Magpie
Ceramic, Paint, 3D filament
This self-portrait is meant to embody the parts of me that I had given away over the years. In a way, the food service industry felt as if it was completely consuming me. This is the physical representation of that feeling in a humorous, silly fashion. This was a very process heavy project that involved many steps and mediums. The first iteration of my Magpie can be seen in the bottom left of the above image.
Achieving a full-scale Magpie consisted of taking the original STL. file and inverting it into a rectangle in 3D modeling software. My plan was to make a mold that I could push clay into. I then had to scale it to be life-size which could not fit onto the 3D printer beds I had access to. That required me to split the 3D rendered model into 8 pieces that I clamped together.
Magpie Mockup
The First Iteration
PLA Filament, Paint
The first part of this project was done fully in 3D filament. This was my first project using 3D design software for a digital fabrication class. The prompt was to make a self-portrait that captured your inner voice. Who are you on the inside and out? What is your personality, your true self? This ‘Magpie’ idea had been swirling around in my head for a few years.
My conceptual approach was to somehow visually represent the years that I have been in the service industry, the restaurant/bar world in particular. My life, relationships, community, and livelihood revolved around my serving or bartending jobs for many years. This was the way I was able to slowly put myself through art school. It was a lifestyle that I enjoyed for a very long time until I realized it was no longer serving me. When I dropped out of college I found my way into fine dining, which was absolutely not who I was as a person, but I left that job with a few new friends. During that time, a friend and fellow server gave me the nickname ‘Magpie’ which I liked. That was the inspiration for this project.
The steps to making the real life sized magpie was multifaceted.
