An intro to phobias and how this turned into a massive 6-foot sculpture

Samantha g -

Hello everyone and welcome to my Senior Project Blog! My name is Sam and throughout this journey, I look forward to sharing the ups and downs of my process as well as just how many instant noodles I will end up consuming. I hope that everything will go smoothly however, I highly doubt that, knowing just how unpredictable art can be.

Since I was 10 years old I have loved monsters, my mom thought I was crazy and my dad didn’t care. My first experience with a monster that really stuck with me was Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas movie. I was terrified of him and couldn’t sleep for a few days after watching the movie but at the same time I absolutely loved him as a concept and his design. As I got older my love for monsters grew and my moms worry grew with it as I would rant to her about how cool a monster was that I saw in a movie (specifically the monsters from John Carpenters 1982 version of The Thing. They are awesome by the way, cannot recommend the movie enough!). I’m already ranting so, I’m going to explain just what I will be creating. I will use nine separate phobias and combine them in order to make one massive sculpture out of monster clay.

While I’m trying to figure out just how I’m going to make this happen and not go insane in the membrane during the process, I’ll be working with Rachel J, who is a ceramics teacher, for the sculpting and technical aspects, as well as Cody B who is a Psychologist and Supervisor in order to understand everything about phobias. Both of them have amazing insight into their fields and have already kept me from going crazy in my garage. I am excited to work with them to bring my crazy, weird, and sometimes a little concerning ideas to life!

I couldn’t help myself and have already started working on the final product. My project is an independent creative project which means I am completely on my own timeline (may or may not be a good thing). I have already been working on it for two weeks, but worry not! I have documented my process and will catch all of you up in my later blog posts as well as explaining more of what my project is and what it entails, like the surprising amount of manual labor I have had to do.

The link below is my proposal packet that goes more in depth into multiple aspects of my project. If you want to read just how obsessed I am then clicking the link below is the right way to go!

Proposal packet

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Comments:

All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.

