The Pielk

So I have created the Pielk. It is the combination of a Pig(head/tail) and an Elk(body/antlers). So, I have a huge thing about body-positivity. The amount of photoshopped models is astounding, and little kids are feeling like they don’t look good enough to be considered worthy. The Pielk hopefully solves that. I tried to focus on working with the materials, so I originally wanted to just build a base structure then cover it in some sort of material that mimicked fur. But then, since I am working with an idea that deals with inner beauty, I decided to go with a material that allowed you to see the inner workings of the animal. Same thing happened with the face. I originally was going to cover it in some sort of pink material to emphasize the ‘piggy-ness’ but liked the idea of a shiny face. This worked out with its superpowers because I first wanted the antlers to be reflective, since I was set on it reflecting back an image of you that emphasizes your good characteristics when you look into it. But I was having trouble making shiny antlers and fell in love with using leaves as antlers, because ultimately, I wanted to give it a very naturalistic and elegant feel. So, i made the face very reflective which I ended up liking better, since it was the part of the animal that was the ‘ugliest’ but was also the source of the ‘prettiest’ aspect since that was where the superpower was held. Also, the antlers gave you freckles wherever you were touched with them. (because freckles are cute as heckie I will fight you on this)

I tried to emphasize the idea that the pig can sniff out the sort of body-negativity since a pig can sniff out truffles with its large nostrils, and mesh that with the stealth and elegance of an elk. I liked this mix mostly because it was the idea of the ‘ugliest’ and ‘prettiest’ animals coming together to solve a problem that deals with ideas of beauty. Long story short, I’m extremely happy with this outcome.

Allow me to introduce Zi Wen by 欣瑶(Xin Yao). I am in love with this animal. She created the Zi Wen in order to help cure terminal illnesses like Cancer. She mentioned that this was a very important issue to her because someone in her family has cancer. The Zi Wen is a mix of an eagle and a turtle. In China, the turtle is a symbol of immortality. In ancient times, the god of Egyptian art is an eagle as well as in america it is a sign of strength. Its superpower is the ability to adapt to any situation, immortality, and can cure illnesses. She tied in the adaptability to being able to travel to different lands and be completely fine living there as well as humans who are ill can adapt to hospitals and different tests more comfortably. Also its sound is ‘fu fu fu’.

But can we just take a minute and look at this animal? Its so clear that she spent a lot of time on it. Not only the wings, but he intricacy of the face shows that every piece put on was very precisely put. The flower in its grip is that extra flair that lets us know that it promotes peace or health.

This project has been my favorite so far. Not only because I love making things with my hands since I’m pretty much the DIY queen, but because I never thought of ‘working with materials’ before. When professor Ruby first told us to let the materials lead you I thought it was just a sort of spiritual mumbo jumbo. But hark! It works very literally! Building in 3D is very scary when you first approach it, especially for me because my first thought is structure, but sometimes you will have a solid idea of structure, then things to go over the structure, and then you find a lightbulb that fits perfectly with the skeleton in front of you so you throw the purple fur away and take it in a new direction. I loved how well this worked with my idea as I fleshed it out by looking at the different materials. And doing critiques as a group definitely proved that point. I didn’t even notice the fact that the antlers seem to glow because of their amber color, adding to the ethereal affect, or that the eyes of the pig are very small which supports the idea of inner beauty versus outer.

So yeah, I got to find a place to display this thing in my room.