Sunday, December 28, 2008
gammaray featured in mrs dragonblog
The mrs dragon blog was nice enough to feature my work over at her website. http://mrsdragonswares.blogspot.com. She also has an etsy store. Search mrs dragon under username.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
customer collection photos
I have to say one of the coolest things on the planet earth for me is to see my work on a desk or wall at a customers house. It makes all this hard work worth while. This is pic of my virusbot i found over at the fledge flying is easy blog.
vintage robot files- lady robot with child
This is a robot I did for a friends pregnant wife a few years ago. This one is one of the first few metal robots I made. I dont know what all the stripes and dots were about.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
another early work
This is another one of my early found object robot sculpture. In the early years I used to use some materials that were less than permanent. As time went on I used more and more long lasting stuff to make these guys.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Days of robots past
This is a family of found object robots I did very early on. In the very early days of things this is the kind of sculpture I was interested in doing. That is until I saw some other artist that are better at this type of robot than I am . If you want to see some great examples of "pot and pans" robots check out these artists.
www.claytonbailey.com
www.flickr.com/photos/lockwasher
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
my very first metal robots....
These four robots began my obsession with robot sculptures. I used to make the eyes and the mouths out of screws and washers. I stopped doing this because I found that the faces looked cold and expressionless. I switched to painting the faces months later. I also started to work bigger. They were only six or seven inches tall as i recall. I sold these for $10.00 each as i recall. I kind of wish i still had these. It's hard to let some of your art go. It was the start of my robot period for sure. Every thing before this was b.r. (before robot) and everything after is a.r. (after robot). I prefer the a.r. period myself.
moonbuggy trio
This is a set of 3 robot moon buggys i did a few years ago. I found a bunch of old photos and I will try to get them up in the weeks to come. I look at these and think about all the experimentation i used to do when I had more time. It seems I stick to a more regimented style nowadays.
Friday, May 23, 2008
I did an interview with Toy Cutter toy customizing website
This is a transcript of the interview i did with Toycutter.com
I recently discovered Tom Torrey's Etsy store, Gamma Ray Bots. It's full of...robots and other neat stuff. Tom was gracious enough to answer a few questions.
Q: What kind of art/crafting education do you have?
I have a B.F.A. in illustration from Mass College of Art in Boston Ma. I also spent a couple of years at a State College getting a sculpture and metals/clay education before switching to Mass art.
Q: How do you design your creations - - do you plan them out, or just dump out your bits box and see what falls out?
Yes,sometimes! I spent a long time without focus in my artwork. I could paint and draw I just didn't know what i wanted to make art about. Being trained as an illustrator did a lot of damage to my creative process. For a long time I couldn't look at a blank canvas without wanting to paint a businessman on it with a fishing pole surrounded by an ocean of dollar bills. It is a kind of brainwashing. When i was an editorial illustrator I didn't feel like a "real" artist. No offense to editorial illustrators you are real artists. It wasn't until I quit freelance illustration and concentrated on the more fine art side of things that this whole new world of possibilities opened up. This is just a long way of saying I love scifi and when I was free of the regimented illustrative training these pictures started to appear in my sketchbook.
Q: What tools/glue do you use?
I use lots of tools. Hand tools mostly. I share a basement with my father-in-law so what ever tool i don't have i can probably find it in his stuff. I try to make at least my robot sculptures as permanent as I can. It can get tricky sometimes. I find myself rejecting a cool looking detail on a robot that I just know would fall off or break in a couple of years. Making an object to pass on to someone else is important to me. My sculpture professor,whom I learned a lot from, always pushed the importance of permanence in art. He said why create this wonderful object just to have it fall apart in a few years. I guess it just stuck with me.
Q: Your robots seem to have very similar legs and feet - - what do you make them out of?
The most common material I use is metal. I also use a common robot body type. This didn't happen overnight. It has come from trial and error. I find what is easily available to me. When I find some food tins i can use for the body lets say i find out just how many are available. I get weird looks from cashiers when I bring 10 coffee tins to the register. I have learned if you like it buy in when you see it because containers disappear and change often. The fun is in the details. My favorite hangouts are dollar stores and thrift shops. This is when the looks get weirder. I often think about what is running through peoples minds when they ring up old silverware, broken tools, lunch boxes,jars of rusty nuts and bolts. I mean to most people this stuff is garbage and should be thrown away. I rescue it and it sits on a shelf in my studio until I find the perfect place for it.
Q: What techniques do you use to promote your store?
Flickr is a great way to generate sales at my etsy.com store. I have gotten commission work based on people looking at my old work. It can be great tool just to show what I am capable of. Word of mouth is good to but it is hard to find my audience. They are out there but can be hard to find. I do some art shows in the Boston area. Another good resource I am gearing up for is magazine ads. I have my eye on doing a couple of spots this summer to push some sales. A small piece of advice to anyone before you advertise yourself, have the stock on hand. Make as much art as you can prior to any sales push. When your name gets out, there is no sales killer like having three pieces in your store front because you didn't get the work done on time. A nice full inventory makes for good sales and keep generating new art. People who like your art will come back and check you out for new stuff. If there is no new stuff they are going to move on.
Gammaraybots is the Gama-Go monthly flickr photo contest winner for may
Gama-Go has a monthly Flickr phonto contest. This months contest was most creative Obama for president image. I had the idea of making a Yetibot based on Tim Biskup's great Yeti character. The guys at Gamma-go loved the robot so much they wanted my robot to be live permanently at gamma-go. He was boxed up and is on it's way to sunny San Francisco California. They promise to take pictures and post them. I can't wait to see them.
my entry for the 2007 Kid Robot mini munny costume contest
This was my entry for the 2007 Kid Robot mini munny costume contest. I used two munnys to make his costume. I used a large munny and a mini mummy. It was a mini munny dressed in a regular munny costume. For the most part the comments were positive. This contest allowed for feedback for each entry. the other comments were angry and accused me of breaking the rules of the contest. Some of the winners were great others I thought were strange choices. I didn't win or runner up but i got a great piece out of the contest.
Pictures form the All Systems Go show at Florida State University
This group of pictures were taken at the Florida State University All Systems Go show
back in September 2007. I was asked by John Wilson to submit a couple of pieces for the show. All in all by the photos it looked by a great show.
death by donuts in collectors hands
my painting death by donuts appeared in a collectors photo i found on flickr.
My art is showing up on shelves everywhere
I found this picture on flickr of a customer who bought one of my robots and two of my painted postcards. I love stumbling on my art in peoples collections.
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