Standing in the Shoes - Justin Coleman

For my Standing in the Shoes project I was supposed to be mimicking Michelangelo. He was a great artist who worked by carving and shaping marble into majestic pieces of art. When you view some of his work it is impressive, but you give no thought to how hard it was to accomplish his feats. This project helped put things into perspective. I was merely supposed to carve something out of soap. How hard could that be? Being a typography fanatic, I chose to carve a word into my bar(s) of soap. This was an extremely difficult and tedious task. I used numerous tools including a large pocket knife, a smaller butter knife, a toothpick and staples to clear out the wholes of my letters. I ruined numerous pieces of soap because I was carving them too thin and breaking them in my hands. Once I did get something that resembled the word ‘hope’ I was extremely proud. And I have now gained a much greater respect for Michelangelo because carving soap and marble have no comparison. He truly was a master.