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Beyond Tiki, Bilge, and Test / Beyond Tiki

The insane world of Babalu

Pages: 1 16 replies

B

Hey,

Well, I owe a huge thanks to pdrake who took a few of my old slides (some are really crappy shots) home with him after the last Chop and somehow put them on a CD….just got this disk at Oasis. Now, I wished I would have given him more slides. :)

Anyway, some of the below work is from my earlier years…some from school daze, others not. The one thing all this work has in common (minus just a few) is that it’s all either been sold, gifted, or melted back into the insane boiling pot from which it was conceived. Hope you all don’t mind me posting this stuff? It’s kind of fun for me to show it….not many have seen these pictures before. There are so many great artists whose work I just love, love, love on TC that I hope some of you will follow suit and post some of your early stuff too…I would kill to see it! So, they are listed in no particular order really…

In the name of…
base is 4’ x 8’


Detail


Detail

Chairman of the Board
21”x 20”x 61.5”

Detail


Mommy’s Tombstone
42”x 2”x 30”

Fowl Play
54” diameter

For My Third Wish – A Self Portrait
78”x 44”


Detail


Detail


It’s a Small World After all
42” diameter


The Bee that almost killed my wife
12”x 12”x 2”


Rosie
49”x 38”

Icarus (a tribute to a found turtle’s life)
24”x 32”


Life
No record of size…3’x ?


Dinner for None
61”x 49”


Ozzie & Harriet
19”x 14”


Bugs Bunny
12.5”x 12”x 8”


Croc Pot
35”x 19”x 11.5”


Bolder Nights ( I think I ended up getting a 4 finger lid and this shitty picture for this work) 24’x 16”


Spring Ahead
17”x 10”


Bunny Lamp
26’x 24”


Screw Fountain
25”x 25”


Untitled
Size?


England (not sure why I was pissed off at the time now?)
18”x 6”


The Highway Licked the Hare
24”x 16”


Executive Decision
8.5”x 10”


Detail

Maholo for looking!

Rick, this is some awesome stuff.

A few lids here, a few doses there... :) I am not inferring anything. Some use a vehicle and some ARE the vehicle.

My favorite is Mommy's Tombstone. I saw it at the house. I really dig it's size and "the arms of the heavens" look.

And of course anything with hares. I think I like the nekid mermaid hares with guns and knives best. Hmm, that one couldv'e been a feitsh nightmare. I mighta jumbled a few of you pieces together in my head.

My wife and I went to see a Heironymus Bosch instalation about ten years. Your work reminds her of him.

When I was a kid I would hang out at Many Hands and play with the stuff that was used to hold stained glass together. Lead maybe? Most of the work that I remember was pottery and staind glass. Some was abstract pottery.

B

Bugs Bunny is my fav! Where are all of these pieces now, Rick?

B

Hey you two, thanks for the comments. I use to have some pet rabbits that were my good buddies. That must have been some influence on the bunnies. Also, someone mentioned a while back that the bunny stuff reminded them of that book "Watership Down", which come to think of it, I did read prior to working these rabbits, so yeah, maybe in the back of my mind somewhere I was pulling from this?? On the bunny wars, I wanted to use images of the most docile creatures I could think of...and well, rabbits are real close to the old bottom of the food chain thing there. so....

At any rate, these particular slides are of older stuff, and most has sold and I have no clue where it ended up. Some of those wax paintings never held up to direct sunlight and I had to shit can them. I really thought I had a brilliant process down at that time to encase the wax (torched crayons)...It worked for awhile, but alas failed in the end.

I need to get more of my old slides put on CD like this...this is fun.

H

Babalu, your work is so twisted. I love it.

Babalu it is quite apparent that you are a crazy mother....and I mean that in the best way
possible. Thanks a ton for posting this stuff, gonna revisit this one a lot.

Right there on the edge of surrealism....your stuff rocks!!! Thanks for posting the pictures.

B

You should Really do more bunny's and even bunny/tikis too. Excellent stuff, I am glad Perry fixed these up for us all to see. Thanx

R

Wow! This is the kind of work I've always wished I was brave enough to do. Fantastic puns. Whimsical but....? Top o'the heap in the imagination category. Nobody's ever gonna be able to accuse you of being banal for sure. I'm loving the traveling merhare show too...what a great insight this post is into your current work.

R.

G
GROG posted on Sun, Sep 30, 2007 11:52 AM

Wow! You ARE completely insane. Good stuff.

Awesome and Insane Rick!
Those are the 2 words i would pick...
you're nuts,but in a great artist way....
I love the Third Wish!
I used to get those Archie Mcphee
tub of toys and was always delighted by the colors,shapes,and characters
hiding inside.....
I would love to see this one in person
and just zone out on all the little details....
"in the name of" is a fab approach to
telling it like it is when we gloss over our
true intentions and fight behind a cause...
Those bunnies accurately reflect the
plight of our race today and yesterday...
Keep it up Babs!
Don't stop!
The world needs more insightful art! :)

It was fun to have a
look at this thread again. Great work Babalu!

TK

very interesting pieces there. excellent work from an obviously twisted mind.

T

Ha! Enjoyable stuff here Babalu...sometimes wicked, sometimes bold, sometimes funny but always POIGNANT!!

Thanks for a tour thru the layers.

TM

Yeah, I am digging it too! Especially "Mommy's tombstone".

B

More...very soon! I hold to no standards...peace.

Pages: 1 16 replies