As some of you may know, the Inoculation Project just passed a big milestone, our 400th completed project helping fund science and math projects in high-poverty classrooms. We'll be celebrating this Sunday morning at 10 am ET/ 7 am PT, for which we hope you'll join us, so I was looking around the internets for some nice balloons for our party.
That's when I happened upon the astonishing art of Jason Hackenwerth, a New York-based artist who works in various media but has made the largest impression for his monumental balloon sculptures.
His mom earned extra income as a clown when he was a kid, making more typical balloon animals, and when he grew up to be an artist, he went to her for lessons on technique and then went off in his own unique direction.
His work is very organic-looking, and in interviews, he's said that he is consciously echoing forms that he sees in the natural world. Well, he says even more than that:
More gigantic balloon critters below the fold!
Here's a very large one, entitled Pisces, that was displayed in Edinburgh a year ago, composed of 10,000 balloons. The video explains how he designed it (and shows images of many more of his works).
But he doesn't work exclusively on that giant scale. Some of his pieces are
wearable.
I found his stuff so amusing that I just couldn't get enough. His installation at the Peabody Museum at Yale, below, made me LOL. There's another
gallery of photos here, and another
good interview here. And below this photo are a few more videos. I hope these give you as many smiles as they gave me!
|
|
|
|
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
|
|