Ian Nicastro
Masked
Prompt: The assignment was to create a piece using any material to show our response to Covid this year.
I wanted to represent the fact that we do not see a clear end to covid at the moment. I have been stuck in the feeling of constant ups and downs and it has reached a point where it feels like it will last forever. I wanted to create this mask that has been made of the part of the face that is hidden by our masks. I am always observing and drawing faces, so I miss being able to see the bottom of everyone’s faces. This fascination helped me to accurately sculpt the face without any sculpting experience. I used air drying clay and reinforced the thumb and pointer fingers as well as the top handle of the mask with twisted wire so that these pieces could be weight bearing. I then painted the piece and made a foam core base to balance it.