Virtues Purloin
I have always found Greek Mythology interesting, especially the story behind Medusa, so I used her background as inspiration for my final project.
My project is called Virtues Purloin, which means stolen innocence, the basis of my project is a young woman who was swimming and had been strangled by an octopus and formed into a hybrid of a human and octopus. She was an all-round good person and having the unfortunate event of having her original happy life taken away, has turned her evil.
I have linked my specialist subjects and skills in Fine Art and Special Effects by creating two sculptures: one of the octopus that had taken the character’s innocence and one is of the bust of my actual creature.
I have been inspired by animal sculpting artist Nick Mackman as they have a very realistic approach towards their sculptures, and they use different medians to create these sculptures yet they all still have the realistic effect.
I have been inspired by filmmaker Tim Burton and his visual aesthetic; the blue tones and over-exaggerated bone structure, large eyes and looking slightly off human. For the octopus sculpture I used wire, Modroc and plaster, then painted over it in acrylic paint, for the tools I used sand paper and a file. My character bust is made from cos clay and was painted with acrylic paint, I used metal sculpting tools to help with the process of making my bust.
I will be presenting my work by having my sculpture on a plinth and my maquette on a shelf.
My creative aims are to invite viewers to appreciate my work through its many layers as I respond to the theme of Body, Identity and Character through the context of stolen innocence and adapting to changes caused by bad situations.
