Here are 2 small scale sculptures that I finished a couple of weeks ago. The top one is a sculptural version of Tone Float and the bottom one is a sculptural version of Valis. Both were made using the negative perspective of the image as a point of reference. I was going to spray paint them all black like Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled and A Theory of Forms and Ideas but decided that the negative space and the reflection of light on the surface created a bland difference between plains and also visually distorted the inner corners, making them lighter. This was the same problem that I had with Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled but I was originally hoping to end up with distinctly different shading on the sides of the final image like A Theory of Forms and Ideas. The difference is in how light reflects off of the surfaces and I have a feeling that the light becomes trapped in the negative space, creating dark corners while at the same time reflecting off of the plain that makes up the corner, creating a lighter plain that then makes the space around it look even darker. To combat this I decided to paint the surfaces different shades of gray, making what I thought would be the side with the most light the lightest shade and the side most likely to be in the shadow the darkest gray. I experimented with doing this the opposite way but didn’t like the way it looked. Another problem was the sides of the 1/8″ basswood which I decided to paint a similar shade as the gray paper that I use to photograph on, hoping that the sides would somewhat fade into the background. The edges were painted with Golden #6 and the sculptures were painted with #5, #4, #3.5 and #2 and then coated with Golden UVLS Matte spray varnish.
I still need to make The Pleasure of Deceit and The Visible and Invisible into small scale sculptures as well but haven’t had the time.
