Great Flamin’ Brains it’s Oonstein’s Gothtober DAY 20!

Stay Golden, Oh Golden Brain…

Are you a right brained person, or a left brained person? Never fear, find pumpkin #20 and the rainbow bridge of all hemispheres in all colors surprises and delights in this brain counting film from the cerebellum oblongata of Oonstein! As mentioned in previous posts, it is the 10th anniversary of Gothtober, and artists were encouraged to celebrate our very first decade with the number 10, or a Halloween theme, and Oonstein has succeeded in doing BOTH in an especially brainy way.

I’ve been in Oonstein’s workshop, and I was astonished to see brains brains everywhere. The original brain was hand sculpted, and then replicated into an unusually large encephalic stockpile of literally “buckets of brains.” Many buckets full of tiny resin brains were sitting here there and everywhere on shelves, ledges, wherever you could find a surface, there were brains. Trying not to appear too enthusiastic, I casually enquired “What are you going to do with these?” and the answer was “Oh, you’ll see.”

That was awhile ago, so imagine my great surprise to know that ALL THOSE BRAINS turned into a Busby Berkeley-esque tour de force of animated colorful formation! Actually, by now, there may be brains that we don’t even know about, the place could be overflowing with gray matter, and what Oonstein does with them next is anybody’s guess.

In the meantime, let your thoughts wander, imagine your brain, free from your head, wandering around becoming part of a special brainy dance troupe, or being in a brain diorama, expand your imagination and see where your mind goes!

Day 24: Interpretive Brains

I don’t know what your brain is up to, and sometimes I don’t know what mine is up to either, but now you get to decide what brains are doing in Oonstein’s “Horrors of Demography.”

Shannon Dedman invites you  to interpret for yourself some intriguing little dioramas featuring small sculptures of cerebral matter in mostly domestic settings.

There isn’t a “wrong” or “right” way to look at these scenes, which is kind of refreshing, no? In the day and age of everything being so darned “spelled out” all the time, having room for imagination is pretty special.

Feel free to tell us any stories or ideas you come up with from looking at these scenes, Shannon likes hearing what people decipher from them. Maybe the pictures will inspire you to write brainy songs, or leave extra long and poetic answering machine messages that sound smarter than ever before. Maybe you’ll channel your inner algebra teacher and suddenly be able to solve bizarre polynomial equations!

The lil’ brains are made from Sculpey, the larger brain in the “kitchen” scene is about the size of a golf ball. Shannon (aka “Oonstein”) built all the little environments/props herself, and as you can see, they are rather detailed little worlds. It is Dedman’s great hope that there will be more exciting brain pictures in the future, the Gothtober blog will keep you posted should they become available on an internet near you.

See the Brain Show!