Saturday, October 7, 2023

The Heart of The Tree

The Heart of The Wood


Working with Wood

There is something to be said about the woods—all of the nature surrounding us, our history, and our ancestors. It’s in our DNA, part of you and me. Innately, we cannot escape it, yet we are always amazed when it shows us how rooted we are on Earth. When we are young, the nature we experience is magical; it takes us away to a lovely melting pot of grounded imagination. We run and hide as the trees cover us in safety, light, and love. My soul has never forgotten what it was like to be here. To be surrounded by the trees, enraptured by their magic. These memories have left a warm glow within my heart. I was immediately transported to my childhood memories when we were given wood as the material for this project. In 1951, my grandfather returned from Germany, met my grandmother, and bought 30 acres. This purchase of 30 acres would change many lives, mine included. My mother is one of eight children, and before I was born, I’d like to think my soul circled this land as it waited for me to land firmly on its pine-covered ground. 

Many blessings and beautiful moments came from this. My grandparents grew crops, provided for their family, and, most importantly, built a home from the ground up with the wood harvested on this land. The home they built was one in which I, too, experienced many beautiful moments. Running barefoot, lost in the woods, finding a newly hatched bird in the first light of spring, this was life itself to me. I was blessed enough to experience this beautiful piece of land until January 2023, when they sold 25 acres. I was heartbroken and felt as though a part of me was missing. So, when this project was presented to me, I went straight to my grandparents and asked for some scrap wood to put together a memento. They let me take a side panel from a pine tree left to rot in the barn. It was covered in dirt and had been lying around for god knows how long. The tip of this panel has a beautiful heartwood that could be seen after some brief sanding. The sapwood surrounding it was significantly lighter than the heartwood, leading me to believe there was a hard internal center that would be visible with more sanding. Carpenter ants and termites ate the outside as they built a home here, making it to the Vascular Cambium as their tunnels and caves were visible to the naked eye. The outside cork was nonexistent as it had been weathered from the years, but this was all sanded down as I focused solely on the Heartwood of this piece. The heart of the wood, the core and center of previous generations, came to light as I focused on peeling away the weathered, torn, and rotten layers. This revealed a beautiful center stuck in time, dried in sap, and smoothed with my hands. This encaptured me. The heartwood color, the smell, and the bright amber shined through when held up to the light. This is what I like to think my family is like, what every human is like. We have an outside that gets weathered and worn from life, but a beautiful natural light is in the center of us all. Whether we want to put in the work to chip away at all of the rotten edges that protect our beautiful center is our own choice. We are all connected in this way, and in this, we cannot hide.  My piece looks similar to an embryo, nebula, or pulsing heartbeat, all of this subconscious yet intentional. This piece represents the center of life forming and touches on our interconnectedness, bringing me to the existential question: what came first? How did we start? Where do we go? And with this sculpture, I push others to question themselves deeply. In the center of it all, where do you find yourself, your light, your warmth?

Thursday, December 1, 2022

Cabinet of Curiosity

 



Cabinet of Curiosity

Abigail Lanza 
22" x 14" x 8" 

Foam board, wood, glass, air-dry clay, thread, fabric

My Cabinet is based on The Habsburg family’s legacy, specifically, Prince Rudolf of Habsburg. Prince Rudolf of Habsburg would later start collecting arts and artifacts in his cabinet of curiosities like Kunstkammer, and Wunderkammer. Fewer pieces of furniture and more metaphysical manifestos. These pieces I have made here are based on Diana and Actaeon by Bartholomäus Spranger and El Greco's Burial of the Count Orgaz, collected by Price Rudolf of Habsburg. The wooden-like structure is a piece based off of Burial of the Count Orgaz. In this painting, El Greco painted himself in the painting as he looks into the sky his eyes swelled with tears as if he was looking to be saved. The fluid anatomical figure is made out of air-dry clay and resembles the figures drawn in Diana and Actaeon. Along with this painting, Prince Rudolf collected the Paracelsian Zenexton, an amulet enclosed in a bejeweled gold case that contained a cake made of toads, menstrual blood, white arsenic, orpiment, dittany, roots, pearls, coral, and Eastern emeralds, according to the best physicians was the recipe for the plague it's the antidote and the cure. The shards of red and green glass on this figure represent the menstrual blood and other ingredients kept in this momento. The top of the cabinet was cut and made to look crown-like along with the adorning glass to represent his royal status.












