Linzie Hunter - Anyone For Latex ?

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Anyone For Latex ?

posted:July 29, 2006

Balloons by Gary Baseman, Andy Smith, Tim Biskup, Allan Sanders

This year I've been trying my best to make more time for collaborations and personal work. I've stuck a few recent images from recent projects into a gallery. One collaborative project on the go at the moment, has the dubious title of 'Latex for fun'. Despite what you might think this a completely above-board Spanish project where artists are asked to create their own DIY designer latex toy using a balloon and marker pen. Artists then were asked to create an illustration to go with their balloon for the forthcoming show/book in Barcelona.

My Cowboy Balloon Effort

I pretty much went through a bag of 15 balloons trying to create my cowboy. Many of my prototypes didn't quite cut it really. Balloon Version 1 burst before I even got anywhere near it with a pen. Version 1.2 was a sorry effort not fit for anyone to see. Things were looking good by version 1.4 until I realised that I had completed my design with a white board marker. I did end up with a lovely cowboy imprint on my carpet though. Later, 1.7 ended in disaster when I tried to reposition the cardboard hat that I have sello-taped so securely in place. I now feel a bit shamed by my own effort. In my defense however, I must say that drawing on balloon requires a whole lot more technical ability than you might think. It's a bit like face painting a child, well, if your child has a balloon for a head, that is. So should you require the services of a Balloon-drawer, probably best that you check out some of the more inventive creations at the 'Latex for fun' website: http://www.thecurrentlyoff.org/latex

My illustration. The brief was to 'illustrate the concept behind the balloon'... perhaps there was translation problem here, but as there was no theory behind my balloon whatsoever, this made coming up with a supporting illustration a bit tricky...