Putting It All Together

A lot of work has gone into getting ready for both of Nicholas' thesis shows. The majority of the work in the Convention Center is what Nicholas spent the semester working on.

This is a picture of the glass pieces in the Convention Center all boxed up and ready for transport from Nicholas' studio.

The work in his Pawtucket show is mostly new work that he has been working on the past month or so. It all started on a sunny Wednesday when I plastered Nicholas' torso. I would like to insert here that I am not an artist, but I am becoming rather proficient at using plaster gauze.

The fun thing about Nicholas being the subject is that he can't move!
I felt the need to adequately document my handiwork on the underarm area, which incidentally, Nicholas should have shaved prior to being plastered. It would have made the mold removing process less painful.
After we had this plaster mold completed, Nicholas made a "negative" out of plastic. That way he could continue to make as many torsos of himself as he wanted without my help. When that was finished, he repaired some areas on the plastic negative torso that showed cracks from the plaster mold.
Next, Nicholas set to work making "positives" of the plastic torsos. The ultimate purpose was to make glass torsos. Now, when glass is hot, it is the consistency of honey, so it took a little trial and error to figure out the best way to make the positive torsos. I believe the final recipe was several layers of paper mache with two layers of plaster gauze on top. Once Nicholas blew glass into the mold, the paper mache burned off, but the plaster remained to help keep the shape of the torso as Nicholas shaped the glass piece.

This is Nicholas drying the paper mache layers.

This is Nicholas in the process of making torso molds in his studio.
Once the glass torsos were made, Nicholas had to contemplate how to display them in the gallery space.

He started by making miniature models of his ideas.

Then he put some of his ideas into practice with plywood using the plastic torso as a model.

He wanted the glass to be displayed at his torso height. He was blessed to have a furniture design graduate help him on Friday night for 13 hours or so to create the 3 stands he needed for his pieces. You'll have to wait on pictures of those.
In addition to making work for the Pawtucket (pronounced "Ptucket") show, he also had to decide how to display the work in the gallery space.

The first step was getting rid of the orange half walls!

Then there was some cleaning, a little lighting installation, work installation, and viola! You have a thesis show!