Traveling Camel
Traveling Camel, By Lily Fiske
(Sculpy, Clay, Wire, 17” by 6”)
Intro:
The idea behind this art project was to deeply study and learn the movements of a certain animal that you as an individual felt a connection to. The animal that was all of those things for me, was a camel. I studied it at the zoo, online, through articles, and by drawing it out and creating a flip book of the way it walks. I learned a lot about the smaller details of a camel through my research and creating my Traveling Camel sculpture helped me discover it’s similarities to me as a human, and also to machines that humans use. This project was a very insightful experience.
Artist statement:
I decided to call my sculpture Traveling Camel because a camel at the zoo inspired me to create my piece in the first place. During this process, I discovered that my power animal was a camel, and by observing it’s movement at the zoo and studying it more deeply through making a flipbook, I was able to better understand it’s characteristics. My sculpture depicts the movement of a camel walking, a machine that moves similarly to a walking camel (freight train), and a human activity that I is like a camel’s movement (an old woman pushing a wheeled cart to help her walk)
I placed each of these wire paths above green colored clay to represent the earth, because a mammal’s natural element is earth. I made clay beads and put them around each of the wires like a toy a child might find at the doctors office waiting room.
My final sculpture is 6 inches tall and 17 inches wide. I completed this piece on 9/12 using bendy wire, which I shaped into my animal’s movement in three different ways, colorful clay that I spread about on the base and used to hold up my wires, and the cardboard base, which was cut from a box. It was fun to make and I hope it helps people understand the movements of your average camel on a deeper level.