Sunday With The Superheroes


Confession time. Everything I know about anatomy, I learned from comic books. I... am a geek.

And there is no comic book character I love more then Batman.
Superman is decent, hardworking, true and nigh on omnipotent. The Flash is the product of a freak accident. Tony Stark is the kind of guy you'd love to party with, but you can't see him looking at a kid who's just had his parents gunned down and saying "Come with me. I'll take care of you." Batman's just a guy in a costume who gets up and does a million crunches and a thousand pushups, who made himself smarter and faster and more determined than the other
guy.


And how does he make his impression? As a bat. Have you ever actually seen a bat? They're not scary! They're tiny, fragile, meek creatures with hollow bones and wings as thin as paper, very gentle. But somehow, he pulls it off, creating this terrifying silhouette. The cape that makes that intimidating shape can also wrap someone up and protect them from harm. He's been interpreted dozens of ways over the years, from gun-toting vigilante to good natured big brother with an unlimited budget for props to obsessed loner with a back up plan to take down everyone, even Superman, if it comes to that.

Ultimately, Batman rules because everything he does comes down to a choice. Granted, the choice is a little nuts. If you had all the money in the world, would you spend your nights wired on RedBull, dressed up like Dracula, and beating up bad guys? But he does it all so that maybe he can save some stranger from feeling the pain he's felt ever since he was a little kid. Tragic, yet admirable.

I did this piece shortly after the first Tim Burton film came out. You can see the influence in the way the cape is built, with rods in the tips to make it spread out further. Very theatrical. It's an old piece and falling apart. I sculpted it in color, because I didn't know anything about painting yet. The legs are too thick, the torso too short. I'd like to think my work has gotten better. But this is one of the first things I ever made and I still think it's pretty cool.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Staff Infection!

Image
A couple of weeks ago, my  friend Carol Davies called me up and asked me if I'd be willing to create a prop for the Edmonds School District musical. They're doing Disney's "Aladdin" (it seems like everyone is doing Disney's "Aladdin" this year... in fact, Edmonds is so fond of the idea, they're doing it in two different schools with two different casts! Meadowdale Middle School  This weekend! Edmonds Elementary Anyway, I needed to make the staff for Jafar, the bad guy... remember him? So I grabbed a broomstick, some wire, a gallon of Elmer's Glue, Reynolds Wrap, some paper towels and newsprint, and a little polymer clay and went to work!  But, of course it needed to be gold, so I had to make a trip to Lowe's for some spray paint...   Instant Evil! Good Luck, Everybody!
Read more

A week with the kids...

Image
This week, I had one of the best part time jobs in the world... teaching stage combat to a bunch of kids in a summer program. I had done it last summer and like last summer it was challenging and fun and over waaay too fast. Eleven kids, eight to twelve years old and five three hour sessions, to give them some knowledge of stage combat and physical comedy. They were total kids... silly, spastic, charming, needy, unbelievably creative, completely exhausting. Awkward, beautiful, fragile, clumsy, glorious kids. The first day of the session I asked them to write their names on pieces of paper, so that i could take mugshots of them and hopefully get some idea of their personalities and imaginations. Best idea I've had in a while... I had kids who knew each other, kids who hung out together, kids who'd never met before. It's amazing how fast they make friends with each other. I came in that first day and started tossing around some basketballs, hoping they might play. I shouldn...
Read more

Long Live the Queen!

Image
Have I told you I love mermaids? Maybe it's the idea of blending two different worlds, maybe it's fantasizing about being Aquaman when I was seven years old in the surf at Coney Island. But there's something wonderful about the idea of people living in a world beneath the sea. What do they used for furniture? Or telephones... well, there, at least, the answer's obvious... So the above piece came about when I found some atrocious wall deco at TJ MAXX (how often do I say that?). It was a pair of copper colored scallop shell wall hangings. I immediately saw Elizabeth the First-style frilly colors, but from another dimension.  I wanted to create that feel, but with a certain otherworldliness... if you look closely at the piece, you'll see pearls and green and brown glass gems in her hair... which isn't hair so much as flowing seaweed, with bits of gold and copper leaf pressed into the clay. I did her hair by taking leaf shapes I cut out with cookie cutters and str...
Read more