MAS962, Computers and Graphics Workshop

Project #2B, Box

Hugo Solís

September 28th, 2003

The morning, the night and the sunset

This hexagonal three inches cardboard box is a work that can be consider a study of leaves. Constrain to only three colors (green, yellow, and white), the box shows on each side the branch of a plant with some little leaves. Each side may have one of the three colors as background; the branch with the leaves is painted with the other two colors left. The branch is always of one color and the leaves are painted with two colors: the color’s branch as main color and the third color as secondary shadowing one. Each side of the box is surround with a thinly frame of the color of the secondary color of the leaves. With this color organization a total of six different combinations are obtained. These combinations are use to decorated not only the outside but also the inside and bottom of the box. The total decoration of the box gives to the piece an element of unity and self-contained expression, and allows us to position it in diversely ways. The box should never be completed close by its cover in order to be able to see it’s inside. However the cover should always stand on the box to give the idea of openness.

Because of the well-defined frame and the differences in background color, it is possible to consider each side of the box as one individual element or picture, each one with different characteristics. The distribution and organization between the inside pictures and the outsides ones is not casual. It was the idea of the author that the outside picture closer to the viewer was similar to the visible inside one.

The finished is not very controlled and not very subtle. There are many imperfections that could make us think in the hand of a beginner, a children or a hobbyist. The leaves are not well defined in form, and the gradation between the two colors is not always smooth. The plain use of the three colors does not help for creating deepness, movement, or shadows. Also, the acrylic texture gives us a plastic impression that does not correspond with the idea of brightness change and variation of light.

It was the author intention to use different combinations of color in order to create the impression of different times of the day and different kind of lights over the same kind of object. The background with green is the plant at night and it’s cold and silent, just the moonlight illuminates the plant. The background on white is the morning; you can feel the heat and listen the people talk and walk, the day is fresh and clear. The background on yellow is the plant at the sunset; you can feel the wind, you can see how the plant sees how she takes the bus … and go away.