cultured/open-minded.
Inspirations:
Anita Sumer/Heather Barnett/Instagram Slime Artists because of their works with slime can be applied to my melted eye.
Mathilde Roussel/ Olivia Kaufman-Rovira/ Diana Sherer for their plant-based works.
3D MOdels
In my models, I took the advice of a classmate from a critique and removed the original eye designs I had on the cube faces . It was pointed out that they appeared to be there to just fill up space, which was true. They didn't have a function other than decoration. Instead, I made the cube faces earthy colors to represent the soil a Venus Fly Trap would grow in instead. I made the large slime transparent because that's what I intend the slime to look like when I create it in real life. The eye ball slimes consists of the white of the sclera, the brown as the iris color because that is the most popular one, and the black for the pupil.
Construction of the Physical Model
The actual plant part of my project is 3D printed, the rest was constructed through wood/paint/glue. I first began by gluing my cube pieces together and then painting it to be an earthy color. Additionally, I also glued together my Venus Fly Trap Pieces and painted them green. Next I originally planned on using slime for all of the clear substance and eyes, but after playing around with the slime, I decided it was not going to work. Instead, I found out that hot glue can create a similar visual effect once it has cooled down. With that, I created multiple layers of hot glue and painted over each once it has cooled down to create the melted eyes. Finally, I bought a glossy clear nail polish and coated all the painted parts as a layer of protection and also to create the glossy effect.
