Art 1010- Found Object Art Project

“Rex”
Tiara Workman
November 23, 2019
Using objects that were found I created a dinosaur. From the time I read about this assignment I

knew I was going to make a dinosaur because the more I learn about dinosaurs the more

fascinating they become. The hardest decision was deciding which dinosaur to recreate. I chose

to do a tyrannosaurus rex because they stand taller than most dinosaurs. I knew it needed to stand

tall and tyrannosaurus rexes are usually intimidating with large teeth and thick legs. For weeks I

collects many objects that could be used so that I had a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors to use

when constructing the final sculpture. Some of these objects were found by dumpsters, some I

found while travelling out of the state, and others were found while out on my daily run. I ended

up with a lot of objects- some big and some small- that I did not get to use.

When originally planning my sculpture, I started by researching dinosaurs and which ones would

be the most recognizable as abstract. I decided that I wanted a sculpture that was colorful to

appeal to viewers. I had a vision in my head of a dinosaur made from a lot of toys, bottle caps,

and other smaller objects. I wasn’t going to buy these objects and I wasn’t able to find enough to

make a dinosaur, so I had to reevaluate my plan. I decided to take is step by step and build to

dinosaur piece by piece.

This sculpture was a challenge from the start. I struggled with knowing what to make the legs out

of so that it could support the rest of the sculpture and balance. The first time constructing I tries

to use the men off of broken trophies; however, I could not find an adhesive that would keep

them together and they were not strong enough to support each other, let alone a body and head.
I couldn’t find anything else in my bag of found object that would suffice as legs, so I had to

keep looking. That’s when I found a large bag of plastic dinosaurs from my childhood in my

dad’s garage. I was sure that there were enough dinosaurs to make an entire dinosaur out of

them. I had this vision of a multicolored tyrannosaurus rex composed of little dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, that bag of dinosaurs went quick and I did not have enough to create a dinosaur

that stood 18 inches tall. I ended up back at square one.

After stating over for the third time, I was determined to get it right. I was able to salvage some

of the dinosaurs to make the legs. I tried to make the legs as detailed as I could with bends in the

knees and orange dinosaurs for the claws. I am very proud of the way the dinosaurs turned out

even though the pictures do not do them justice. These legs were strong and balanced well. For

the body I initially wanted to use two mason jars glued together that I found by the dumpster in

my apartment complex but they were too heavy and wouldn’t stay balance on the legs. For days,

I constantly thought about what I could use for the body. When I was at my dad’s house for

family dinner there were a pile of plastic bottles that were set to be recycled. I snagged a few and

thought they would be perfect for the body. I cut off the top where the bottle starts to narrow and

hot glued four of them together. They were light weight and worked great for the body except

now the dinosaur was really skinny. That’s when I found out that those bottles would support the

weight of the mason jars which in return would support the weight of the head.
I had a lot of fun with the head. I found a candle with a wire holder that I used for the head. At

the base a glued the base of a trophy to hold it upright. The eyes were two spoons glued together

with a bottle cap. For the sharp teeth I used the ends of two forks and some bolts. The lower jaw

is made out of the handles of the forks and spoons. The head is very unique and abstract It is the

heaviest part of the whole body and took some distributing of its weight on the bottles and mason

jars to get it stay connected.

The last part of the construction was the tail of the dinosaur. Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaurs have

very long tails. For sake of balance I had the tail on the ground rather than in the air. The main

part of the tail is what I believe is a broken funnel, I am actually not really sure what it is. The

end of the tail is a broken kitchen noodle scoop which adds a lot of texture to the tail. As a final

touch I used some small forks as the arms and added the broken trophy men to the dinosaur body

to make it look thicker and more proportionate from the back angle. I really love all the textures

and colors that came with this sculpture.

As a whole this assignment was very challenging because of the size and weight of my found

objects. I wanted to use a variety of objects rather than just 3 or 4 things that I found. I wanted to

challenge myself. Getting my dinosaur to balance was one of the hardest tasks for me to face and

overcome for days my dinosaur just laid on its side while I ignored the problem. When I finally

found a base, an old cutting board found under an old car, I was able to get it to balance on its

own. I was very frustrated when I had to start over for the third time but that was due to poor
planning in the beginning. I really enjoyed pushing my creativity and stepping outside of my

comfort zone to create a free-standing sculpture rather than a medium that I am comfortable

with. If I could re-do this assignment, I would change my medium and use food scraps to create a

biodegradable sculpture.