Transparency Man

By Jake Anderson
Dec. 4, 2022
 Transparency Man
By Jake Anderson
Dec. 4, 2022
When I first started this project, I knew I wanted to create a human looking sculpture. I didn’t know

what exactly it would look like yet, but I was set on a person. I first started looking for supplies at my job.

We have a ton of different recyclable items that are just thrown away, but I couldn’t really find anything.

For awhile I looked around in different places I went out and kept my sculpture in the back of my mind.

One night I was throwing a water bottle in the trash at my house, and the inspiration hit me. At this

point, I didn’t have an EXACT picture in my mind, I just wanted to make a cool dude out of stuff. I looked

a little more and found an empty chia seed container, a few more water bottles, a paper towel roll, and

an empty box of Q-tips. I laid my objects out on the table and started to piece things together. I cut the

Q-tip box in half, and hot glued the halves together to create a top hat. I then needed to make a person

for the hat. I saw the chia seeds container, and I thought it would make a good body. At this point I

realized that most of my found objects were clear plastic, so I decided to make the rest of the sculpture

out of see through / clear material. I decided to cut a few water bottles I found in half and use them as

the arms and legs. For the legs, I cut bigger halves long ways, and the arms were the smaller half cut

long ways as well. I folded the halves together to create a 3D look, and hot glued them into place. While

I was cutting the material, I realized that the guy would look pretty boring if he was just cut up plastic

you could see through. I decided to make a skeleton inside of him. I cut a paper towel roll into a rib cage,

and used the remaining cardboard to create leg and arm bones. I hot glued a straw from an old cup I

don’t use anymore to the inside of the rib cage for support. I then realized the cardboard rib cage

wouldn’t be supported inside the chia seed container. I went into my garage and found a long metal

screw. I then screwed it into the bottom of the chia seed container (the body) to create a solid post for

the rib cage to sit on. I hot glued the rib cage to the screw, and we were good to go. I then glued the

paper towel roll bones into the arms and legs and attached them to the body with more hot glue. I had a

body, legs, arms, a skeleton, and a hat. I needed a head. It took me awhile to figure it out for some

reason, but I cut another water bottle at the top and bottom. These two round pieces fit together to
 Transparency Man
By Jake Anderson
Dec. 4, 2022
make a circle, and it was the perfect head. I still thought something was missing at this point, and I

wanted to add something more. I finally decided to add a brain of some kind. I thought of looking for

something that looked like a brain, but I couldn’t find anything. Then a lightbulb popped into my head.

But literally, I used a lightbulb for my dude’s brain. I thought it was perfect because it goes along with

the” transparent” theme of my sculpture. I hot glued the lightbulb to the inside of the guy’s head and

added the head to the rest of the body. Of course, I needed to put the hat on top with more hot glue.

After looking at my person, I thought he looked a little naked. I decided to use the leftover water bottle

wrappers to make a pair of snazzy shorts. I also realized he didn’t have hands, so I glued the water bottle

caps on his arms for hands. After finishing my person, I realized he didn’t stand up on his own. I found an

old Tupperware container that’s not used as much and used it as a base for the figure to stand on.

Throughout the project, I was faced with some different challenges. From the very beginning, one of the

biggest problems was coming up with an idea. It was hard to imagine the finished product, and exactly

what I was going to create. After deciding on what to make, it was actually finding the objects that was a

challenge. I didn’t know exactly what would be useful, and what wouldn’t be. Another challenge was

getting the pieces to stick together. Some of the objects worked well with the hot glue, and some didn’t.

It was hard getting the legs and arms to stick to the body, and I had some trouble positioning the

skeleton inside of the body. I think I realized that for these projects, you just need to dive in headfirst

and see what comes out of it. When I saw the plastic water bottles, I could envision what they would be

used for. Once you have one idea, it’s easy to build off it and continue to find the next idea, and the

next, and so on. Once I had the arms, legs, and body, the rest of it came easy and it kind of took off. I

also learned that art can be created from pretty much anything. It was cool to see random trash from

around the house turn into something cool. I think I can use this experience in other areas of my life. I

think creating something like this helped me see that I can do and make some pretty cool things when I

put my mind to it. Another thing I learned and can take with me is how you can turn something bad, or
 Transparency Man
By Jake Anderson
Dec. 4, 2022
in this case a bunch of trash, into something good and creative. Life is all about learning to deal with the

bad things and making something good come from them.