Sculptures of Spring '08

Emily Bzdyk

Project 4- Intention Statement

This piece explores my relationship with the places I have lived and the essence of time. I am graduating and leaving St. Mary’s, a place that has been my home for the past four years, and I am saying goodbye to the east coast and moving to California. The inspiration for this piece arose when I realized how these concepts of time and place and change can be related to a pebble. Because the California coast and the shores of the St. Mary’s river are covered in pebbles, I thought that a mosaic created from these materials would express my ideas about time, place and change.

A pebble is a piece of rock. It began from a larger unit such as a mountain. A chunk of the mountain broke off, and then broke again until it became a tiny piece of rock. Erosion of mountains is the result of the action of water. The water carried the pebble downward from where it started to a new place as it flowed. When the rock ends up in a body of water, such as the Pacific, or the St. Mary’s river, the water smoothes and changes the rock into a rounded form, which reflects the time it spent in the water.

While I chose the pebble for what it represents, I also designed the sculptural form to reflect the ideas of time, and the geological process of how the pebble came to be. The form of my sculpture is a rounded base with three nodules rising up. It resembles a fattened organic growing shape: a coral, or a rounded three-fingered hand. The nodes represent mountains or origins. The roundness reflects how a form is affected by time and changed like a pebble in the water. It is smooth and flowing. The pebbles have been placed on the form to create patterns and provide additional meaning. The movement created by the darker pebbles spirals down the nodes, which references time as it is often represented as a spiral. It also mimics water as it flows downward from a mountain.

The form is also about change. As I move from my home at St. Mary’s to California, time and movement change me as a person, but as long as I don’t resist the forces of change, I will metaphorically result in a pebble, as opposed to sand that was grinded by change. The pebbles from California appear at the top of the form, emerging from the pinnacles and flowing down. The rest of the pebbles are from the shores of the St. Mary’s river. Both places where I collected the pebbles were peaceful and calm to me, and going to the water and working with the pebbles was a very soothing activity.

The work that went into the sculpture reflects the overall meaning. I started with a cube of foam and cut off large chunks and then carved and abraded away the foam to reveal the rounded sculpture. The pebbles were carefully accumulated on the surface like they arrive at the foot of a mountain in a delta. I worked from the top down, mimicking the downward spirals and flows of the water and rock I am referencing. To grout the mosaic, I had to smooth and work the material into the crevices. Water also placed a large role as I smoothed and placed the grout with a sponge. The grouting also resulted in a smoothness that complements the entire piece.

I am pleased with the results of my work. The object I have created effectively achieved my goals to represent the changes of time on an object, or on a person. As something moves from one place to another it can achieve a graceful yet hardened surface that reflects its journey. This sculpture shows me that time and change can result in a beautifully organic form like a pebble that was once a jagged piece of quartz.