Henry’s World of Clay Creatures
Our boy Henry, 5, sculpy (6/03)
He spends hours a day making things then flying them
around, feeding, fighting and destroying them. We hear many wild sounds
and discussions coming from his part of the kitchen. He’s six now and still
going at it.
Henry’s creatures seem to be influenced by bugs,
sea creatures, his own tiny fingers, ships, planes, books, imagination…Pokemon,
Star Wars, Transformers…plus anything he can turn into a tool. This clay
doesn’t get hard. $4 for 2 pounds at a hobbyshop. It starts out as color-chunks
but quickly blends into gray. He sold 7 critters at a garage sale for his
first art business. He recently added a new sound-effect: it’s a triple-sound,
like a Tibetan throat-chant: buzzing air, vocal throat and squealing cheek
like air escaping a balloon. He gets really animated when sculpting—he
zooms the things thru the air, twists them around, while making all kinds
of blasting sounds, then jumps, twists, and skips to and fro and around
the whole house. Sometimes he doesn’t even have anything in his hands but
just bursts his hands together muttering all kinds of action hero talk.
Below are some recent developments (9/04). Looks like he’s getting into
integrated spatial appropriation, as they say, or “play.”
Henrys Clay Creatures 2004
Henrys Clay Creatures 2004-1
Henrys Clay Creatures 2004-2
Henrys Clay Creatures 2004-3
Henrys Clay Creatures 2004-4
Golum, upper left. Blade-Snake, upper right. Froglike Zay-Turtle, lower
right. Allo-Monster, lower left. Unnamed middle Martian craft. 2/3/04
Note that he’ll make a whole set like these in an hour. Then they’ll be blown to bits in the next hour
Here are more critters from 4/04 (it’s my hand in some of these pics):
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -1
Jet Fighter Stingray Shark
Triumphant
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -2
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -3
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -4
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -5
Catfish
Lobster—Too Bad It’s a Little Blurry
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -6
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -7
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -8
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -9
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -10
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -12
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -13
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -14
Scuba Diver
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -15
Henrys Clay Creatures 4/04 -16
Adaptation (End of 4/04 Critters)
Henry just turned 6. Here’s some of his work, as of 9/03.
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -1
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -2
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -3
A Planet Eater
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -4
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -5
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -6
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -7
Heroes And Their Spaceships And Some Kind Of Power Symbol
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -8
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -9
We’re Starting To Find Things Hanging Around
Nonstop Clayand Sound Effects In The Van On The 7000-Mile Tenting Trip This Summer
Henrys Clay Creatures 9/03 -10
Gifts to a
friend we stayed with on the trip. Several other critters were found hanging
from bungiecords which H had found and stretched across a room. (This is
the first time critters started hanging.) Critters were gifts several times.
A minute after he met Aunt Rosie for the first time he quickly made her
a critter and gave her some stones. He left gift critters at Aunt Jo’s as
well.
