Staging Heriones Methodology

Challenging the line between fine art and craft, I will use wood burning as a drawing medium. A drawing on newsprint will be made first and then projected on a wooden panel. The figures and details will be wood burned onto a poplar plywood panel. The wood burning will determine the shape of the window, which will be cut out with a band saw. Color will be applied with colored water based wood stains that are transparent enough to allow wood grain shows underneath. The color doesn’t interfere with the wood burning and takes advantage of the wood’s natural surface.
The framing will be used to create a narrative. Art nouveau borders inspire the visuals for the panels. The figures around the window will not be traditional represented. The depictions of the women will be unsettling and somewhat surreal. For example, Odette and Odile are the protagonist and antagonist of swan lake but I interpret them as two sides of one person. Combining the two ballerinas into conjoined twins illustrates the duality while keeping the elegance of the characters. The viewer can gain some insight to the traditional narrative, but also a greater vision to the characters’ struggle. I will portray only women; the male dancer is only a pedestal for the heroine of the ballet.
The frames will be displayed on and off the wall, so the viewer can be the object presented. They will be emerged in the world that inspired the piece. Nine pieces will be completed, giving the viewer a variety of scenes to join. I am showing in an alternative space, giving me access to a large amount of wall space and the ability to suspend my pieces. Two large frames will be hung from the ceiling in the middle of the room while the other frames are mounted on the wall. A viewer from one side of the room can look through the window, to see another person looking at the artwork on the opposite wall. This dynamic allows for the people in the gallery to be framed.

Staging Heriones Thesis

Frames are normally intended to emphasize an object or piece of artwork. The relationship between the image and the frame is one that has been cultivated for thousands of years. Artists like Van Gogh would draw out onto the frame making it an integral part of the image. Many artists create or designed own frames that contribute to the content of their piece. Whistler’s piece “Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen” is complimented by a frame he designed with Japanese Motifs, adding to it’s Japanese inspired theme. Showing an art piece without its original frame is considered disrespectful to the intention of the artist. As the modernist movement came to fruition, extravagant gilded frames were often replaced a frame with unobtrusive borders. Minimalist artist Eva Hesse turned the concept of the frame into an art piece itself with her work “Hang Up”. Regardless of how elaborate their construction, the framing is the window in which we see artwork and is telling of their artist’s intent.
During the 19th century some artists used framing as imagery. Alphonse Mucha and other artists of the art nouveau movement are prime examples of this practice. The borders surrounding advertisements for ballets and operas appeared as narratives for the performances they publicized. Decorative edges were perfect introductions to the romantic subject matter by giving a window into the dramatic action before ever entering the theatre.
My senior work will be not paintings or drawings, but frames alone. Their subject matter is inspired by the romantic ballets and melodramas. Characters from these dances and dramas are all victims of tragic love; they are idealized on the stage as we see them struggle to achieve their desires. Figures like Odette and Odile from Swan Lake dance in an imaginary world where their circumstances are fantastic, yet their conflicts are similar to difficulties of real life. I will use my frames to give insight to the characters desires and the strife it causes them. The pieces will have a narrative that is drawn around an empty window. The imagery will consist of female figures combined with decorative elements drawn with an unsettling and surreal quality.

Balsa, or Notsa?

So Ive been working with Balsa woods for my frames. But cutting shapes just might be the most torturous thing ive ever done, even if balsa is super soft. But If I dont cut out shapes, i cant do the relief, which that three dimensionallity is important to make it seem frame-like. But the woodburning is the more important process.

By the way, I know yall have know idea what Im talking about. But you will! =D