MARY O'SULLIVAN

This is a blog of my artistic work from my First Year at Limerick School of Art and Design. I'm currently in my Second Year at LSAD studying Fashion Knitwear and Textiles. If you want to see more up-to-date work, you can visit my website here: https://maryosullivanblog.wordpress.com/ or my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryos95/

[osullivanmary]

Just found your blog and you've helped me out no end... Thank you my name is Sally I'm a 37 yr old mother of three boys and just starting to ask in galleries if they can or would show my work I use tree bark and seed pods in my work. Wishing you a lovely pregnancy birth and parenthood x

Hey Sally, sorry for the late reply I just saw your message! No bother, I’m glad you enjoyed my blog! Thank you for your wash wishes, I wish you the best of luck with your three boys and hope you get a venue to display your work! :) x

[osullivanmary]

The last project I got to part take in (at least partially) before I gave birth was the doll self project. As part of it, we had to create from scratch a doll version of some aspect of ourselves where the height of the doll was half our own. Naturally enough, I thought of doing making one that could fit another, smaller doll in it. I was going to make a sarcophagus out of card board, then use a paste to build up layers to create a doll-like verison of what I looked like before I got pregnant, and then with I the doll, the person I was as I was making it. Thus filling in the self portrait aspect of the project. Turns out though that I ended up giving birth before I could finish it, but here are the inital sketches and model.

[osullivanmary]

My studio space all ready for assessments!

[osullivanmary]

Close up shots of the bark cast I did.

[sculptureandcombinedmedialsad]

nothing

Seinfeld - The Nothing Pitch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQnaRtNMGMI

  “The artist should never contemplate making a work of art that is about something; a successful work of art can only ever be about nothing. The artist’s complete negation of intent thus creating a reflective surface into which the critic, curator or collector can gaze and see only himself.” Sol LeWitt

John Cage, “Lecture On Nothing,”  for speaker, perf Frances-Marie Uitti http://ubumexico.centro.org.mx/sound/cage_john/var/Cage-John_Lecture%20on%20nothing_Francis-Marie-UIitti.mp3

Robert Wilson finds the poetry in ‘Lecture on Nothing’ http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/16/entertainment/la-et-cm-john-cage-lecture-nothing-review-20131017

[osullivanmary]

A plaster cast I made from a single piece of bark

[osullivanmary]

I cut the burnt wood piece out of the plastic mould and this is the result! I decided to keep whatever bits of wood that fell off in the mould.

[osullivanmary]

I made a plastic mould of the burnt piece of wood, but I ran out of time to make a plaster mould of it. I love the detail though!

[osullivanmary]

The different fabrics I bought to dip into wax!

[osullivanmary]

I came across the art work of Toshikatsu Endo from a fellow sculpture student, and it made me look at bark and trees in a different light. I burnt a piece of wood and took pictures of it as a result. I'm going to go and cast it now and see how it turns out.

[osullivanmary]

From looking at Karla Black's work, I decided to try using fabric and wax to try pick up the details in the bark. I first covered the bark with a mixture of white spirit and petroleum jelly (Vaseline) to prevent the wax sticking to the bark. I then dipped the fabric into wax and spread it into the crevices of the bark. However it didn't pick up as much detail as I hoped, so I'm going to try using different types of fabric to get the detail.

[osullivanmary]

A different arrangement focusing on the interior of the bark to expose it.

[osullivanmary]

I decided to try arranging the bark in different arrangement using wire and a nail to hang it up.

[osullivanmary]

I took a cast of this piece of bark using clay and the plaster/water mixture. It picked up on quite a lot of detail, but unfortunately it broke so I used my hot glue gun to stick it back together again.

[osullivanmary]

This is how the casts came out, but my favourite is the last one. I think I may have used too much water when I was making the mixture of clay and water at the start so by the end I think I had gotten a better hang of it.

[osullivanmary]

Waiting for the casts to dry

[osullivanmary]

I took a vacuum mould of different pieces of bark to see the level of detail that would come up in the casts I'll make