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If you’ve been to my last couple of shows last year, you’d have seen a few new creatures in the bestiary that are unlike anything I’ve done before.

Well so far I’ve done several and I’m enjoying the process of creating them. They are SCULPTED beasts!

Sculpture, mixed media assemblage, collage: using found objects, wood, metal, plastic, 2 part resin, balsa foam, finished with paint and pigments and attachments. Once I started thinking about it I realised a lot of my creatures would translate well. And I think subconsiously I had been intending to do this kind of thing as I’d been hoarding all kinds of junk over the years…chains, watch parts, bits of wood and rusted metal, beads, cords, tubes, wires and the list goes on. I already had some woodworking tools and a Dremel, and after a few more trips to Bunnings and the Hobby shop for some miniature tools and supplies I was ready.

I thought about full 3d but I didn’t want to make something that I couldn’t put on the wall. So I decided to go for a relief sculpture…and I had about a month to put it together to get it into my solo show Exoskeletons last July. A skullcopter but using a vulture skull…

The skull was plywood with a top layer of 2 part resin that I pushed a sponge into while it was wet to create a bumpy texture in parts. I made the tail and propeller stand out of plastic, I used a couple of actual propellers from a plastic helicopter kit, I made the metal stand out of pieces of piano wire that I soldered together and the rest is random bits of plastic and cord, wires and chains, watch parts and jump rings. The bottom ‘jaw’ is loose and held on with chains so it swings. And of course some gorgeous black feathers. Close ups:

They’re not huge, they’re each about 40cm across. Here’s a pic of them on the wall at my solo show:

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. There will be more sculpted beasts in the bestiary over the next few months!

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