Posts Tagged ‘Brian McCarty’
A few months back–a few warmer, sunnier months back– toy photographer Brian McCarty came to town and introduced his neat-o, media activating work. He is the step son of local philanthropist and producer Mickey Babcock; McCarty’s opening took place at Babcock’s new home. The Jackson Hole Art Blog posted a story on his work, and McCarty keeps in touch.
Here’s one of his latest, “Moon Wanderers,” shot in the Tetons. McCarty says the little guys are resin figures. The toys are created by Russian Sergey Safonov, who, says McCarty, has “… hand-built a mysterious cast of characters that exist only at night. The Moon Wanders float along, sleeping and waiting.”
McCarty openly discusses his process, and in this case the process began with an imagined image of small figures afloat under a paper moon. The toys were mounted on metal rods placed in soft mud, at Two Oceans Lake, in Grand Teton National Park. ( Is this legal? Not sure. But I didn’t do it! ) A long exposure taken by a camera atop a semi-submerged tripod “…made the water seem glassy, except for the rippled reflection of strobe light off a paper moon suspended in the background.”
The Tetons can provide a lot of interference if they want to. McCarty was challenged by nature a few times.
“Things started getting a little edgy with the growing army of leeches seen attaching themselves to my waders. A too-close-for-comfort moose followed in close succession, at first looking confused at the humans walking around his lake at midnight, then a bit annoyed. I’d like to think that we scared him off with our flashlights and noisemaking, but it may have been what followed next. Through the 
mist, something that sounded much larger than the moose was splashing around. Unable to see, I’m going to wager it was a grizzly bear or perhaps a sasquatch. Hard to say,” says McCarty.
I saw McCarty’s show with my (dear) artist friend Ricki Arno--who I haven’t heard from in like, two months. Ricki, where are you? Please call. Have you gone back to Planet New York?
From Planet Laramie: Nationally known, Colorado-based artist James Surls will give a talk at the University of Wyoming’s Coe Library on Saturday, Oct. 24, beginning at 1:00 pm. The University’s Art Museum blog says a reception will follow; all will celebrate the installation of Surls’ new work, “Rolling Flowers.”
What a great title!
UW’s blog says Surls is noted for his work with emerging artists–he’s a mentor. He also works quite a bit with non-profits and he and his wife, Charmaine Locke, (Her website cover page shows a gorgeous shot of her large scale bronze, “Open Book.” Please look.) have large-scale pieces in that wonderful venue, “Sculpture: A Wyoming Invitational.” Check the above U.W. Art Museum link for more information.
From the Wyoming Arts Council: Art Aid
Wyoming Entrepreneur, at the University of Wyoming, offers free web marketing 
counseling for small businesses, and the Wyoming Arts Council has an Individual Artists Professional Development (IAPD) grant program. Grants provide funds for artists to hire web designers ( wow!!!! artists lose lots of precious creativity time working on websites.), pay for hosting and other needs. A one-to-one match is required, and up to $500 can be awarded.
For info: Email mshay@state.wy.us.
BOING!
Buoyancy. Bounce. Balloon. Toy photographer Brian McCarty revives all the fun, imaginative “B” words related to toys and childhood in his exuberant photos. This came to mind as my friend (NYC artist Ricki Arno, grandma with an urban art fetish) and I recently took in a show of McCarty’s work.
What a pleasure to laugh giddily, laugh out loud, at art. And to know it’s okay. It’s okay because with truly great toy art photography, one laughs with the toys. Toy art photography lightly and blithely takes shooting’s potentially voyeuristic aspects to a new level. 
I didn’t get it until I saw this show. And I’m still not certain how toy art photography came into being, but it’s very big. And McCarty,– step-son of local arts enthusiast and philanthropist Mickey Babcock– is one of the art form’s masters. He’s in love with art toys, creating images that “…blur the lines between art and commerce.” McCarty brings designer toys to life, placing them in fantasy situations and photographing them. Think back to the days of playing in the sand with those miniature olive green army men. We set them up in sand dunes, my siblings and I, making believe we commanded our tiny camouflaged troops, tossing dirt bombs, creating mini ambushes, tiny rescue missions. The little figures took on a life of their own, and today’s toy photography movement riffs on that era of play.
Today’s toys are made of plastic, vinyl, plush fabrics and other materials. They’re highly graphic and cartoon-like and have been in production since the 1990’s. McCarty’s work connects to many enterprises such as advertising, music, publishing, and toy manufacturing. Toy manufacturers often send McCarty prototypes; the toys allow him to push boundaries while creating on multiple levels. McCarty works with a variety of artists who have also chosen to view plastic and plush as a means of artistic expression.
What got him started on the tiny toy picture path?
“About the time I was supposed to grow up and stop playing with toys, they transitioned into subjects for my early, fumbling experiments with photography,” says McCarty. “It felt natural to communicate through these objects that carried so much emotional and cultural weight. Toys are not just fun, they are how every child begins to find his or her place in the world. Through play, reality is deconstructed and recreated in smaller, safer bites. With this in mind, toys for me became a purposeful mechanism for perspective and artistic exploration. They have remained at the core of my vision.”
Each photograph tells a tiny story that is really a commentary on humanity, pairing up seemingly unrelated objects and place. Even as we laugh at McCarty’s work, we wonder if we should be amused at certain messages. Should we laugh at the plush, smiling Kaiser-Nutcracker-faced hand grenade being tossed into the air by a guy dressed in army fatigues? We do laugh, but we get the intimation. I laughed at the vinyl tree frog’s near escape from becoming road kill, I laughed at the happy-go-lucky, candy-colored toys raining down on a sun-baked earth, engaging in a happy little invasion of their own.
McCarty is making fun of us, of our deepest foibles, our inconsistencies, our 
self-stereotyping. We’re ridiculously silly, like really good toys. We’re white rabbits on a lonely planet, we’re kinda ugly grunge musicians making music in the subways, we’re snaggy-toothed aliens landing–”kersplat!”–in chocolate cake.
How did we get here? And where will we go?
Item #2:
Mark Nowlin, The Master’s Studio proprietor, opens his first solo show of recent drawings, paintings and “constructions” at the Artspace Theater Lobby tonight, at the Center for the Arts.
I haven’t seen his work, and I can’t match Nowlin’s own description of his art, so I paraphrase his summary here:
“The heads of Barbie dolls are replaced by weather elk vertebra for a macabre but humorous juxtaposition of the socially complex and naturally simple. A work of 18th-century music is seen through a rack of glass test tubes…. The rack of a deer is attached to a beautiful antique sewing machine, a provocative mounted specimen. Old and new, nature and science, the mundane and the sublime converse within Nowlin’s glass cases…”
The opening reception runs 5:30-8:00 pm tonight, at the Center’s Artspace Gallery. For information, phone 307.733.6379