Mark Patraw

Glasses Bird

By Mark Patraw | 2 comments 2 comments

Details

A bizarre hybrid of a bird and a pair of eyeglasses that Alice briefly encounters in Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland animated film, which was based upon the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass children's books penned by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under his more-popularly-known pseudonym, Lewis Carroll.

Alice meets up with the Glasses and Mirror Birds in the Tulgey Woods. The Glasses Bird silently perches upon Alice's shoulders, completely unnoticed by the girl, despite being literally in front of her nose, until she happens to look at her reflection in the Mirror Bird's face, spots the comical hitchhiker, and, weary of Wonderland's incessant nonsense and pranks, lifts the creature from her body and gently places it next to its avian friend on a tree branch before moving on deeper into the forest.

*****

Materials:
Lined white paper, a white envelope, newsprint, cardboard from a box of tissue paper, white glue, wire twist ties, transparent plastic sheeting from a toy package, and acrylic paint.

Dimensions*:
5.4 cm (2.1") wide x 4.8 cm (1.9") high x 7.6 cm (3.0") long.
* The listed values will vary depending on how the figure's joints are positioned.

Articulation:
14 Points: Hips, knees, ankles, and all eight toes.

Time:
Several hours on March 24, 2015.
I also touched up the paint/finish the following day and replaced the original eyes, which I had made out of transparent tape as an experiment, with sturdier plastic ones. While the tape eyes looked/functioned fine, they were fairly thin/flimsy and had air bubble halos trapped around the paper pupils sandwiched inside.


More photos/information: http://www.angelfire.com/ult/ace/glasses_bird.html

2 comments

Ina Griet

Ina Griet

November 7, 2018 at 2:41PM

Hi Mark, that is wonderful. I like the whimsical about it. Tiny but full of expression. You show a lot of imagination and fantasy in all of your work. Another thing that I notice is that you do describe your own work with lots of insight and professionalism and comment other work with a great deal of understanding and your wording and writing is excellent too.

Mark Patraw

Mark Patraw

November 21, 2018 at 10:10PM

Thank you very much for your kind words! I'm sorry I didn't read this sooner, but, my notifications for this site are sent to an older e-mail address I don't check very often.

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