Justin Ambrose's Amazing Portfolio by Justin Ambrose https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin Made with the best of intentions en-us 2021-09-03 16:38:13 UTC 2025-10-31 11:01:29 UTC hello@padlet.com justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1749225043 2021-09-17 17:01:47 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1749225043 Significance Statement justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928041255 With my wall relief, I wanted to create something that I could relate to and something that has been a personal struggle for most of my life. I've always felt as if I never used my full potential when doing things such as school; as if I was being constrained from trying my absolute hardest. I felt like I lacked all motivation to focus on things like school and I would typically get distracted whenever I try to do simple things such as homework assignments. I hardly ever turned in assignments on time, and when I did I typically did them with little to no effort. The chains wrapped around the brain in my structure resemble this struggle. Although I found it difficult to gain even a little bit of motivation to do well in school for a majority of my life, the past few years I have made significant progress in my ability to put in more effort. After I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago, I started to realize that there wasn't something wrong with me, but I just wasn't getting the proper treatment I needed to be successful. This realization in itself made me understand that I have to put in more effort than most people to try to stay motivated and there is nothing I can do about it; nor is it necessarily a negative thing that I should be ashamed of. I consider this to be a turning point in my life and although I still feel restrained at times, I feel like I'm evolving as an individual and slowly improving every day. I decided to show this in my sculpture by making it seem as if my brain is emerging out of the ground, with the chains still attached because I have yet to completely find total contentment, but I know it's definitely achievable in the future as I continue to do self-reflection and get answers.]]> 2021-12-03 19:32:04 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928041255 I started my project by creating the base of the sculpture. I did this by cutting and shaping slabs of clay to desired lengths as supports and then attaching them to the base of the sculpture itself. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928154687 2021-12-03 21:06:38 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928154687 justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928155040 2021-12-03 21:07:01 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928155040 After it was assembled and strong, I smoothed out the edges with a wet sponge to prevent pieces breaking off and chipping at a later stage. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928157196 2021-12-03 21:09:11 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928157196 At the end of the project, I decided it would be a good idea to make it seem like my brain was emerging from a hole because I thought it would fit the theme nicely and add detail to my base. I started this process by making two large circles of clay then stacking them on each other. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928160311 2021-12-03 21:12:17 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928160311 Then, I smoothed out the circles to start to shape the hole into a more finished look. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928161507 2021-12-03 21:13:29 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928161507 I added two clay balls to the each side of the hole in order to increase the size of the slope to fit the entire base. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928162596 2021-12-03 21:14:40 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928162596 After a lot of smoothing out with a wet sponge, and carving out the inside edges of the hole so the clay could fully cook, I was satisfied with the finished look. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928164979 2021-12-03 21:16:54 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928164979 The brain was challenging to make and required a lot of time and effort. I started off with practicing rolling out very thin strings of clay. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928167771 2021-12-03 21:19:54 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928167771 I then took the strings and coiled them up onto a ball I made into a brain shape. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928169073 2021-12-03 21:21:15 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928169073 Once I finished one half, I began working on the second half. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928169687 2021-12-03 21:21:56 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928169687 After a while I got the hang of making the coils and they looked really nice on the final result. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928170632 2021-12-03 21:23:03 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928170632 Creating the chains was most definitely the most challenging and tedious part of the entire project. It took a lot of trial and error just to make one link and they often fell apart right after I made them just because they were so small. I rolled out even smaller strings of clay and evenly divided them to make chain links. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928172634 2021-12-03 21:25:17 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928172634 My strategy was to make the links, let them dry out a bit so they weren't as tender and easy to break, and then I made more links to connect them once they were the desired texture. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928174131 2021-12-03 21:26:54 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928174131 justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928175289 2021-12-03 21:28:14 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928175289 Once they were long enough, I carved where I wanted the chains to rest onto the brain justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928177310 2021-12-03 21:30:24 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928177310 Then after slipping and scoring the insides of the carvings, I attached the chains to the brain. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928179772 Unfortunately, there were multiple instances where the chains would entirely fall apart once I attached them to the brain which made me have to start over and I lost multiple weeks of progress because of this. ]]> 2021-12-03 21:33:09 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928179772 Thankfully after a lot of long setbacks, I was able to successfully attach the chains to the brain without them completely crumbling a day later. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928181112 2021-12-03 21:34:42 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928181112 Once I finished the brain and them the base I tried to see if the brain itself would fit in the hole and it did after I stretched the edges of the hole a bit. My plan was to slip and score both the brain and the base and then press down the edges of the base so the brain fit snug into the hole. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928183397 2021-12-03 21:37:19 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928183397 justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928183934 2021-12-03 21:37:53 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928183934 justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928185050 Slipping and scoring the bottom of the brain (and as you can see I also carved out the inside of the brain because the ball itself was too thick to get fully cooked)]]> 2021-12-03 21:39:09 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928185050 Once the brain was secured onto the base, I finally pushed in the edges of the base for a tighter fit around the brain, and after that I was completely done with the project. justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928186274 2021-12-03 21:40:42 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928186274 justin11238 https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928186794 It was a lot of work but I was really satisfied with the result. In all honestly I never expected myself to finish this project and I considered giving up multiple times but then I realized that if I were to give up then that would completely contradict the theme of the project, so I really pushed myself into completing it.]]> 2021-12-03 21:41:13 UTC https://padlet.com/justin11238/AmbroseJustin/wish/1928186794