For our first unit in Art (The Great Pretender) this year, we made wire sculptures of a power animal we chose. Many different steps were required to come to our final product.
Henry Pye
Completed 9/2012
Path of Lions
Materials : Sculpy, wire, carboard.
Size : 25in x 17in
My project is 3 wire sculptures depicting the path that a lion travels in. To get this product, first we explored what power animals were in a series of videos and readings. Next, we learned about the iching and it taught us about the world’s elements. These include fire, water, earth, and air.
We researched power animals again with a focus on what we would be represented by. I chose a lion with the fire element for the qualities that it matched in my iching. I also chose a lion because I felt closer to the lion as a power animal than the other animals. This is because of the way it approaches challenges, it doesn’t immediately flee or fight, it waits to make its move to make sure it’s in control. After we had chosen an animal, we went to the zoo and looked at videos to observe how our animals moved. Next we sketched our power animals and made a flip book showing a specific movement that our animals perform. My lion’s movement was pouncing.
We then sketched this path with a line, and did it 2 more times (through a similar human and mechanical movement). My human movement was a person jumping (slowly lowering themselves and then going up). With these 3 paths, we shaped our wires to emulate those sketches and secured them down to the cardboard with sculpy. My wire sculpture represents how a lion moves/approaches a challenge. The flames throughout my piece show the fire element (the heart of a lion).
This is how our power animals were discovered and how we made the sculptures.