Drip, Swing, Squish Tour; Part Three

During our last stop on the tour, we looked around the gallery to see what all the sculptures have in common.

All of these artworks are made of fabric and are stuffed with fiberfill, much like a pillow. 

Sterling Ruby has made many textile sculptures. He learned to sew when his mother gave him a sewing machine at the age of 13, and he began making clothes for himself. He often makes clothes for himself and his studio assistants from remnants, or leftover scraps, from his soft sculptures.

We had a lot of fun sharing what the different sculptures looked like. What do you think of when you see these artworks? Look below for a little insight from the sculpture titles.

Top to bottom: 

CANDLE (5136) and CANDLE (5448)
VAMPIRE 62
VAMPIRE FLAG (RWB)
Laying Figure
Soft Vortex 2 and Soft Vortex 3

2nd grade

2nd grade - vampire teeth!

3rd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

5th grade

Drip, Swing, Squish Tour; Part Two

We played at a game at our next stop. First, we looked quietly at this sculpture for a full minute.

SCALE by Sterling Ruby

Then we turned around. Without looking back at the artwork, students wrote down everything they could remember from the sculpture in one minute. After they shared their lists, we turned back around to see what we noticed and what we didn't.

2nd grade

2nd grade

2nd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

5th grade

Sterling Ruby made this sculpture with remnants from his studio: bits of cardboard he used to protect the floor when pouring urethane and painting, product packaging, a bucket, a baseball bat, circles cut from plywood, firearm handguards, metal, and yarn. These are items from Ruby's archives, things that the artist has collected and kept over many years. He often creates new works of art using these leftover items that are or have become meaningful to him over time.

This sculpture is titled SCALE. A scale uses balance to determine the weight of an object. How does this sculpture remind you of a scale? Does it look balanced? Why or why not?

We finished our stop with a couple of balancing activities. Some groups tried to balance a pencil on their finger. All groups transformed themselves into human scales, imagining what might happen if we added imaginary objects to one side (a boulder, a person, etc.) and what we would need to add to the opposite side to balance our scale.

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade