Poetic Metamorphosis-Sculptures

Assignment:
Using only white copy paper (do not use card stock) make three paper sculptures. The three paper sculptures are to represent the setting discussed in The Metamorphosis and will be miniature.  The three sculptures are: a bed, a chest (or container, box, drawers, etc...)  and a bug.  The bed should contain the following elements: a mattress, a box spring, a bed frame that elevates it from the floor, a headboard and at least one pillow and one blanket.  The chest should be designed so that it can conceal the bug. This assignment uses limited materials and does not allow the use of tape or glue. Final solution should be stable and visually communicate your response to the readings.
 Materials:
White copy paper, ink set, brushes, scissors, Exacto knife, cut matt.

Truth be told, this assignment kicked my butt! For a week I cut and folded paper. It ripped, it crinkled, it broke, it was the wrong size. Anything you can think of, that's what happened. Here's a few pictures of my failed attempts. Any tree huggers beware, I'm pretty sure I cut down a forest with this one! 

 The bug was probably the easiest piece for me. It was definitely challenging, but the least challenging of the three pieces. When reading   The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka I couldn't get a clear picture of the bug. I just saw kind of an awkward shape with wings, little arms, and a stinger in the back. I rolled up a piece of paper, and tucked a small tab into a slit I made. Then i rolled some dampened paper to make the stinger and arms. I cut out small wings from dampened paper.

I used a grey sharpie to color the wings, arms, and stinger. I used a black sharpie and black drawing ink to color the body of the bug.

The next step was the chest or box. Although the story described a large and heavy chest I kept imagining a small box. I made this by drawing out squares and cutting them out and then putting the sides together with small tabs.

I used brown ink and brown sharpie to add color and texture to the box. I made the lid of the box a little big so it doesn't close all the way. This represents how the family wants to hide their bug turned kin but they still know he's there. Likewise, he tries to hide himself but wants to keep in touch with them in an indirect way.

The final and certainly most difficult of the pieces was the bed. I envisioned a simplistic bed with a wood frame. The story is kind of old, so I pictured something similar to the furniture my grandma has. I folded and ticked paper to make the bed frame and added a head board with more paper folded and stuffed with more paper. The box spring and mattress were made the same way as the bed frame.

I used brown ink for the bed frame and headboard. The mattress and box spring were colored with blue ink. The blanket and pillow were colored with green ink. The colors are bright because the bug made me think of a forest and nature and outdoorsy feelings. The blanket came out to be sort of tye dye looking which was unintentional but I decided to keep it because tye dye is like a transformation of colors. Just like how the story was about a transformation from human to bug.

Experimental Drawing