Tom Otterness Studio Tour!!!!

We wrap up OHNY 2007 week here at Velvet Sea with quite possibly the best OHNY tour of all time- the Tom Otterness studio tour. Tom's studio is in an old warehouse or factory in Gowanus on the Carroll Gardens side of the canal. A large crowd gathered outside- maybe 40-50 people.
All hail! The man himself- Tom Otterness:
I'm a huge fan of Tom's bubbly cartoon-like whimsical sculptures and was excited to see where the magic happens. We were able to walk around the studio for about 15-20 minutes, looking at all the different works in various states of progress. Here's a scorpion being translated from a small scale to (presumably) full scale:
Tom Otterness's chair and boombox- this was in the back room; the studio had three rooms, a large room with sculptures, a room with mostly shelves and supplies and this smaller room (perhaps for more detailed work? not sure):Finally Tom gathered everyone around and started to explain how he creates his sculptures- starting from a small clay model and eventually going to a full scale piece ready to go to the foundry:
The artist continued to explain the process and he showed a bunch of different pieces in his studio while telling some great stories and anecdotes relating to the work. Note the giant round head in the picture above- that is going to be part of the world's greatest kids playground:
Tom Otterness's studio tour was fascinating and I'd highly recommend going if it's on the schedule for OHNY 2008.