July 6
For this project, I found myself really drawn to the work of Shana Kohnstamm. Her soft sculptures, especially the ones using wire and wool stood out to me right away. She builds these organic forms that feel alive, even though they’re made from such simple materials. I also loved her solitary flower-like totems and the way her work feels both whimsical and grounded at the same time.
Around the same time, I had also just gotten a new lava lamp, and honestly, I couldn’t stop watching it. There’s something so hypnotic about the way the blobs of melted plasma move, how they rise and fall slowly, stretching and breaking apart in these smooth, rounded shapes. It’s peaceful, but also kind of mysterious and eye-catching. The colors in my lamp use bright pinks, oranges, purples, and yellows, which I have in my inventory and they also make a great color scheme. These colors are perfect for this kind of soft sculpture, and I realized I wanted to try and bring living and moving energy into my piece.
When I saw how Shana uses wire to shape and hold her forms, I immediately thought about making something that felt like a lava lamp, but abstract, something that captures the feeling, just not the look. That’s how I came up with the idea for this sculpture. The base starts with hard felt, representing something solid or heavy, maybe even the beginning of a transformation. As the shape moves upward, the felt gets looser and wispier, like it’s evaporating or changing form. At the very top, there’s another hard felt ball, which almost feels like the result of that journey, a new form that’s risen from the base and solidified again.
The wire spiraling around the piece holds everything together. It reminds me of the glass of a lava lamp, it doesn’t stop the movement, but it does contain it. I also thought it would be challenging to add another material such as wire to the piece. To me, this piece tells a little story of growth, movement, and transformation. It’s abstract, but personal. It feels like something that’s both grounded and reaching upward, something soft, strange, and alive.
ARTIST INSPIRATION: Shana Kohnstamm
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