The Woods

     This next entire piece was a fail. It was inspired by artwork by Traci Howard that i saw in a gallery. I really liked the way she created trees using paper with text on and wanted to create my own version. I also thought about the trees from Coraline and how they grew smaller when Coraline neared the end of the other world. With this in mind i took some old scrabble game pieces and glued it together to use as a podium. I wanted to drip white paint around the edge but found it difficult for the paint to move so decided to focus on the actual trees. I rolled up the paper and glued the edge down, it was difficult to do and for it to hold in place. I tried cutting some random edges to make some of them spread out like branches but it didn't work. I needed time to plan and experiment with how this would work best. Now i think i needed something then and cylinder like a roll of cardboard or a small pole to use as a base to wrap the paper round. I also needed time to plan out the sizes of the paper. I wanted them to be small around the outside and grow bigger in the middle like walking in to thick woods. This was inspired by a memorial i saw in Germany, the stones grow bigger and the ground lowers as you walk into the centre, making the stones tower over you.
    To hold the pieces in place i poured PVA glue and blue acrylic paint, the way they mixed together was really nice but it wouldn't really hold the paper in place. Then when it dried the PVA glue was gone and it just looked like a mess. I felt i couldn't do anything with it at that point so i abandoned it. I think my initial idea could still work if i planned it out more and created a cleaner, simpler way to create it like sticking the paper on a thin cylinder shape. That way i could stick the bottom of the cylinder object onto paper or whatever i use for the ground. I would also be able to stand them up and move them around as i test what composition works best for all the trees.