In Process photos: 


Momento

 


Momento 

Abigail Lanza
Wood, Coconut Husk, Metallic paint 
2.5" x 2.5" 
 
This piece is based on a memory of my grandfather and I sharing coconut for the first time. We were outside on our outdoor swing. I was so small sitting next to him, he leans over with his pocket knife and asked if I wanted to try coconut meat. Me being five years old at the time, thought he was insane coconuts aren't supposed to have meat, they're fruit! He laughed so hard at my expressions and after some convincing he chucked off a piece of meat and I chewed on the coconut as we continued to swing. It seems like this memory could go on forever and I'd like to think this memory will always be how I see myself and my grandfather. The taller piece of coconut husk represents him and the smaller one represents me, utilizing size to show the significance I felt as a small child. The wood sphere is the shape of a coconut and the metallic paint represents his pocket knife. 




In Process photos: 









Figurative Bust

 









Abigail Lanza 

Generational Responsibility 
Air-dry clay, wood, acrylic, ink
18" x 12" x 6"

These sculptures represent the choice of healing generational traumas. Showing the effects on each person there is a transition within each figure. The first sculpture towers over the next with a broken heart and a dark black inked body. Its furrowed bow represents the worries and hurt passed down through generations. The next figure has a lighter gray color and a look of care as the last figure is shown as a whole being. This represents a person who moves through adversity and shines bright no matter the circumstance of those before them. 



Abigail Lanza 

Her name is Olivia 
Air-dry clay, ink, acrylic, pastel 
26" x 4" x 4"

I have intentionally created a figurative bust of my younger sister to shed light on the racism she experienced within our interracial family. Growing up it was common for us to get comments like "Who is your friend?" or "Is she adopted?" and this summer we finally broke the ice on this topic. She commented on how she was treated differently because her sisters and mother are white and after the revival of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 there seemed to be an air of concern AND relief. Black Lives Matter started in 2013 when a young black teen, Trayvon Martin, was murdered in Sanford, FL. This hashtag would later cause shifts within the community and make its way to light once more in 2020 with George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor's murder. BLM was a huge movement that shifted the dynamic of safety for her immensely. Our hometown is Lake Mary, FL just 20 minutes away from Sanford, and we witnessed firsthand the distress around the community during this time. Here I have made the base a tall wooden block, two sides have the names of unarmed black Americans who were murdered between 2020-2021. The opposing sides have the black power fist as a symbol of her strength. I have also incorporated the colors yellow and green for Jamaica's flag. The figure has a look of contentment, or pride as she stands strong with her shoulders back. 

I vividly remember the day my sister told me she was going to protest in Orlando, FL. I panicked, crying on the phone I told her to be careful, to call if she needed me, and said everything a sister would to make sure she knew what she was getting into. It truly was an unruly time to be a young black person in America protesting for rights. I was so proud of her for getting out there, exercising this, and showing others that she would stand strong against the oppression of black Americans. The one thing I didn't do was tell her not to. The BLM marches will be remembered in history and my sister will get the chance to say that she was walking the streets protesting her rights alongside thousands of others, shouting, praying, and chanting for a change. My heart aches for those who lost their loved ones, friends, etc, and the thought of losing someone like my sister to this day still haunts me. 

Below I have added a couple of pictures of my sister and me.








Research



In this Yale News article Britta Belli spoke on the racial disparities within the last 5 years. An analysis of 4,653 fatal police shootings, it showed black people were killed at three times the rate of white people. This is not a "might be" chance these are statistics from previous police shootings that have already happened. "Those killed by police on average are young people — the average age for all victims is 34,”. She goes on to add that these shootings add 1.7 poor mental health days per black person which is an additional 5.5 million poor mental health days for Black Americans annually. "Ultimately, the researchers said, their findings indicate that systemic changes are needed." 


Black Lives Matter

The Encyclopedia Brittanica describes how Black Lives Matter came together starting with the incident of Travon Martin in 2013. Travon Martin was an unarmed black teen who was fatally shot in Sanford, FL in 2012. Black Lives Matter was a hashtag made for social media in support of Anti-black violence, especially police brutality. As this movement and hashtag have come a long way billions have shown support. Their mission is to draw attention to the treatment of black Americans, fight racism, and combat police brutality. 




Below I have added the Black Lives Matter website. There are plenty of resources here for anybody looking for support, events, and news! This is a great resource to learn about where this started and how we can continue to fight for the rights of Black people everywhere. 





Experimental Sculpture

 


Experimental Sculpture
Left, 12" x 7.5", middle, 13.5" x 12", Right, 7.5" 4.5" 













In process photo:



Water Fountain Replica Photos

 















The Heart of The Tree

The Heart of The Wood Working with Wood There is something to be said about the woods—all of the nature surrounding us, our history, and o...