Ashley Taylor

Art 1010

Shadow

My thought process on this assignment was an interesting difficulty. It was hard for me to

think of what I wanted to do because there was so many options and it was hard to choose

what I wanted. Mostly what animal I should do.

At the time I was rather struggling because I had just remembered my two birds that had

been sold to a younger girl due to that I couldn’t take care of both my diamond dove and my

ring neck dove because of marching band in high school. So, when this project came

around, I was thinking about them and rather struggling because I missed them.

My choice was to design and make my diamond dove, Shadow. My project was hard when

came time to finding things to create Shadow out of. I used some pieces of scrap metal and

pieces of metal parts, nuts, screws, etc., to create the body. I used a metal tube for the neck,

two pennies for the eyes, a tennis ball for the head, a nut and screw for the beak, along with

the addition of feathers for the wings and tail feathers.

Let me just say that I was very nervous that my bird wouldn’t turn out well but as I got into

it, I started to learn and understand what needed to happen. My main image that I used was

my picture memory of my diamond dove and slowly yet surely went from there.

The construction process was not that hard because of the pieces I used. It was rather

easier than I had expected it to be but the process of finding everything was hard. I

remember it took me about an hour or more just to figure out what I could use and how to
accomplish what I wanted my project to become. I thought about making a fox or an eagle,

though, I couldn’t find the right pieces for either option, so I decided to go a much simpler

route and do something smaller. And usually in these types of situations, I never think that

well due to the various things I can do but also what I cannot do. It’s rather taxing on my

mind also. My cognitive process within my brain is a bit different than what a normal

cognitive process should be.

There were some challenges within this whole project. As I said, part of it was due to my

cognitive process which is due to the stroke I had when I was just a baby. That stroke also

caused epilepsy which is what caused my cognitive process problems.

My ability to understand and do in most parts was hard for me. I had to take a few breaks

to recover my mind and thought process. But going through the whole process, I drew out

the plans for my bird and really took time to think what pieces of things I wanted to use. I

had to take some time to decide what kind of glue I wanted to use. I decided to use a hot

glue gun. I had to wield some of the metal pieces to make the perfect size for the body

structure. I used metal tubes, blocks, nuts and bolts to make up the body which actually

worked really well. Previously, I thought about using a large metal brick. It sadly didn’t

work out well when I tried wielding it, so I tried another object.

When I was wielding the parts I did use, I cut off the parts that had the holes for the screws

and also cut the sharp edges that probably would’ve cut through skin given if anyone

picked it up. I used those parts I did cut off to create thicker parts so they could firmly keep

ahold of the smaller objects. I actually admire all of my work and ideas that I came up with.
The tube that I used as the neck was the hardest piece due to the length that I calculated

what it should be. For a known fact, tubes can easily catch fire and while cutting the tube, I

was very hesitant on proceeding with even cutting, so I actually had my brother help me

with that part since I didn’t want to cause a casualty. With that done, I continued on to

going about attaching the tube to the bag of metal parts. Since the bag is a net, I had to use

some metal clips and a lot of glue from a hot glue gun to permanently attach the tube to the

bag. I’ll admit that it took a few times to actually get it to finally stick but it did in the end.

The tennis ball I had found in my closet and was like ‘why not?’ so I grabbed a box of the

tennis balls and picked out a few. I originally decided that I’d use a few tennis balls in an

idea to use them to help create the legs and use two metal pointers for the leg limbs and

lastly use a cut fork as the feet and talons.

I knew that the fork would bend and flatten if I used that amount of pressure. Instead, I

went with something much simpler. I went with a metal plate as the base of the start as the

legs, the two metal pointers as the legs and the three points from the fork as the talons.

Her feathers are actually real feathers from birds. I always liked the various types of birds

and their coloring, therefore their feathers and every now and then I like to go walk in the

park and pick up some fallen feathers on the ground. There is a family of hawks living in

one of our trees in the backyard and every now and then they appear to either hunt for

birds and other small animals they can catch and eat what they can. Every now and then

they appear for a bird bath when our sprinklers are on and so that’s when I catch all of the

feathers.
All of that being said, I really enjoyed the project. It was challenging yet really fun. This

semester and in particular, this assignment taught me that art can be anything, be made out

of anything. Waste, scraps, and anything you wouldn’t think that could be a work of art or

turn into it.