Art inspired by biology, created by a biologist
I’ve been needing a bedside table lamp in our new house for a while now. So I spent over a month designing and building this thing with a whole host of tools and techniques. Needless to say, it was a hell of a learning experience! I detailed pretty much the whole process through instagram (which I do often with my artwork – follow me if you wanna keep up):
I had a really old dry branch of what I believe might be Osage Orange (or perhaps locust or something completely different). It’s mulberry. I decided to make a little trivet/serving board out of it so I can eat from hot dishes in my recliner. Most of its creation is detailed in the multi-image instagram post below. It turned out very functional and fairly beautiful – especially with the live edge.
This is a sculpture/painting of migrating cownose rays. I made it over the course of a year, making the actual work a year ago and the frame/base recently. I first laid down a layer of paint on a piece of 4″ x 4″ wood, followed by sequential layers of rays painted on Envirotex Lite resin with acrylic paint (six layers). The final ray was sculpted with apoxie sculpt and the water ripples were made with ModPodge. Finally, I made a base/frame from a chunk of walnut wood, which I sculpted with a dremel.
Here is a quick video showinf what the resin part actually looks like in 3D (with light refractions)
I have been accepted into this year’s Wings & Wildlife Art Show at the National Aviary for the third year in a row. Thus, I decided to creat a piece specifically for the show. During last year’s show, the staff brought around this cute little screech owl around to my booth, where I got some great photos of him (see below). I based this piece on one of those photos.
You can purchase this original wooden artwork here.
If you are interested in making your own version of this piece, the plans can be purchased here.
The following instagram post contains a bunch of photographs going through the entire process of creating these intarsia pieces. Click through to see how it’s done:
