Elephant

My original goal with this project was to construct an isometric table, place a plate on it, and draw a small, cute elephant in the center. I felt this would symbolize the creative process by visualizing the phrase that says we all have to "eat our elephants one bite at a time".

I've always known that I'm no good at drawing organic shapes. I simply cannot draw animals or people, but I wanted to try an elephant anyway. As I tried and tried to draw that blasted elephant, each concept and execution went down in flames. I tried realism, cubism, minimalism, and even a photo. Nothing worked. I tried and tried until I couldn't try any more. All along the way, I told my friends how ironic it was that I couldn't eat my own elephant and just draw the stupid thing.

The night before the project was due, I realized that this ironic story had wrapped itself around my piece. I decided to embrace this fact and submit "Elephant Table" in an "uncompleted" state.

To incorporate the multitude of failures, I added tally marks to the bottom left corner of the piece. Each tally mark represents a failed attempt at drawing the elephant. The scratched marks are reminiscent of inmates keeping track of the number of days they've been in prison. This metaphor effectively shows how trapped I felt by my own ineptitude.

The project is done.

There is no elephant on the table.

I ate my elephant and cleaned my plate in the process.

Full version here.