Michael Crumpton’s Works in Paper Show Web Gallery

This web gallery shows the painted fish sculptures I made for the 2002 Works In Paper show in Portland, Maine as well as some other fish sculptures that did not make it into the show and some smaller older paper sculptures I have done over the past 10 years.

The fish sculptures range in size from 11 inches to 6 feet, made of cardboard, paper mache' and bamboo and covered with acrylic coatings of various types. This combination of materials allowed me to work in a very organic manner, cutting cardboard into shapes that were suggested by the existing forms and then hot gluing the parts together and then coating the whole thing with a wood glue that reinforced the panels and joints, stiffening and protecting the cardboard. Finally the piece was primed and painted with several layers of acrylic paint and metallic powders.

I have been making fish sculptures in various media since 1983. In this current series the form focuses on articulating the movement of the fish and flow of water around it rather than modeling the fishes form.

Several of the fish ended up having an architectural feeling to them which in retrospect makes perfect sense, as the design of buildings is influenced by the circulation of people through and around them. In a strange way buildings are like fish that swim in the ocean of people.

Thanks for your interest,
Michael Crumpton