Weekly Team Update

Our team made significant progress this past week. We completed the design of our landscape as well as the majority of the sculptures. The park is really coming together and we are excited to share it with the group! Once we received clarification on the due dates, we adjusted our schedule and were back on track quickly because the entire team was already ahead of schedule.
First and foremost, this project was definitely a challenge for Nicole. She considers herself relatively computer savvy, but found working with Sketch Up to be more challenging than expected. Nicole shifted gears away from her original concept of the silhouette models, and instead decided to construct a large ribbon to symbolize the Jersey Battered Women’s Service. Taking advantage of the quick reference guide, Sketch Up tutorials, and help from teammates, she was able to create quite a sculpture. As is commonly the case, the devil was in the details and it took some time to get it just right. Overall, working with the program was a positive experience and forced Nicole to explore her artistic side and exercise her imagination.

Lissette is always one to embrace a new challenge and the process of sculpting using Sketch Up proved to be quite a challenge. Her concept of a light bulb seemed like an easy enough design, but it turned out to be a long learning process, that ultimately led to an excellent design. Drawing her inspiration from “Fountain” and “Bicycle Wheel”, ready-made works of art from Marcel Duchamp, she felt that a common item such as a light bulb would convey her message of energy conservation. This experience has led Lissette to a new found respect and appreciation for the skill and effort involved in creating art. She hopes that her piece, “The Light Bulb”, will inspire people to do their part to conserve energy.

Darrell was one of our members who felt uneasy about our choice of using Sketch Up for our team project. He has had very little experience with any computer programs outside of Microsoft Word and email, but was up for the challenge. Early on, he struggled to come up with a concept but as he continued to work with the program, some intriguing ideas emerged. He had seen some interesting sculptures while stationed in Europe and thought that now was his chance to create such a work of art. Darrell put in a lot of time with Sketch Up, but the more he used it, the more he became comfortable. Finally as his comfort level rose, his sculpture started to take shape. Even though the project took quite a lot of time, Darrell found the experience to be rewarding and hopes that everyone will enjoy his sculpture, “The Beat to My Own Drum”.

Anthonyette has also found working with Sketch Up to be quite a challenge. Her concept of honoring our soldiers fighting throughout the world has been difficult to translate into a Sketch Up sculpture. She has taken inspiration from Michelangelo Buonarroti and his sculptures and feels that this experience has given her the opportunity to feel a little bit of what he must have felt while creating his works of art.

Over the past week, I have taken the team’s ideas and suggestions and completed the final landscape design of our sculpture park. The design is an abstract version of a star, with paths leading out to each of the “points” from a center hub. Our goal was to create a relaxing setting that would invite and welcome people to come for a walk and view our sculptures. I have also completed my sculpture entitled: “A Bear and her Cub”. The large bear is protecting her small cub from the encroachment of civilization. I was inspired by the works of Alexander Calder, in particular, stabiles such as: “Red Horse” and “Two Disks”, as well as his maquette, “The Lion”. We live in an age where we need to be mindful of the fact that we share this world with the animals. My hope is that this sculpture will get people to think about how they would react if someone or something were invading their territory. Perhaps it will even inspire some people to develop creative solutions to this dangerous problem.