Creepy Creatures: The Dark and Quirky Art of Scott Radke

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One by one, each of the strange little faces with their red button noses and furrowed brows peek out from the strangest of bodies – black and white fish, striped swan, furless hounds and rabbits on bicycles. This bizarre but enchanting cadre of creatures comes from the mind of Cleveland-based artist Scott Radke, who lovingly renders them from clay, fabric and human hair. scott-radke-2
Some may call Radke’s sculptures macabre, but however disturbing one may find a gnarled, wart-covered face on a twisted animal body, these creatures also have a playful quirkiness akin to the work of Tim Burton.
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Radke’s singular vision permeates his every sculpture, but the artist – who started out making marionettes and expanded into freestanding and wall hanging sculptures – rarely starts out with a specific idea in mind. He prefers to let his creations evolve as he works on them, taking on lives of their own.
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“A lot of what I do is like daydreaming,” Radke told Arrested Motion. “If you’re a writer, I imagine you would daydream in stories and words, but mine are more image oriented – shapes, colors, animals, faces, and textures. I just clump them all together and add and subtract along the way until something feels balanced and complete.”
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“I could probably come up with what it means or where it came from, But I know that whenever I title something or explain something in writing, when I go back and look at it even just a month or so later, I feel uncomfortable with the way I explained or defined it. It always seems wrong or like I only explained it how I felt on that particular day. I’m just trying to protect myself. It’s better to me for people to come up with their own interpretation.”
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