alebrijes. colourful mexican art

This is one of the most amazing things I have ever found on the internet. Alebrijes are beautifully colourful mexican carvings made from wood or papiermache. They are fantastical animals, often combining different animal parts to create chimeara like creatures. They are wonderfully imaginative and any search for alebrijes on the internet will yield numerous unique creations from across mexico. My website has a more detailed description as to where these originally come from.

I decided I had to create my own alebrije, which was somewhat of a challenge. I began with a wire frame and built up the body using newspaper and tape. I then covered it with papiermache and gave it plenty of coats of white paint and varnish.

I made wings from thick plasticard and attached them to the sculpture with more papiermache. And that's how far I have got. Next I will need to paint the thing which will take some doing! I really need to reasearch some patterns and colourful designs: these are things I have already done and the painting is really effective:

welcome to junkpunks blog

welcome to my blog. because I hate typing, especially when I have paintings to do, I like to use pictures instead! WoW, what a novel idea, bet that's never been done before. Anyhoo, I am building my site, www.junkpunk.co.uk , with all different kinds of unique and surreal, colourful and imaginative artwork, including cartoons, mexican style paper mache, paintings, sculptures and any unusual uses for junk; candles, suncatchers and loads more.

Hopefully I can begin to build a community of artists and creators, interested in using junk and all wierd and wonderful everyday items and a bit of imagination, to make magic from the everyday stuff around us.

If anyone has any ideas or interests in this, please check back for updates or drop me a message at mail@junkpunk.co.uk.