Tag Archives: sculpture

Whale Shark on Fire

The local community center Xanadu is holding an “Art on Fire” fundraiser later this month. Art will be auctioned off, and whatever doesn’t sell will go up in flames. I didn’t have anything suitable on hand (unless the event hosts like the smell of burning plastic), but that’s remedied easily enough with a new project. 100% cardboard, which ought to burn up nicely. Link to the event: https://ibaartauction.afrogs.org/?fbclid=IwAR3toZulcbsjhhVuvwMq5Q7FnsSQbEvSJ-enaGa_–NRF7cf5PcSW7KARC4#/index

Had much more fun with this project than I thought I would. In total it took about 1 month to build during spare time, which is far shorter than the 4-9 months it took for each of the previous large paper fish projects. And the results came out better than expected. Might have to do more work with cardboard.

It’s 6ft (2m) long. Hot glue was used to hold the cardboard together, with paper packing tape to smooth out and define the surface.

Basic framing
Layering cardboard “skin”. This was the most time consuming part as each piece had to be custom fit.
Wooden ball for the eye. Strips of cardboard for eyelids taped down for smooth shape. Gills cut out of main skin, pulled out, and taped into position.
First paint job done with spray paint. Later brushwork used to make the pattern.

Within the Deep

Sailfish and bait ball. Collaboration with Billy Edney.

Shown at Illumibrate at JUMP, March 2019, and at the Art & Soul of the Magic Valley, April 2019.

Size: 10′ diameter
Materials: paper, steel wire, steel flat bar

At Illumibrate. Boise, Idaho
360° walk around
At the Art & Soul of the Magic Valley. Venue: Stay Well Health Foods, Twin Falls, Idaho
Structure made from steel wire. Paper scales then layered over top.
Making the sail fin. Steel wires pressed between two pieces of paper and glued down. Paper then carefully rubbed to bring out the ribbed pattern.
Small fish based on Spanish mackerel. Made from two pieces of paper sandwiched together. The cut along the gill slit allowed the head to be pulled down slightly and glued into position, Forcing the the body into a rounded 3-D shape.