So a few weeks ago I decided that, since I am staying in Arizona for the summer after all and not going off traveling, I should make some serious art for Burning Man. I have done a few small projects though, including my flamingo bike and various costumes.
But I think it's time for something big! I got the idea to make a huge mantis sculpture, as I love that animal and it goes along with the theme of Burning Man this year, which is fertility. It will stand about ten feet tall and be a bit longer than that, maybe 15 feet or so. I want to make a frame that can bolt together to make transportation easy. Around the frame will be the shape of the creature, made of sheet metal that I will cut patterns into with the plasma torch. Then I can string LEDs inside it to make the patterns glow from within. The belly of the mantis will be open - a frame made of steel with a hollow inside that you can crawl into. It will be covered in cloth and lit from within by more LEDs. Then if you are standing outside the mantis and people are in it, you can see their silhouettes. The other special thing about this mantis is that the head will be shaped like the head of the "man" or the effigy of a human that is burned on the Saturday of each Burning Man. Below are some of my sketches.
This dream has quickly escalated into a full-on project! I started talking just a week or two ago to friends who decided to support me in various ways, and one of them suggested a Facebook page for it, which made me think Kickstarter! Of course! The website is for people making projects who need funding. It works by having donors pledge money toward a project in exchange for either nothing or a prize, depending on how much they donate and if they want something. If a project does not meet its goal, the artist gets nothing and the backers are not charged anything.
So I spent the last week thinking up cool prizes and really thinking out my project. I decided that $10 would buy you a dog tag, laser etched to have the "man" on one side and the head of my Man-tis on the other. $25 would buy you the dog tag and 3 professional photographs of the project on playa (at Burning Man), printed on high quality, 5x7 photo paper. Another $25 and you can get a private welding lesson from me. Then $100 gets you a steel mantis cut-out which I will design and cut, and you can use it as a wall-hanging. I'll throw the other prizes into this one too, minus the welding lesson. My set goal would be $1300, which pays for materials and transportation, plus the prizes and other fees. I would have 25 days to meet my goal.
It took a week to get this all put together and for Kickstarter and Amazon to approve my project and bank account information. I launched Thursday night, sent out emails that night and put it on Facebook Friday morning. By Friday night (right now), I have raised over $1400. And I still have 23 days left! What a world, what a world!!!
Link to my Kickstarter project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/46298891/preying-man-tis-an-exploration-of-fertility/comments?ref=activity
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