maandag 4 maart 2013

Another cartoon influence: Transformers


The influence of this cartoon creeped into my work very slowly. Other people noticed it in the more robotic characters I started creating like 'Cungo', a cyborg Orangutan. 




I watched this cartoon every weekend in the morning for a few years and it is the only real ‘good-against-evil’ cartoon that inspires me. When I was young I thought it was massively cool to think that ordinarily cars could transform into amazing robots. The concept of something that looks normal but has a hidden power in them has always fascinated me. I love it when an athlete shows character and takes home an impossible victory. Besides, I love squared shapes and mechanical parts in sculptures. I lost interest in the cartoon once they started to add insects and Dinosaurs; this change was far to random. 

I have made a transformer out of a lasagna box before I started making sculptures, I wrote a short post about it earlier on my blog:



However I would prefer to make on out of more solid material. I failed to make one that can transform made from clay. It was the same concept as the lasagne box one, but instead it being able to transform out of a box, it should have transformed out of a skull. I eventually used parts of it to create a static sculpture called ‘More Than Meets the Eye’:


This sculpture is based on the characters Cliffjumper and Ratchet. I hope I'll find the courage to try again, but it is very complicated to pick a skull and find place in it to fill with the body, arms, legs and head AND find the right joints to transform it. Oh, yeah, and it still has to look cool! If someone wants to commission a sculpture like that, I would charge a lot less of my time!

donderdag 28 februari 2013

The Ren and Stimpy Show


The Ren and Stimpy show

I have written something about cartoons like, Spongebob Squarepants and Roadrunner. In this post I focus on The Ren and Stimpy Show:

Again two flawed characters in a classic combination; one thinks he is very smart and the other is actually less smart, but smart enough to question the other. I found it absolutely amazing how they have used disgusting stuff in a cartoon! This cartoon does what I in my own way try to do myself; combining a cartoon style to show things that are generally seen as disgusting, but the difference is I want to make something more approachable that often isn’t and The Ren and Stimpy Show tries to make something less approachable.

One of the best examples of my work where I try to make disgusting stuff more approachable is, again, this Wile E Coyote work that includes a piece of real rabbit road kill.


donderdag 21 februari 2013

The Smurfs



Speaking of cartoons. I have recently created a very small installation in the street, Northern Quarter Manchester, with the use of two characters of this cartoon: Gargamel and Brainy Smurf.
These two characters are now fighting for the same cause; getting rubbish of the street. Those who have followed me closely may have noticed that I have taken pictures in the street at a spot where there is a beer bottle in the background. This bottle has now been there for more than a year and decided to symbolically do something about it. So I created a Gargamel from an old toy and other rubbish that is trying to pull away the beer bottle while Brainy Smurf is pointing to it.

It is actually a trap that hopefully will get rid of the bottle eventually!



woensdag 20 februari 2013

Roadrunner inspiration

The previous post I wrote about cartoons inspiring my work. This time I want to devote a post to just one cartoon: Roadrunner. I have made a GoGo bird based on the extinct Dodo and Roadrunner: http://www.imsobo.com/gogo.html



But I actually like Wile E Coyote as a character even more! I have made a 2D sculpture of him made from real roadkill:
http://www.imsobo.com/2d.html



So why do I like Wile E Coyote?

Wile E Coyote has a lot more depth and character than Roadrunner. Important for me, as is for me in people, he is not arrogant. The funny bit hides in his constant overestimation of his intellect, but also some impossible bad luck. The character has also one of the best life lessons. Did you know he ones caught Roadrunner? He didn’t know what to do. If you reach a goal, you either move on to another or your life stops. Wile E Coyote is perfect proof of life being about the journey and not where you are heading.

I can mention, I am currently working on a new quite big sculpture based on this character. More to follow!