Unconventional Material - Figure Sculpture

In Figure Modeling, we had to make a sculpture using unconventional material.  Some choices included leaves, hot glue, and objects coated in plaster.


Someone left a pile of white party balloons in the painting studio from last year.  I grabbed a handful of them the first day of class.  I decided to try to use them for my Sculpture.


I constructed an armature out of wire, and built up a wire form that would give the figure mass.  I liked the line of the wire, and the black electrical tape contrasted well with the white balloons.  It also kept the elastic texture the same throughout the piece.  I had intended to wrap the balloons around my sculpture in some way, but it was my professor, Roberto Mannino, who started playing with the balloons as I worked with the wire, and suggested I cut them to stretch them over the frame.  The results from this process mimicked muscles very well.  There is such a spring and tension and pull to the balloons, that it really gives the figure some life.  Roberto described my figure as one who could get up and dance.