Art

Twice before I have posted blogs about emotional response projects I had for my Introduction to Theatre Design class.  This is the third time that I shall post something of the sort: this time in response to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.  The assignment for this play was to create a sculpture.  I am an artist, but I rarely venture into the realm of the three dimensional artwork, so this was a new adventure for me!  Just like for any other art project for which I have an idea, the idea is a lot more crisp and clean than the outcome.  And due to the the terror that hurricane Sandy wrought on Long Island, I didn’t really have time or a way to get any commercial art supplies to aid my struggle.

Materials:
What did I use?  You guessed it!  STORM DEBRIS!  Might as well use what Sandy destroyed, correct?  Well, not everything was debris exactly.  I used fallen branches, a cardboard box from home, tape, twine, and printed images.

What am I looking at???
I know it’s a little… busy.  There’s a lot going on, mostly because of the pine needles clouding up your view.  But let me explain!  First off, many times throughout the play the characters were plotting and scheming, and I could imagine myself standing behind one of those tall bushes in a garden eavesdropping on them – the green pine needles are reminiscent of that image I had while reading!  I took one long branch and tried to create the image of other branches wrapping around it – did I succeed?  The reason these three branches are supposed to look like they’re wrapping around is because they are all representing intertwined couples: Benedick and Beatrice, Claudio and Hero, and Borachio and Margaret (though I’m not sure of the existence of this last pair as a couple).  I applied three twine bows at the end of each of these three branches.  They look like links, almost, and further represent unity.  I taped the box with a brown tape, to look like dirt – why else would a “tree” be growing out of a box?  I decided to adhere silhouette images of the three couples on three sides of the box.  The fourth side is an image of a lone drinker, representing the loser of the story: Don John.

Overall, I believe that the project is successful in representing the ideas that I had while reading the play.  But, I must be honest, that I had not planned beforehand, and everything appeared organically before my eyes.  Ideas continued to flow as I progressed in making my beautiful sculpture.  Heck, maybe seeing the sculpture will inspire you to read the play!

Marina B. Nebro