Cling’n On

Steel Rods, Cling’n Seal, Food Coloring, Yarn, and Water

For this project we were tasked to combine the skills we have been learning throughout the semester and create a 3-D sculpture in the metal shop that includes some other non-metal element. This year I have found myself steering away from mixing personal life with my art, especially in sculpture which I am slightly more uncomfortable with. For our final project I tried to move past that and create something abstract based on a feeling.

As it comes to an end, I find myself overwhelmed with the amount of work I’ve amassed as I've avoided work earlier in the semester. I wanted the piece to represent the guilt of wishing I worked harder to stay on top of things, while also representing my struggle to keep it together in the present. As well as the increasing pressure on myself to get things done in school, in the middle of this project my first relationship came to an end. The water seeping through the saran wrap in some ways represents my investment in the relationship as it slowly dwindles away over time. The feeling of not wanting to give up on something that I’ve devoted so much of my life and energy to, to eventually giving up hope. The added guilt of wondering that if I wasn’t so focused on someone else, would I have been a better student, or a better friend? And lastly the feeling of losing the person I love, and knowing that our lives will go in different directions.

As I’ve been struggling with my mental health these past weeks, I’ve spent most of my time in my apartment alone, only leaving to go to work. I chose to place this piece in my shower because the shower is where I go to have some alone time to allow myself to wallow in my sadness. I think the cage-like aspect of it represents protection and guarding of myself, and the water seeping through shows that even still it’s hard to keep it together sometimes.