Mid-Week Post #3: Wired Wednesday

And now for something completely different.  I first began bending picture hanging wire into various shapes one night after a seeing a great concert (the Christian rock group Third Day, for those interested) in North Little Rock, Arkansas one Good Friday, quite a few years back.  Oddly specific, I know, but that's just how my memory works. Anyway, the first thing I made was a little man. This one is a little more refined than that first one, as I have made a veritable army of the little guys since then. They usually end up going home with whoever is around and seems interested when I'm making them. My first wire man I made, named Zeke-37, still resides on a shelf in my bedroom.

After the first four or five wire men, I decided to try some other shapes and, for whatever reason, I settled on masks.  I'm really fascinated by masks of various cultures. I find it interesting how some cultures that are separated by vast geographical distances frequently managed to not only create similar mythologies, but chose to express them through the crafting of masks. I'm sure that hundreds of psychologists and cultural anthropologists that have at least as many theories as to why that happened.  Honestly I'm not interested in the reasoning, I just like the masks. Here are a couple of the first ones I made. The first one ended up having a Norse feel to it. The second has a sort of an African feel. I included side views of them to show their depth.

I made this sun not long after these first two masks. I suppose it could be considered the third mask I made. The distance between the eyes and mouth of this one would make it less functional, except perhaps for a child. I suppose I haven't really made any of them to be wearable, instead opting to make them more for decoration than anything else.

Much like the drawings, that's just the tip of the iceberg in regards to my wire working, so I'd imagine I'll be posting more of these too as time progresses.  Until next time, I'll leave you with one of my new favorite quotes.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

-Scott Adams, Cartoonist and Author

Stay creative, my friends.

-AH!