To Be Determined
“No matter the medium, be it clay, paper, wood, or metal, my artistic process remains the same. Ideas arrive from the flow of working, memory, or from bodily experience. In my mind the images of the ideas glow, giving warmth and light to my inner life. Once I begin to work with materials to create the idea in the world, the glow fades. The idea transitions into a thing in the world, which I must reckon with and make the best it can be. Striving to realize the idea keeps me engaged, while working with materials offers ideas of its own. Subject matter, material, and scale can change, yet each work directly references the natural world, my body, and memory. With the intertwining of concept and material, making art unites my mind and body.
Once assembled, I projected the shadow of the puppet onto a screen and filmed it. The bird exists in three dimensions spatially, and in three dimensions metaphorically. It is an object that moves. It is also a shadow, an image of no thickness. It is a short video, a record of the transience of light at a particular point in time. The object must function as a moveable sculpture, as image/performance, and as a narrative. As I finish, I see the results informing all the work going forward. This project takes my work from the concrete to the metaphorical, as the physical presence of the bird becomes a literal shadow, and then a flicker on a screen.”
This semester I worked with Chuck Stigliano, sculptor and puppeteer. He generously shared his knowledge and expertise as I began something completely new in my second year of graduate school. The shadow puppet and the video are both prototypes for my work this summer. I consider neither of them finished pieces. The work on this page is a rough sketch for emerging ideas that unite my internal and physical practice.
For the background in the second video, I used projections of images from the photos of my daily walks taken in April 2020, and collaged in March 2021. Projecting these images large on a white sheet lends an organic quality and ties this work to earlier efforts.
Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet, Wings Folded. 24″ Beak to Tail x 27″ W. black card stock, wood, wire, elastic, hardware, velcro.
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet on Stand, Wings Folded. 27′ x 4″ x 61″
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet, Wings Extended. 24″ Beak to Tail x 40″ W. Black card stock, wood, wire, elastic, hardware, velcro.
Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet Videos
Cooper Hawk Shadow Puppet Video 1
Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Video 2 (music credit: 3 Sérénades, Op.96. Casano-Guestin)
Details: Shadows, Mechanisms, Character
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Puppet, Shadow Projected, Wings Extended
-
- Coopers Hawk Shadow Puppet Shadow, Projected, Wings Extended
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Puppet, Shadow Projected, Wings Folded
-
- Coopers Hawk Shadow Puppet Shadow, Projected, Wings Folded
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet, Wing Mechanism, Back View
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet, Wing Mechanism, Front
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet, Tail Mechanism, Extended, Back View
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Heads
-
- Cooper’s Hawk Heads with Body
2 Videos of Projected Photo Collages
Below is a video of photo collages from 2020 projected onto a hanging piece of white fabric. I would like to print these images directly onto the fabric, hang them in space, and then experiment with projection.
Photo Collage Projected onto hanging fabric screen
Below is the slideshow used as a background in the video.
Photo Collages of Walking April 2020, collaged March 2021.
__________
Inspiration and Process
-
- Coopers Hawk, Arlington
-
- Cooper’s Hawk, Bike Path, Arlington
-
- Girl Shadow puppet
-
- Original Cooper’s Hawk Shadow Puppet
Reference photos of a coopers hawk on the Minuteman Bike Path in Arlington (left), first shadow puppets (right). Below is a clip of the first bird shadow puppet movie.
The First Idea
This video has been in the back of my mind for a while now, as I watched the shadows projected on the white sheet:
Summer Night. Animation in Procreate.
The Semester’s Technical Progress
-
- Sketch
-
- Sketch
-
- Third Prototype
-
- Fourth Prototype
-
- Videos of Scissor Linkage Research
-
- First Scissor Linkage Wing Prototype
-
- Second Bird Scissor Linkage, Wings and Tail Extended
-
- Second Bird Scissor Linkage, Wings and Tail Folded
Sketches and prototypes first. It became clear that the answer would not be as simple as I wanted, at first anyway. Then came scissor linkage research inspired by cosplay wing makers. The first wings using a scissor linkage broke, so I made a stronger set. I added a tail mechanism that uses a different principle.
-
- First Attempt
-
- Miura Fold
-
- Venetian Blind
-
- Feathers Sewn onto Elastic, Folded
-
- Feathers Sewn onto Elastic, Extended
Then came trial and error to make the wings close to the body, the secondary flight feathers, able to extend and fold. I switched to copy paper for these experiments since card stock is expensive and I wasn’t having much success.
-
- Feathers Suspended from Elastic
-
- Feathers Suspended from Elastic
-
- Additional Wood for Wing Spread
-
- Additional Wood for Wing Spread, Rear View
Getting closer. I added an extension on the wing for the primary feathers to lift.
-
- Tail Mechanism
-
- Tail Mechanism 2
-
- Cutting Stable Tail Piece
-
- Stable Tail Piece
-
- Fan Feathers
-
- Tail Feathers
-
- Tail Feathers Cut
-
- Laying Feathers out to Determine Pattern
-
- Secondary Flight Feathers
-
- Laying out Primary Flight Feathers
-
- Assembled before Body
-
- First Body
-
- First Body with Cuts
The final bird has a changeable head that attaches with black velcro onto the body. The body also attaches with velcro and is removable to access the workings of the puppet. I built a type a trigger mechanism (thank you Chuck!) so that one hand could operate the wings and the other, the tail, while also holding the puppet in the air. I also made a stand for the bird that its wooden pole fits into.
If you would like to see more of my research, please visit https://blogs.massart.edu/ederosas2/may-2021/
To see the recent Thorndike Walk photo collages, please visit https://blogs.massart.edu/ederosas2/2021/04/30/walk-continued/
Thank you.