Creations
The random twisted visions of Bob Rosenberg

Sometimes an idea gets into my head and it just gestates there, expanding and spreading through my brain, contaminating whatever it finds, until I just have to get it out. Finally I have to rip it, kicking and screaming from my skull, and twist it into some form which will hopefully contain it.

This is how I stay sane.

Beastly-Things

Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain.

Brain

This is the first of a series of brains. I built three more brains in this style, as well as two more, which are shown below. One of these now lives in Chicago and one in San Fransisco. One used to be on my father's desk at work, but his co-workers gave him odd looks til he made it go away. This creature consists of six finger-shaped legs, and an eyeball mounted in the brain.

Rubber brain, finger hooks, and rubber eye. © 1992


Lobster Brain

This brain is unique in that it is the only object I've built which fully glows in the dark. There are two finger-legs on each side, a lobster tail in back, and two lobster claws. This is the only brain with two eyes, both of which glow in the dark. In addition, the convolutions in the brain are painted with phosphorescent-material, making them glow as well.

Rubber brain, toy lobster, finger hooks, plastic eyes, and glow nail polish. © 1993


Scorpion Brain

This is the last in a long series of brain-like figures. It's a brain with scorpion legs and stinger. The eye is somewhat bloodshot and glows in the dark. The tail, claws, and legs are fully posable.

Rubber brain and toy scorpion with plastic eye. © 1996


Hearts will never be practical until they are made unbreakable.

Heartbeast

This is a heart with six translucent tentacles emerging from the stumps of the arteries and veins. There is an eye embedded in the aorta. The eye opens and closes, depending on the orientation of the heart

Rubber heart and squid with painted plastic eye. © 1996


The spiderman is having you for dinner tonight

Spider

The spider is the first in a series (not pictured here) of various spiders, all with the same basic shape. The body is made of a ball of plastic, with 8 toothpick legs. This is the only one with eyes and fangs.

Toothpicks, plastic, epoxy, and paint. © 1997


Bug-man

This is one of the first figures I ever made. I just had so many small toy bugs I had no idea what to do with them. So I made a person out of them.

Plastic bugs, glue, paint. © 1991


Naga

I call this a naga cos it does look like one somewhat, but it's not really one. I think this was the first of all the toys of this nature that I made. Consequently it's the simplest. This combines a snake's tail with a person's torso and a skull wearing a helmet.

Rubber snake, toy person, plastic skull, plastic container, glue. © 1991


Golf-fish lips

Another one of my earlier creations, which came shortly after the Naga above. At the time I felt I had to make something with a fish, and I had this golfball and other random pieces around. The golfball is actually a relic from my early childhoold, when we lived next to a golfcourse.

Golfball, toy fish tail, plastic lips, toy eyeballs. © 1991


Bat-phone
a diorama

This is the only diorama I've made. It features a number of multicoloured businessmen (with briefcases) in front of a bat-winged telephone dial. Tendrils from the phone are grabing and lifting businessmen toward it.

Rubber bat, telephone dial, cardboard, plastic businessmen. © 1992


Fairy Godmoose

This was the 2nd Fairy Godmoose I made. Both mooses were made the same way, only the base stuffed moose toy is different. The moose has red butterfly wings sewn to its back, a white tutu, and is holding a magic wand in its right paw (more visible in the 2nd picture).

Stuffed toy moose, mesh fabric, fake butterfly, toothpick, star confetti. © 2002


We are all born the same fashion; naked, screaming, covered in blood. If luck is with you and things are done right, that kind of thing doesn't have to stop there...

Babybug

This is the first in a series of baby-based work. Babybug is a sort of merger of a baby and a wasp. the wings are not very visible in the pictures.

Plastic baby, rubber wasp and chilipepper parts. © 1996


Winged Baby

This is my second baby toy and is much more complex than Babybug. The Winged Baby Has six baby legs on a long body with a pointed tail at the end. Two bat-like wings emerge from the body, just above the legs. The wing backs and boning are black, while the front is silver.

Plastic babies, toothpicks, epoxy, plastic, and silver and black paint. © 1997


Humans

Girl

This was a random plastic statuette which asked me to make it look nice.

Painted plastic figure and spiked metal ring. © 1996


Succubus

The succubus came from the same set of plastic toys as Girl. But this one knew exactly what it wanted to be.

Painted plastic figure with rubber bat wings. © 1996


Goth Doll

This was my first ever attempt at making something completely from scratch, with no "found" parts. It was also the first in a series of stuffed toys (none of which I have any pictures of). It worked fairly well, despite the fact that it was originally supposed to be a third of the size.

Black and white cotton fabric with ink decorations and painted PVC tape on cardboard. © 1996


Lenore

This is the second human doll I made, as well as the second creation I've done based on someone else's work (see JtHM below). I'm generally not too fond of doing an unoriginal piece of work, and I have no intention of making a habit of this, but since this is the first completely new object I have finished in over a year, I'm quite happy to take my inspriation where I can get it.
Lenore is a comic book put out by Roman Dirge about a "cute little dead girl", which, in my mind lends itself quite well to taking the form of a soft toy. So I decided to try to see if I would have better luck with this than I did with my first attempt at humanish doll.
I am somewhat happy with the results, since she can stand on her own without support and the shape is more or less what I had planned. the only thing I'm not happy with is the hair colour, which is a bit too light.

Black and white cotton fabric, yarn and ink decorations. © 1999


The Hanged Man

I had the idea a while back to do a series of figures based on the Tarot. So far I've only built The Hanged Man, Death and The Emperor. This figure was difficult to make since it was made completely out of sculpted plastic, a technique I did not master until later. However, the basic idea managed to work. This figure differs from the classic Hanged Man in that this is female, with hands bound behind her back. She also has no eyes. The attire is not entirely clear from the picture, but is supposed to be stiletto heels, PVC dress and fishnets.

Thread, stockings, metal wire, toothpicks, plastic, bin-liner, paint. © 1997


Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

This figure is based on the comic strip of the same name. This is intended to be the second in a series of Tarot-based figures (Death, obviously). Of all the "from scratch" things I've built I'm happiest with this one, as it does bear a strong resemblance to what I had in mind when I started.

PVC tape, razor blade, toothpicks, cotton fabric, wool yarn, plastic, nail polish. © 1997


The Emperor

The third installment in this slowly growing series is The Emperor. This one took bloody ages to make, and I think I started it either just before or just after Death. Regardless it was '97 when I started putting the bits together. I left it for huge periods of time waiting for some inspiration, which finally hit in two chunks in mid-'99 and Oct '99. Like most of my figures alot of how it ended up is based more on it telling me what to do, rather than me imposing my design on it. This one surprised me on numerous occasions.
Differences from the classic Tarot: the Emperor is sitting, but on the floor instead of a throne. He is usally pictured holding a ball and scepter, but in this case he is only holding his crown.

Toothpicks, cotton fabric, silver cord, plastic, nail polish. © 1999


Bob Rosenberg
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