Markmaking Final Piece

Okay, I don't think I've made even one post about my markmaking piece yet, so let's fix that!

So I'll start with the project's parameters: We are to create a non-representational markmaking piece based on the "Story Line" piece that we wrote. We're to create our piece in such a way that it extends at least 2 or so inches off of the wall upon which it hangs. Additionally, the piece must be in black and white, and the marks shouldn't be done with a pencil or other such traditional drawing tool.

So I had a cardboard box laying around from the old Larger Than Life cardboard project, and so I decided that I'd use that, because hey, why not?

So immediately I started to paint the outside white to try and get it looking nice and pristine, kind of exactly like this:

I thought that turned out okay. And then, I painted the inside completely black. Both of these processes took a fair amount of time, and like an idiot I used up multiple tubes of acrylic paint without watering them down or anything. DURR!

I also attached cabinet knobs to it. Immediately after I displayed it, I wished I had painted them black. But I didn't, so oh well. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So on the inside. My initial idea was to take my xacto knife, dip it in white paint, and slice it up, making a bunch of cuts. However, when I made the cuts inside of the box, there wasn't enough paint on the knife, which was too thin and sharp, so I ended up with cuts that didn't have any paint in them and so you couldn't even tell that they were there.

The solution? MAKE BIGGER CUTS! Specifically, I switched my tool to a screwdriver. This way, not only were the cuts much bigger and deeper, but they were more brutal and looked a lot more painful, too. In fact, I even cut some of them so deep that you could see them poking out on the otherwise smooth exterior of the outside of the box.

So that's how that ended up looking. Now I'm going to talk about the concept of the piece.

The story I wrote was about being destroyed and eaten up from the inside, so that's how my piece works. The way the lines are not just made on the piece, but actually cut deep into it illustrates that idea fairly well, I'd like to think. On a closer inspection of the surface of the box, you can just barely tell that there's evidence of cuts being on the inside, due to some of the cuts on the inside being so deep that they manifested on the surface. However, even if you don't look at the surface for long, finding the cuts is easy enough: there are convenient handles that you can grab onto and open it up to see inside, there won't be any resistance. I honestly feel, however, like this piece would've worked a little better as being for a different project. Like maybe a piece about myself! However, I also like it for this one.