Nightmarish Sculptures of H.P. Lovecraft’s Terrifying Cosmic Entities

‘Lovecraft Tormented’ wall sculpture

Like many of you oh-so-cool Dangerous Minds readers I am a collector of a great many THINGS. From records to books and a slew of action figures, my house is a mini-museum full of cool THINGS. I also happen to know that a number of our regular visitors to DM seem to have a thing for anything that associated with the great American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Which leads me to my post for today which features a number of intricate sculptures depicting some of Lovecraft’s eldritch entities such as “Dagon,” a creature that first made its appearance in Lovecraft’s short story of the same name from 1917; everyone’s favorite octopus-headed cosmic being, “Cthulhu”; Pickman’s model, and the nutty Nyarlathotep among others. I’m just aching to bring a few of these critters into my own menagerie of mayhem…

Some of the sculptures in this post are available for purchase. That said they are not cheap—specifically that magnificent wall sculpture “Lovecraft Tormented” (pictured at the top of this post). That puppy will run you a cool $1288. Several toy companies have released sets of Lovecraft’s monstrous nightmares and when they do, they sell out pretty fast, so if you see something in this post that strikes your fancy, get it now before it’s sold out and selling on eBay for bigs bucks. I’ve included some handy links for you to do just that under each available piece below.

Lion Created from 4,000 Pieces of Hammered Metal By Selçuk Yılmaz

"Created from nearly 4,000 pieces of metal scraps, Aslan (Turkish for Lion), is a recent sculpture by Istanbul-based artist Selçuk Yılmaz. The piece took nearly a year of work and involved hand-cutting and hammering of each individual metal piece. The final work weighs roughly 550 pounds (250kg). While we’ve seen dozens of artists use multiple components to create a final form, it’s worth noting how well the bent mental lends itself to the final shape of this impressive cat. You can see much more of his work on Behance."

Follow more art and sculpture updates on This Is Colossal

The grace and majesty of a lion is captured in raw metal

Sheet metal forged from organic materials once again reverted back to organic form, the alchemists were right.

Art can allow our vision to be purified into a whole new meaning

Sculptural metal lion that challenges the viewer to believe in what he is seeing

 

Unleashing The Inner Beast Through Scrap Metal

Recycled motorcycle and auto parts or the beast within?

There are a plethora of things that I find inspiration in, but none more so than seeing others creativity. It could come from a wide array of music, illustrators, craftsmen, designers, etc. and the list goes on and on. But what I am most intrigued by is the human spirit. 

Looking back on the great age of the Renaissance for creativity and viewing where we are now, it is quite amazing to see the varying styles and approach. One of the biggest changes I have noticed across the centuries, through research and comprehension, is the slow focus towards the inner complexity of the human condition revealed through new works of artistic approach. 

In the past, vast works of art were created to interpret the word of God as evoked to humanity through verse and spirit reflected in tomes, art and oration. The greatness of someone such as Michelangelo would be in his representation of historic figures in a context to engage discussion and illuminate stories about the ethereal. A plethora of artists working today are borrowing from elements created in the past and assembling them into new visages and meaning, yet retaining their original form.

It could be old paper, scrap wood, audio samples and in the case of Robert Jefferson Travis Pond, his assemblages include motorcycle parts, old gears, metal parts and other found hardware. His sculptural work brings life to what was once an organic substance, yet through fire and foundry work it was forged into an entirely different amalgamation. His process and works seem to lend themselves perfectly to the larger workings of the human mind amidst the chaos of imagery that we are bombarded with daily. 

These inner beasts are coming to life from a variety of scrap material, but in a way are absolutely reflective of the inner musculature and skeletal systems of the animals they represent. Seeing is believing and interpreting work such as a this, gives me hope that creativity will continue to evolve in a way in which we continue to question all that is around us.

These images and others can be found on This Is Colossal

One Huge Coyote Howls In The Desert

Photo from Flickr: Digital-Dreams

Many a time I had the chance to go out to Burning Man, while spending a decade back in northern California, but I never made the trek out to the playa. Not for a lack of interest in the festival but I just had too many other things cookin' at the time and also a bit burnt out on festivals after working numerous ones for quite a few years. 

Looking back though I have always had an interest in the events around the gathering. Not so much in the party vibe or seeking out a religious awakening, but more of an interest in all of the elements used to create the atmosphere known as Burning Man. 

It could be the yearly burn of the temple created for the one week event or checking out the incredible coyote inspired sculpture by Bryan Tedrick, but I always dig around checking out the sculptures. What I enjoy most is the scale on which some of these pieces are built. They are large and in charge and have to be that way in order to be seen across the wide expanse of the Nevada desert.

Maybe one of these years I will venture out for a few days and finally check out the cult of Burning Man.

Section of Bryan Tedrick's coyote sculpture for Burning Man 2013

Massive steel coyote head sculpture

Bryan Tedrick's monumental coyote designed for display at Burning Man 2013

C3PO Recreated From Old Machinery and Computer Parts

Clever ideas keep us awake at night and constantly thinking "how did they do that." All the ideas and intriguing concepts we see, it fuels the ol' imagination into thinking of new ways to look at the recycle bin and what could be built. Finding C3PO has been the highlight of this perfect Sunday afternoon.

Learn more about Gabriel Dishaw and his zeal for recycled materials

Can't afford an authentic movie prop? Get something even better, a C3PO head made from scrap computer parts

Memory boards and old keyboards turned out to be a great combination

Got any scrap computer parts laying around? Well, then get to work making something as cool as this!

