Salty, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2021

“Salty”, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2021

Jumping spiders are my favorite spiders. They’re cute, they’re floofy, they’re incredibly observant, and their athletic abilities are astounding. They also dance to woo the ladies like I never could.

The name comes from their family name “Salticidae.”

All pieces cut on scrollsaw, in this case exclusively using my scrap wood collection. Species: maple (regular and curly), walnut, mesquite, ipe, katalox, ebony, holly, cherry, & rubber tree (reclaimed from a cheap old jewelry box).

The main image upon which this is roughly based is “Come Closer, Jumping Spider” by Diaz Gio (@godzaid@giochimitsu), who has some amazing photography and an art account).

Boba Fett, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

“Boba Fett”, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

Boba Fett is complete! It only took ~6 weeks!
When I started this thing, I had no idea Boba would suddenly become big news again (no spoilers, aside from the fact Fett is back, which I think is safe since they’ve announced “The Story of Boba Fett” series). I had just read a really cool panel by @john_cassaday in Marvel Star Wars (2015) and instantly decided it would make for a cool wooden intarsia piece.

I wanted more “comicy” colors in this piece than I can get with natural wood grains, so I dyed the pieces with alcohol dyes. All 270 (!) pieces were cut on scrollsaw from a single storm-felled sycamore branch I picked up nearby.

Note: You can see the entire creation of this piece HERE in my Instagram story highlight.

Boba Fett, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

Momo Avatar Wooden Art

“Momo,” Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

“Momo”, 2020, wood intarsia, no paint/stain, except the eyes.

My niece @dorky_artista recently convinced me to watch “Avatar: the Last Airbender”. I had already been considering it since I’m a huge Dave Filoni fan (Clone Wars, Rebels, now head of Lucasfilm animation, and was involved in Mandalorian), who got his start with Avatar.

Let me just say that, despite being a show “for kids”, it really lived up to the hype in terms of superb emotional storytelling and character development. I became an instant fan. Such memorable characters!

As I was watching I randomly had the thought “I have to make Momo for my niece!”. I didn’t even initially intend for it to be a birthday present. It was gonna be a “just because I love you present”. But I saw her bday coming up, and thought “perfect!!”.

Then as I designed it I thought “this is too cute. I have to make a matching one for me too.” So I made two of them. 😂

Made from holly, maple, walnut, ebony, yew, elm, and a cherry background. @chestnutproducts Spirit stains for the irises.

Guillermo, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

“Guillermo”, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2020

Wooden intarsia art. 23 species of wood, no paint/stain.

Im happy to finally post the final shots of this piece devoted to everyone’s favorite Vampire familiar/slayer!

After watching “What We Do in the Shadows” (@theshadowsfx) on @fxnetworks, this idea randomly hit me one day and it was one of those “well I guess I have no choice but to make this now” deals. I felt compelled. After I began, I must admit that a big motivation came from the Guillermo actor himself, Mr. Harvey Guillén (@harveyguillen). It turns out, Harvey is a pretty rad guy in real (virtual) life and gave me tons of private encouragement and funny little quips he’d rather I not share for reasons that would be obvious 😜. Needless to say, my inner geek was pretty stoked to be chatting about an artwork with the actor who inspired it! Harvey is easily 1 of the 4 funniest characters on the show and everyone should watch it. 😜

The best part? Harvey Guillen himself now owns this piece!!!

This piece is is roughly based on a promo from FX marketing. I wanted to add a little more detail to highlight the duality behind Guillermo’s loyalty as a familiar/desire to become a vampire and his apparently inherent penchant for slayage. The sun, fire, and door represent his first hilarious kill. Of course I added the stake bandolier and a crossbow. But astute fans will note that the bandolier also contains his trusty “Tide to go” pen for clean-up duties. The promo had the bat wings as sort of a looming presence. But I see them here more as Guillermo’s desire to become a Vamp and “BAT!” away with Nandor (@kayvan_novak). The font is based on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

Constructed from maple, zebra wood, Brazilian rosewood, bocote, wenge, katalox, ebony, holly, sapele, mahogany, walnut, chakte viga, redheart, purpleheart, yellowheart, mesquite, bloodwood, honey locust, elm, ash, yellow pine, Douglas fir, luaun ply.