Charity Begins at Home

I can clearly remember than in Mrs. Burns' Fourth Grade Class, one of the art projects we undertook was making masks related to Idaho History. The FUN activity involved dragging out mothers in on a weekday, Vaseline, and hanging out in the teacher's lounge (SO COOL!!!!!!!!). Our loving months applied plastered gauze strips to our greased up faces and we tried desperately not to hyperventilate as we breathed through straws stuck up our noses. My face mask was AWESOME, and I applied braided gauze strips to it later. A quick paint job, and I had a slamming Sacagawea mask. I'm pretty sure I work that thing around the house far more than was a good idea, and I was REALLY sad when I had to glue it to a project board with a description of Sacagawea's significance in Idaho History.

A few years later, as a Girl Scouts project, I got to make another life-cast mask, and painted this one as Spider-Man. I proudly brought it with me to college, and have it safely packed away in a box of memorabilia (hmmm...wonder if it still fits???).

So, when my sculpture instructor said that one of the final projects in the Beginning class would be to use plastered gauze strips on a piece, I was ecstatic. Really. We had to create three figures, at least six feet tall, interacting with each other and attached to the same base. The kicker was that one of the figures needed wings. Now, my first thought for the piece was horribly inappropriate and dealt with an in flagrante delicto Peeping Tom angel figure and a Beast with Two Backs. There were several religious people in the class, and I thought fo'sho they'd be insulted. And while I thought it would be an amusing piece, it wouldn't be anything I'd want to keep in my house, and could really see doing anything at all with it after the in-class critique.

So instead, I decided to do something with a baby, a beggar, an angel, and a woman--something safe. The challenge of the assignment was to create figures that utilized the concepts of the Golden Ratio. With the four figures, I was able to utilize as many standard options with the Golden Ratio as possible (male, female, child). So the figures were created using tie wire as the frame, and aluminum foil and hot glue to provide bulk. I gave the woman boobs and wider hips, and made the angel figure taller/broader than the other figures. After the figures were foiled, I applied the moistened gauze. I didn't go crazy with clothing, but I gave the woman a dress and the man a shirt. The only special treatment to the handle was the wings.

I think the most fun I had with the project was creating the prim and the park bench. The prim is made in the same manner as the figures (wire frame, foil girth, and plaster covering), and I added flattened out beer caps to made wheels. The bench is made out of FREE paint stirring sticks that I sliced into smaller strips and sanded to remove the HOME DEPOT logo. The slats are attached to a tie wire frame that I wrapped with 28-gauge steel wire; this kept the strips of tie wire together and made the frame look more like wrought iron.

Since the project required a base, I made one out of maple and plywood. I covered it with moss and sand to emulate a park scene. When I designed the figures, I left wire poking out from below their feet so I could drill a hole into the base and insert the wire; it worked out really well, as the figured were pretty darned stationary once they were attached to the base. This is how it turned out:
When I presented the project to the class, I had several talking points. The first was the importance of using a pram instead of an American stroller. I've always wondered if children who rode around in a stroller have a more outwardly world view than children who rode around in a pram (since the stroller babies are pointed out towards the world, and pram babies are pointed towards the mother/care taker).

The idea here was the importance of observing charity in action. Since the baby is in the pram looking at the mother, it sees the mother handing the money to the beggar, and plants the seed for charity in the child. (It's a stretch).
I struggled as to where to place the angel figure because its placement has implications on Good Works versus Virtuous Acts (see, mom! I *did* learn something in Confirmation!). If the angel were behind the woman, one could argue that she was doing Good Work, as if compelled by the angel. With the angel behind the beggar, the act becomes a Virtuous Act.
In the end, I found the piece more meaningful if the angel were behind the beggar. Additionally, it's as if the beggar were being looked after by the angel.

Overall, I'm kind of "meh" about the piece. I think it's rather boring, and I have no idea what I'll do with it. Right now it's sitting in a milk crate in the dining room, collecting dust. I spent around 15 hours working on it, and I think the figures are pretty neat, so I don't have the heart to chuck it. Perhaps I'll post it on Etsy and see if there's anyone out there who wants it. Click here for more (bad) photos.