Drinking with Dragons

I really enjoyed the Drinking with Dragons event at Two Bells this past Friday.

Aside from finally viewing his impressive dragons in person, it was a genuine delight to meet Dan Reeder (see my previous post below), also in person. This is a really great showing of his paper mache work, so if you're in Seattle this month, definitely check it out.

Childhood Screams

When I was ten years old my parents brought home a book for me called "The Simple Screamer" by Dan Reeder.

Already a huge monster fan, I was absolutely absorbed by the creatures and techniques within. And how could I not relate to this cartoon by Gary Larson that introduced the book?

Fast forward to 100 years later: after many other pursuits, interests and curveballs, I'd forgotten about that book, but always remembered those "Screamers".

Now I find myself, perhaps not so surprisingly, focused on sculpture and fabrication of creature costumes, masks and art objects.

While I've developed my own weird techniques over the years, using a a variety of materials, paper mache is a primary medium, and I owe at least a seed of that inspiration to Mr. Reeder. Thanks to the Internet I'm delighted to discover that Dan is still making monsters- and he's been doing it along from my hometown!

To see what he's up to these days, check out his blog at papermacheblog.com.