Rings

In doing my paper sculpture I wanted to explore the idea of human development and death which led me to compare it to a tree. Here the dead tree(because it has been cut down) lies exposed, as well as the human. The rings on both the tree and the human face can be seen. Just like the tree has left something behind, it's stump, the human will leave something behind, not as a stump, but biologically a human will live forever.

To make the tree stump I used about 30 pieces of paper cutting a hole in the center of each piece and gradually increasing the size as I got out to the top layer. After that I glued them all together and glued them to my mat board. With a utility knife I carved away the sides around the rings. Afterwards with india ink and colored pencil I drew in the details on the rings and with acrylic paint mixed with resin sand and ceramic stucco I painted on the tree bark. After the tree stump was done I moved on to the human face.

I wanted the human face to look old so I made it droopy. The face was done in sections; the forehead was done first, then the left cheek, etc. After I would put one section on I would carve it some more with a utility knife to smoothen it out and shape it. After all sections were set in place and glued together I painted the face white and glued it on to the center of my tree stump.

Doing this was a process, as is aging for a tree and a human.

Materials: acrylic paint, resin sand, ceramic stucco, india ink, paper, colored pencil, black mat board, PVA glue.

size: 12"x12"