Dose # 58: PENCILS 4 – Maestre’s Prickly Art
Today, coloured pencils take a different role – a sculpture medium used to mimic organic shapes in nature.
Dose # 55-61- PENCILS
Dose #58: PENCILS 4- Jennifer Maestre’s Prickly Art
The Idea: using coloured pencils as a sculpture medium
Spotted at: jennifer maestre.com
Possibilities: Jennifer has demonstrated with her awe-inspiring prickly art that with the use of the peyote stitch, coloured pencils can be made to take any form
Jennifer Maestre
Cycad (2011) 14 x 12 x 12 in.
Jennifer Maestre
Cycad (2011) 14 x 12 x 12 in.
Top View
Jennifer’s inspiration: “My sculptures were originally inspired by the form and function of the sea urchin. The spines of the urchin, so dangerous yet beautiful, serve as an explicit warning against contact. The alluring texture of the spines draws the touch in spite of the possible consequences. The tension unveiled, we feel push and pull, desire and repulsion. The sections of pencils present aspects of sharp and smooth for two very different textural and aesthetic experiences. Paradox and surprise are integral in my choice of materials. Quantities of industrially manufactured objects are used to create flexible forms reminiscent of the organic shapes of animals and nature. Pencils are common objects, here, these anonymous objects become the structure. There is true a fragility to the sometimes brutal aspect of the sculptures, vulnerability that is belied by the fearsome texture.” -J.M. Read more
Artist Jennifer Maestre working on one of her coloured pencil sculptures
“I’m inspired by animals, plants, other art, Ernst Haeckel, Odilon Redon, mythology. In fact, it isn’t easy to specify particular sources of inspiration. Sometimes one sculpture will inspire the next, or maybe I’ll make a mistake, and that will send me off in a new direction.”-J.M. Read more
Watch this video and learn more about the creative process of artist Jennifer Maestre (born in Johannesburg, South Africa; based in
Massachusetts, USA)
Her creative process: “To make the pencil sculptures, I take hundreds of pencils, cut them into 1-inch sections, drill a hole in each section (to turn them into beads), sharpen them all and sew them together. The beading technique I rely on most is peyote stitch.” -J.M. Read more
See more of Jennifer Maestre’s art
So do…as Jennifer does – let one piece inspire the next and allow a mistake to send you off in a new direction.
DAILY DOSE OF ART 
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