The Green Man (that never was)

This is the stage that my "green man" sculpture started at, and this is the way he has stayed. I had planned to develop him further, but in hindsight, I'm glad that I didn't. I love the effect he gives, exactly the way he is.

I began this module looking at colour and pattern in nature. -- Although, obviously, polystyrene is not natural, the porous, circular pattern that comes to light when internally lit, reminds me of many similar patterns that occur naturally.

Without the colour, I know that the polystyrene would look painfully artificial, and it would not have the same effect. 

Here, without colour, it almost looks like a concrete construction. Not the effect I was going for.

Although I had initially planned to create a lit sculpture, using the polystyrene head as a base. But the more I thought about covering the untouched surface, the less I wanted to.

I still feel that he is a good representation of the "green man", if you greet him with an open mind enough to interpret the green, porous surface as a natural one, rather than a false polystyrene one.

I have decided not to display the polystyrene head at all, and only to display the photograph. The magic of photography is that viewers that did not see my process, would have absolutely no idea what the head was made of, if they only saw this image.

Obviously, polystrene is not naturally green, which is very deceiving to the viewer, as the green filter over the torch makes it look very convincingly, naturally green.

I think that close up, the pores look similar to the surface of a leaf.

Polystyrene head

Close up photography of leaves.

In summary.

I did not finish the sculpture the way I intended to, but I think that in the end, less was more.

I think that adding any more to the sculpture would have dimmed the effect of the lighting, and would have taken away from the striking simplicity of the piece.