Seen Too Many Sugar Skulls, Here Is The Best

Damn is it cool to see something that leaves your jaw flapping in the wind. This Dia De La Muertos mask by Shane Martin is a true work of art. The precision in the design of found objects alludes to a very analytical mind that we are looking forward to seeing plenty more work from.

Check out Shane Martin's work on Deviant Art

Dia De La Muertos Sugar Skull by Brian Martin made out of emtal

Awesome detail on the welds

The brazing added just the right amount of color

One of the coolest metal skulls we have ever seen

Heavy Metal Banjo Plucked By The Devil Himself

Damn does it make our day when we find something as cool as this custom banjo made from miscellany parts. It was created by British artist Shane Martin, who just so happens to know his way around a metal shop. Have a look at more of his work on DeviantArt.com

Car parts and some guitar strings equal bad ass!

Check out this awesome neck made from valves and a bicycle gear

Is it art or an instrument? Both!

This custom banjo by Shane Martin is just flat out awesome

Dale Dunning Metal Faces

Design ideas can be found in a multitude of places but sites such as ThisIsColossal.com bring out more ideas than should be legal. Consistently the site sheds light upon new creative ideas that just keep the ol' cranium in flux with, damn, how did they figure that one out.

One of the more recent posts that really struck us was the metal sculpture work of Dale Dunning. His typography mixed with steel and welded forms oozed right into our grease soaked heart.

Link to Dale Dunning on This is Colossal

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

Dale Dunning type face metal sculpture

"Just last week Colossal featured the work of Hong Seong Jang who used the long aluminum sticks of moveable type to create miniature cities. Now we have the figurative sculptures of artist Dale Dunning who welds together metal type and steel hardware to create intricate masks and heads. Of his work Dunning says:

The head that has been featured in my work for the last 13 years is a generic, simplified form not specific to gender, devoid of detail, resembling an egg. The head is universally recognized, easy to identify with. We live in our heads, see, feel, and experience the world in our head. It serves as the foundation upon which I can develop various paths to explore.

Though I’m struck by the the final shape of his figures, I find myself almost more intrigued by the processes Dunning must utilize to create them. I’m told that the last piece above, Constellation 1/1, is made from 900 welded bolts and washers and I can’t even imagine how one would embark on such a time-consuming process. You can see much more of his work here. All images courtesy Oeno Gallery. (via my amp goes to 11)"

Dale Dunning metal sculpture made from bolts

Dale Dunning metal sculpture made from bolts

Dale Dunning metal sculpture made from bolts

Death Of The Cassette

Personally I miss mix tapes. Creating a mix cd just doesn't seem to have the vibe or maybe it was just the era that we were a part of and the explosion of music at the time in punk, hardcore and metal, that helped to sculpt our music styles of choice. Although the poseur hipsters are trying to make tapes have a comeback, their time unfortunately has come to pass and let them carry on in a past life such as this killer piece by Ali Gulec.

Purchase it now over at Society 6

The death of Mixtapes by Ali Gulec

Brown Dog Welding - Panhead Bobber Sculpture

Josh over at Brown Dog Welding does very unique and interesting pieces with his fine tuned metal craft. It is rare to see a sculpture this detailed and articulated in a true to life looking piece and also one that has been welded. With a bike build on this scale, really stoked to see where the next pieces will go.

Link to our interview with Josh of Brown Dog Welding

Brown Dog Welding's bobber motorcycle sculpture

Brown Dog Welding's bobber motorcycle sculpture, front profile

Brown Dog Welding's bobber motorcycle sculpture, detail of front end and engine

Brown Dog Welding's bobber motorcycle sculpture, overview

Brown Dog Welding's bobber motorcycle sculpture detail on the welds

How To Sculpt A Skeleton From Neon Glass

Old neon signs just have a cool factor to them like no other. Could it be the idea that we look back at old signage with reverence or the fact that we know that much of the neon we seen is all created by hand? As much as technology and our general apathy grow, laziness abounds as the human condition seems to just be getting easier in the notion that many machines do much of the work for us. We find this to be complete bullshit, as work ethic is everything to us. Fuck lazy people, there we said it direct and to the point. If you are lazy, we have no time for ya, nor want to be around ya. The reason being is that innovation and pure ideas can be anywhere and they are clearly reflected int he sculpture below by Eric Franklin.

Link to original post on Colossal

Portland-based sculptor Eric Franklin constructs stunning (if not slightly disconcerting) anatomical light structures that are fully hollow and filled with ionized krypton, causing them to glow similar to a neon light. The glass skeleton above, Embodiment, is my jaw-dropping favorite of this series. The piece took over 1,000 hours of work over a two year period and is actually built from 10 separate units of glass formed from borosilicate glass tubing. The process of creating something like this is unbelievably painstaking as Franklin shares via email:

Every glass seal has to be perfect, and this piece contains hundreds. Everywhere one tube joins another, or a tube terminates, glass tubes were sealed together. They have to be perfect in order to preserve the luminosity of the krypton. If one rogue molecule gets inside the void of the glass tubing it can eventually contaminate the gas and it will no longer glow. There are times when the holes in the seals are so small that you cannot actually see them with your eyes without the help of a leak detector. Once the glass pieces are ready to get filled with gas, I pull a high vacuum while the glass is hot in order to evacuate any dust or water vapor from the interior surface until there are literally no molecules inside the void of the glass. Then the krypton can be introduced and the glass sealed off. It’s an extremely tedious process, one I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with.

You can see much more of Franklin’s work on his website, and if you liked this also check out the work of Jessica Lloyd-Jones. Photos above courtesy Brad Carlile. (via my amp goes to 11)