Paige Hensley
MULTIMEDIA ARTIST PORTFOLIO
touch
acrylic on canvas
june 2022
koi
acrylic and marker on canvas
june 2021
daisies
acrylic and marker on canvas
june 2021
ghost dog
acrylic on canvas
june 2021
cool cat
acrylic on canvas
june 2021
Collaborative Soft Sculpture
Fabric, adhesive, cotton balls, and acrylic paint on 3x3 canvas drop cloth. 2022
This project was answering the prompt "What or where do you want to call home?". My idea for this project immediately was something in nature, a thing that I developed a newfound love for in the recent years. I wanted to incorporate found objects in this project somewhere, and inspiration from my professor led me to the concept of fabric manipulation to create texture and value. I chose to incorporate the "found object" element into this work by using thrifted clothes, so all of the fabric seen on this piece are clothes from a thrift store cut and molded into shape.
My concept was a tree line that stretches back towards the sky, so I utilized impasto painting for my first layer rather than fabric to demonstrate dimension. I then used darker or lighter color fabrics depending on where the tree I was creating was placed, to properly implement a darker or lighter value where necessary. I used the fabric manipulation to create the textures I desired for this project, and further used cotton balls underneath some of the fabrics to create more dimension and depth.
In terms of contrast, I wanted the viewer to see the sky line without it being distracting, so I omitted any clouds or distracting objects from the painted sky in order to conserve the element of depth I created with my layers of tree fabric. I also chose a number of different types of fabrics when creating these textures with the fabric manipulation to express disunity, as no one tree is the exact same. However, by using one fabric for many trees, I established unity as well.
Wire Prosthetic Project
Stainless steel wire, 2022, ~12"x3"
This piece is a wire sculpture made from 20-gauge galvanized steel wire. This wire is originally silver, and I kept the color in it's original state as best as possible. This wire was manipulated into the shape of a voluminous, round flower. I chose my prosthetic object to be similar to a vine or a bouquet of flowers, with the flowers such as the chrysanthemum or a dahlia as my inspiration behind it. I intended to utilize layering to create the majority of the space of my piece, by manipulating the wire together in the round to create multiple layers of foliage. Some of these flowers are made of 8-petal flowers, while some are 5 petal flowers. It is mainly a decorative piece, although surely other functions could be found as well. Included in my work is several layers of flower petals or leaves, twisted and manipulated around a circular base on the fingers and main wire spine. The elements of my piece, such as the rounded wire molded into the shape of a flower petal, contribute to the volume I attempted to create. Rather than using mesh wire for this, I chose spooled wire to utilize line to my advantage. I intentionally created this piece in a 3D manner in order to emphasize depth, most visible in the center of the piece. I also created smaller and larger flowers to include different proportions, with the similarly shaped flowers being used to create unity. While this piece may be confused for a jewelry piece, it is intended to act as though it is sprouting from the arm of the person wearing it. I believe the proper way to wear this piece is over two fingers and up the sleeve, and depending on the gesture of the person wearing it, it could appear to be floating above the person's hand. With this symbol of the flower growing on the wearer's hand, I am also attempting to represent the metaphor of change and maturation, a human rendition of a flower-studded vine growing from the skin.
Final Project
Air dry clay, acrylic paint, 2022, ~4"x2"x2"
This piece was an accumulation of circumstantial influence as well as things I felt were left unpracticed or unfulfilled by the other projects in this course. I wanted to create a clay sculpture as that is what I imagine when the word “sculpture” comes to mind, and I wanted to use this medium as an expressive outlet for emotional turmoil or personal struggles I was dealing with. So, with this project I did both. I worked with a medium I am quite unfamiliar with, which is air dry clay, and included further details with acrylic paint. I chose to use air dry clay specifically because it is prone to cracking, and I wanted the naturally occurring cracks in the clay to represent a “cracked psyche”, reflecting my personal struggles with my mental health. I did have to create the cracks and gashes myself after the drying process surprisingly did not present nearly any cracks, even though I attempted to encourage cracking by using excessive water, trying to speed drying with heat, placing the item in a way that each side was not equally exposed to air as the others, etc. This still worked in my benefit, as it allowed me to explore working with clay carving and clay tools. I also purposefully created this brain to be relatively life-sized, as it measures approximately the same size as my two fits put together, which is an estimated size of a human brain.
Inflatable Project
Plastic drop cloth, acrylic paint and mixing medium, packing tape, duct tape, electric fan. 2022. 40x60x10 inches
This object is a large scale laptop in an inflatable format, powered by an electric fan. It represents a tool that is frequently used among students, and is intended to be a reflection of the object as it actually is, true to life even in proportion. This is not a time sensitive work, but one day this object will be an outdated tool, as laptops eventually may cease to exist, replaced by a smaller, cheaper, faster tool for students (such as iPads). Both my partner Evan and I chose to create a simple form of a laptop, excluding unnecessary details to opt for a focus centered on the object itself, not what it displays or how it looks. We decided in order to convey our message clearly about the piece, that it would be best for us to create the laptop in its opened form, rather than the folded closed form. We also chose to add certain details, such as what appears on the screen, the symbol of the laptop, and the keyboard, by painting it onto the inflatable, again to preserve the original form of the object. The scale of the object is typical to a standard, square laptop. We intended on the focal point of the screen being the pitchfork symbol to center attention towards where a typical laptop user's eyes would be focused, and considering we are ASU students, the pitchfork felt like an appropriate choice of display. This is a symbol of our enrollment and student status, and represents the way in which our laptops are a hugely important tool to our education. We intentionally left the remainder of the laptop the original plastic color to create a sense of unity and eliminate any texture, as laptops are often texture-less to follow the guidelines of a sleek design. We also utilized the measurements of ~4x6x1 scaled up by 10 to implement space into the project, as this felt like an appropriately large size without being too large to comprehend up close. We did not choose to use colors, again to contribute to unity and create emphasis on the form rather than the details. We also chose dark colors to contrast against the light or clear color of the plastic to create a shift in value that is more visually pleasing than many similar values.
on the lake
acrylic on canvas
june 2021
ronnie
acrylic on canvas
june 2021
ouija
acrylic on canvas
june 2021
a kiss
acrylic on canvas
june 2021
mushrooms
acrylic on canvas
june 2021
thermal body
acrylic on canvas
june 2022
c h a n g e pt.1
suggestion bin
graphite on paper
december 2021
c h a n g e pt.2
tanlines
graphite on paper
december 2021
c h a n g e pt.3
in bloom
graphite on paper
december 2021
c h a n g e pt.4
chapters
graphite on paper
december 2021
c h a n g e pt.5
storage
graphite on paper
december 2021
c h a n g e pt.6
taller
graphite on paper
december 2021
