Childhood Methodology

For my project, I realized I am not in my normal home since I am visiting my grandparents in Utah. My grandparent’s home doesn’t have anything extra to make this project. With the meticulous placement of art, nothing on counters or tables, and spotless from the top to bottom. I pondered what I could take to make a project of found objects. 

I went on a walk down the main street of my town, looking for inspiration. 

I saw unconventional materials being used to create patterns, color, and texture. I was amazed by the art I saw and inspired by the use of material. 

Walking around my grandparent’s home, I was unsure about what I could make with the limited resources available to me. I felt like there wasn’t anything I could take and rework, nothing that wouldn’t be missed. 

I wandered upstairs, unknowing of my plan. Maybe I would use plant clippings? Food? Trash? I was unsure of my next steps. 

I was inspired by the installation-type work of Sarah Sze. I loved how her works were kinda the whole room, and not everything needed to be bound together to be called a sculpture. I loved how her work was about the meaning of things and the relationships that the objects had with each other. Her works reminded me of creations I made when I was younger, making cities and installations with the toys in my classrooms and homes. 

I was immediately reminded that my grandparents had these childhood toys that I used to make installations out of! I ran upstairs to find wooden trains, connective plastic, and stuffed animals that I had forgotten existed. 

I looked at the toys and decided, using them, I would create a similar installation-based sculpture from my youth, but this time with the artistic knowledge of movement, color, and composition that I have now. I felt the rubbery rabbits, the moving cold wheels of the wooden train, and felt the connection between the connecting plastic. I played with adding in books, drums, dice, and anything that I remembered had meaning to me. I remembered my childhood blanket, which I closed my eyes on and smelled the smell of falling asleep in the cozy blue blanket on winter nights. I decided that I would use this blanket as the canvas of my work.

At first, I didn’t know where to start. When I let myself fall into the childhood mindset, I was able to start building stories within my work. I remembered toys and the relationships they had with each other, placing and moving everything until it looked just right. I thought about pattern, color, dimension while respecting the child in my brain. 

I am very pleased with how my final work turned out and I think my inner child would be too. Using the methodology of my youth, I was able to elevate and create a piece filled with childhood nostalgia.