Anisha Chaudhary: Week 10 Serial Slice

Concept:

My serial slice is a statue of the Hindu God Ganesha. He is represented as a man with an elephant head and human body. Ganesha is represented in Indian art in a variety of ways. He is usually seen with a mouse at his side or an offering in his palm. He usually has a symbol on his forehead, this symbol varies depending from what region of India is depicting him. I like a lot of modern representations of Ganesha. They mostly try to capture his trunk and large belly. I didn't realize how many different depictions of Ganesha my family has in our house until I started this project. My favorite depiction is a small plastic version, where there is only his trunk, belly, ears, and a symbol on the forehead represented.
I decided to make this since many artists tend to make their own representation of Ganesha. I also wanted something I could use to decorate my home.

Modeling:
I did my best to use very basic geometry to represent Ganesha. I used two large spheres for his belly and chest, ellipses for the arms, legs, and feet, and curves for the ears and trunk. I like how I manipulated the trunk, by creating a pipe and then changing the size of it so it gradually gets smaller at the tip of the trunk.
I realized that this piece may be very bulky. Currently, I am working on laying it out on a 24" x 48" rectangle. I may have to use more than one sheet of wood. My piece is about 12" tall. I am also nervous about the floating pieces I have in the serial slice. I will have to follow what Professor Scott said about labeling, where I label chunks by having a layer as "01" and "01a" if they are at the same height. I chose to do a horizontal contour so that It would be easier for me to visualize.

Materials:
I am excited to actually get this laser cut, even though I know it will be difficult to piece together. There is not a hole for the Dowel presently, but before I layout my 24"x48" sheet, I will add them. I bought two panels of Cherry plywood offline from Home depot. After I have actually implemented and completed the set up of this project, I am thinking of ways I can add to the wood. I am thinking of adding moss to the wood, or maybe painting over the wood with a stain. I think it would be cool to wrap it in vines to make it look like a piece that belongs in nature. I will have to research how I can preserve this piece very well.

Before I submitted this piece for Laser cutting, I realized that I had a different thickness when I contoured compared to my plywood. I redid the layout so it looks like the layout below.

I made the piece about 7 inches tall in the end. It is a small and chubby Ganesh, and I love the way it turned out when putting it together. I did make a few manual mistakes when assembling this piece together. I did not plan out the trunk like Professor Scott had told me to, so there is a portion of the trunk that sticks out much more than the rest. I also mixed up some loose ear pieces. Luckily these pieces are symmetrical, but it does look odd in the way I placed them. Overall I'm very happy with the way my serial slicing came out and I think it looks beautiful with the type of wood that I got.