    Kei Sieben
    Hi Sam! I love your idea of making a sculpture, and I look forward to seeing your progress with it(or not, I have a lot of phobias, so we'll see how I can tolerate it 🤣) What is something you hope to learn as you do your project, whether it be about the art side or the phobia side of things? Thanks! - Kei
    February 21, 2025 at 4:51 pm - Reply
      samantha_g
      Hi Kei, so glad that you are following along! If you want I can give you a full list of all the phobias I will be dealing with? No pressure to keep following along if you see something that triggers your phobias, I totally understand! One of the things that I wish to learn on the phobia side of things is why people fear certain objects or concepts, and adding on that to the art side of things is how I can evoke that fear in people. Like people who might not even have a phobia in the first place. Basically this project is an excuse to scare people :).
      February 22, 2025 at 11:53 pm - Reply
    mason_t
    Hi Sam, this project looks super interesting, especially from the human perception side of things. Will you be recording people's reactions to the final piece at all to see if they have certain phobias? Thanks!
    February 22, 2025 at 11:19 am - Reply
      samantha_g
      Hi Mason, it's nice to see you following along and I hope you don't have any of the phobias I will be working with. I wasn't going to record peoples reactions and the thought never even crossed my mind, but now I totally want to record everyone's reactions if I can! I think that would be super fun, thank you for the amazing idea!
      February 22, 2025 at 11:57 pm - Reply
    Rachel J
    Nobody who knows you is worried about you finishing on your own timeline! You have so much passion and it is evident in your writing. You should show some of your AP projects that were studies for this monster!
    February 23, 2025 at 7:59 pm - Reply
      samantha_g
      Thanks for the vote of confidence, I really appreciate it (and definitely need it). I completely forgot about those, I'll definitely add those into my next post somehow!
      February 24, 2025 at 1:45 pm - Reply
    mae_b
    Hey Sam, your project sounds really impressive and visually appealing. I love the way you are combining art and psychology! I am curious - how are you deciding which phobias to include? Did you choose common phobias, or phobias conducive to the sculpture, a combination of the two approaches? Or maybe something else altogether! Thanks for sharing!
    February 24, 2025 at 12:02 pm - Reply
      samantha_g
      Hi Mae, I'm glad to see you following along in my madness! And the answer to that question is kind of all over the place. some of the phobias that I choose like arachnophobia(fear of spiders), ophidiophobia(fear of snakes), and trypanophobia(fear of injections) were chosen from a top 10 most common phobia list. While others I have taken inspiration from my projects in AP ceramics like trypophobia(fear of holes), entomophobia(fear of insects), and scopophobia(fear of being watched). Others like helminthophobia(fear of worms), masklophobia(fear of masks), and aquaphobia(fear of water) I thought would be a interesting to use because of the possibilities they have. I researched a lot of phobias and choose the ones that I thought would fit best into my sculpture and would allow me to be as creative in creating my monstrosity as possible. I hope this makes some sense cause who knows how my brain works :). Thanks for asking!
      February 24, 2025 at 2:01 pm - Reply
    eugene_j
    Hey Sam, this is a fantastic idea for a project. I think your list of phobias is exciting. Do you already have a rough idea of how these phobias will be formatted in your sculpture? For example, will it be like a mountain with all of these phobias all across and around it, or could it be human-like with all these things crawling and covering it (although this might be too difficult and at risk of collapsing)? This is less directly related, but have you heard about the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows? Not all are phobias; they are more abstract and can't be made physically, but I think they are still fascinating. Nonetheless, I am excited about your sculpture!
    February 25, 2025 at 11:29 am - Reply
      samantha_g
      Hi Eugene, I'm happy to see you following along. Like I have said before, I started two weeks early. Even before starting on the actual sculpture I created a sketch on my iPad showing all angels and what everything will look like. I will show all of my sketches in my next post, although they might be a little weird to look at without an explanation because they are packed full (I know what everything is supposed to be though (shocker)). I have thought about the possibility of it collapsing under the pressure and have taken precautions to hopefully not have that happen. I really hope that doesn't happen, I will cry. Anyway, I have not heard about the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows but I will definitely check it out. Thanks!
      February 25, 2025 at 1:57 pm - Reply
    Maleea_M
    Hello Sam, I’m both excited and absolutely terrified to see your finished project, so I have to salute you—and especially your family—for living with such an object designed to horrify! Are you sculpting any phobias that you personally struggle with or have in the past? Your project sounds like an incredible form of artistic therapy, definitely a solid backup career if you ever need one!
    February 25, 2025 at 9:19 pm - Reply
      samantha_g
      Hi Maleea, Thanks for following along and my brother keeps saying that once I put details on he is going to walk by it one night and it's going to scare him :)! Honestly I want it to scare him because he keeps sneaking up on me when I'm working :(. Anyway, I do have a fear of spiders but it's not a phobia. Phobias are fears that give people immense anxiety when interacting or even sometimes thinking about whatever causes it. For example, if I had arachnophobia I would not go into my garage. I know that there are spiders in my garage because I have seen them before and I would do everything in my power to avoid the spiders that make me feel that immense anxiety because no one wants to feel that, it's a terrible feeling. A lot of people don't know that there are different levels of fear and that not everything that we are scared of is a phobia. There is also a lot of misinformation about phobias too. A lot of the time when people have phobias that fear controls their life in a sense and even in more severe cases it could be crippling, which is why people with phobias seek help with things like exposure therapy in order to make their phobia less controlling. And I do agree that the arachnophobia side of my sculpture can be good artistic and exposure therapy for me to get even more comfortable with spiders, although I still don't like their faces. Thanks for asking!
      February 26, 2025 at 11:00 am - Reply
    CodyB
    Hey Sam, proposal packet and initial post is great! Sooooo looking forward to bringing your "Sometimes a little concerning ideas" to life :) Its been great to work with you thus far and appreciate all the work you've put into the project.
    February 27, 2025 at 3:56 pm - Reply
      Anonymous
      Thanks so much Cody! And I can already see the little concerning ideas, my family can too and I’m not so sure they like it. I’ve really liked working with you so far and am excited to continue in order to create my monstrosity :)!
      February 27, 2025 at 9:16 pm - Reply

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