"Shadowboss and minion(redux)" custom Munny and two Micro Munnys
I was able to develop this weird glaze that was a dark purple-ish with flecks of red and, after seeing it on the finished pieces, it all came together and reminded me of my shadow when I’d wear a hoodie.
Anima/Animus, and Self. From what I understand, Jung believed the Shadow to be part of our unconscious minds where all of our repressed ideas, desires, and shortcomings reside.
Around the same time, I had been introduced to Carl Jung’s ideas on the shadow archetype. These ideas of my figures resembling my cast shadow and this new idea of a shadow of the unconscious mind came together and became my biggest source of inspiration and a means of working out my insecurities or “bad thoughts.” The work is in more ways than not self-reflective.
Jung suggested that the Shadow could appear in our dreams as a monster, demon, or other dark creature and, upon learning that, I felt like it made so much sense that what I was creating should be called ‘Shadows.’
I’m really intrigued by this Carl Jung connection. Can you elaborate a bit more on him as an inspiration? I never had the opportunity to delve deep into Jung’s work, but I had several classes taught by an amazing mister by the name of John Dobson. He introduced me to the idea of the “Big 5”: Persona, Ego, Shadow, 14 | Clutter 22
I also introduce the idea of personas or perceived self into my work by including masks. Most of my Shadows have these non-descript faces, so I have them use masks to differentiate themselves or to represent the faces they didn’t have or the persona they wanted. I had a hard time fitting in growing up and was desperate to make friends, so the masks are a way of working out that frustration and confusion of self. Does all this tie in to the reason behind
Shadows having genitals? I was thinking of depicting the Shadows stabbing each other or fondling themselves as a way of portraying repressed ideas or feelings, but instead I sculpted them with little genitalia. For whatever reason, a lot of the people I’ve encountered in and out of art school really hate looking at or drawing penises, myself included, but I eventually got over it and started drawing them. I grew up being ashamed of naked bodies, especially my own, so putting little penises or vaginas on my Shadows was a way of pulling something out of that receptacle without being too distasteful. As you switch between sculpting and transforming toys, do you have to adapt your creative process in any way? When I work with clay or wax, I really like to have a vague idea of what I would like to do, but nothing too concrete. Sometimes I’ll sketch ideas as a means of problem solving, but I really enjoy watching that
original idea transform and sometimes go in a whole new direction. When I work on Designer Toys, there is a little more planning involved since they are all commissioned and most people like to have them personalized in some way. The planning is mostly a quick sketch or a fully detailed drawing, if it’s a Designer Toy I haven’t worked on before; when it comes to Munny and Dunny figures, I’ve sculpted on so many of those that I jump right in. Commissioned vs. Non-commissioned: Which pieces win? As someone who really wants to be doing his own thing without feeling the pressure of other people’s deadlines and all that other potential stress-causing stuff, I gotta say non-commissioned are the way to go. I feel like the only time I can fully appreciate my work is when I’m in the process of making it and sometimes hearing positive or negative feedback, after sharing a work-