Lyndon Barrois

 hi my name is Jay sugerman and I want to welcome you to Innovation showcase the main purpose of this ongoing series is to inform viewers about exciting Innovations and create ative individuals cross the fields of business science technology education and the Arts today via zoom we're fortunate to have as our guest lynon barwar Senor based in Los Angeles Lyndon is a highly accomplished high-tech animator and he's also the founder and director of it's a rapper Studios where he uses discarded gum wrappers to create one in sculptures of famous athletes others and events and then displays many of them in stop action animation during the program we'll be learning why and how lyndon's craftsmanship with gun rpis came about we'll View and discuss some of his engaging pieces and in the process come to better understand and appreciate how he goes about creating his unique and very appealing artwork let's start by meeting Lyndon and finding out all about how he turns to discarded gum wrappers into stop action animation welcome Lyndon so Delight to be able to be here thank you Jay to I'm glad to be here myself thanks for having me you know it was fascinating to first read about you and your work with gum wrapers a couple weeks ago eager to hear more and have you informed viewers before we jump right to that I also think it would be of interest to briefly share a little bit more about your background professional and artistic interest please wow well let me see I you know I wear a few hats under the art umbrella um you know I you know I try to be very careful how to uh to not like 

Lyndon Barrois talks making art from gum wrappers and "Karate Dog"

Define or just pit and hold one thing you know because you know it is a bass umbrella and so you know I I am an I'm A I A Vis artist but you know I'm also by profession and most of my professional career I've been a character animator and animation director and um feature films and and some television work um I started out I I started my art career my practice in uh at zav University in New Orleans but even then in New Orleans I had before I even went to zav I had um two posters published one for um one for the Boston Marathon in 1985 and then the Jazz and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1986 and then the pope visited so I had a poster also done when the pope visited in 1987 and I think that was the year I actually started Xavier um um so my I was really my career at that point was focused on you know graphic design you know and communication design but all that time I was making the Miniatures because I started making the Miniatures when I was about 10 or 11 years old in New Orleans and I was basically making drivers to put in Hot Wheels cars because the cars are so cool you know the doors open the hood the trunk everything but there's no drivers in them so it never made sense to me that they went that far with these cool cars you know I mean down to you know what model it is the hub caps everything but there's no drivers so when I started making drivers for these cars I never stopped making the the figures and you know it was so much fun you know you know because you know as a kid you you make you you're always doing art you're drawing stuff you're making you know whatever you get your hands on and so I would do out of wire and you know phone discarded phone wire you know Clay aluminum foil anything you know and I drew paper and I even would fold and twist that but you know and so you my my my mom all the gum my mom chewed you know when she would discard the rappers I picked it up one day and just realized if it's foil on one side and paper on the other and they're perfectly glued together and not coming apart is said if I would if I sculpted it with the paper side out I could color it and right there the light bulb just went up and so I started making the people I started making drivers and then the people led to boxers and then the boxers led to other athletes and and entire teams and so I'm just again just entertaining myself making toys all through Junior High through high school and even into college until I finally showed my professor you know John Scott who was you know uh really famous sculptor um and he was the first MacArthur grant winner that I ever knew he won that while I was studying under him and I was just like fascinated wow and so he um when I finally showed it to him he basically say like dude I don't think you know what you're sitting on like this is sculpture like what what what what and I didn't realize everything I was learning from John I was infusing into this sculpture because you can see the progression and the evolution of look at these really amorphic and Abra looking things started to really take shape into proportion you know and and and color and like the design of the uniforms everything like the detail that I started to pay attention to and I I say the anatomy was really showing through and to me I'm just making TI I'm having fun you know just Mak it a hobby and John's like no man this is art like this is sculpture like he's like I'm a sculptor what do you think you've been doing and so then I find that's when I took it seriously and so um trying to who am not going on too long because it's a lot yeah so we can show an example before we hear more about the process yeah here we have a great one of Kobe how did this come about well Co that a piece you know ironically and morbidly enough this is such a weird story I started designing a piece and you can see I mean if you're looking you know in my studio here behind me you know there's the nasmith trophy you know it's a replica and so I was designing a piece that I was going to do you know in honor of the Lakers you know I've been here so long I've been you know been here through a few championships so I was going to do a whole retrospective of that and started to research the piece and research all the players and personalities and everything because you know because also a good friend of mine is of Lawrence tatner who's the announcer been the announcer for the Lakers for 42 years and so what just starting to you know talk to LT and pick his brains and all these things and this was genu well I started doing this in like I think I started researching is about August um August 20 19 and started you know collect all the data and sculpting some players you know not painting them just the raw sculpture and then January got around to January and um took a I had to go on a trip to San Francisco for some business and that morning while we were having breakfast got the news on my phone that you know the helicopter crashed and oddly enough the night before I was in Calabasas at a friend's house watching um I'm not sure if we were watching we were watching some I think it was boxing Bo you know just some big fight some we were watching you know and you know so that was a Saturday night yes and then Sunday morning when it happened when I was in sanc and it just was like the weirdest thing cu the the helicopter crash like a mile or so from where we were at a friend's house in the Hills ah and so I just said I I put the breakes on that but I said if nothing else I have to at least do Co and so I just um I made this piece and put it in a nice display where it's it's it's um on a turntable where he's just elev and it's just slowly turning in this pose and then did a little animated clip and with the clip you know it's just a bunch of it in different poses and progress I didn't animate it per se like I usually do because I just didn't wantan to I didn't want to focus on one play that he did or a few just know so I just put him in this classic pose and then composited the face on to it and then it had an exhibit of it where you have the piece and him turning and then I had a camera on it an HD cam with a screen next to it so you can actually see it in miniature form and its original form and then life siiz as it's turned oh fabulous Fab it was really beautifully displayed and um he you know it was just um yeah and I I just I you know I still have the idea to do this piece but I just stopped right there and just you know just like everyone else just you know yeah well it's a wonderful tribute and the detail is incredible you know before we enjoy uh uh several other pieces you've assembled a wonderful video clip showing the beginning just taking a wrapper and how you mold it sculpt it into one of these figures eventually so we're going to roll that clip and feel free to add any commentary explaining as we're going sure yeah I just you know kind of so explains I just take them I feel them out it's very tactile things that's for sure yes and the grading of the papers are different you know they're not all the same at least the foil and so you know you know crush it a bit you know get it a little more Lucid um and just go for it so you'll see you know there's no tearing at all there tearing tearing weakens it and so yeah it just goes from legs to torso to Arms to neck you know um and yeah I think it takes just to do a ra a raw sculpt it'll take about five minutes you know a lot of has your Technique changed over the years no no it's basically the same wow it's just you know it's just a lot of practice so I I've been doing it for so [Laughter] long you know no it's way more than second nature to you I know yeah yeah and even now like you know it's not like not something I I I would never say it's something I perfected because even now you know I still make mistakes there's still not not everyone makes the cut and um and you know they're all I really try to get them specific to who they're going to be you know whether it's sports like who who the athlete is what position they play and you know and um and then I mean because they're they're all portraiture they're they're real people so whether it's you know sports or you know civilian life you know or you know whatever like everyday life like us you know or even you know um news figures in politics or history like whatever I really do it to accurately portray who the subjects are and um so when you see them you know the person just from the pose or the uniform they wearing you know the suit or the dress you know the the yeah their um the fashion they're in the water whatever and just their whole their gestal their entire Persona so you would know without even seeing the face you would know who and what era that's that I'm depicting what what what what moment in history that's very crucial to and that's why I'm so attentive to the detail because I just want you to know it immediately what are some of the challenges you might face in creating a figure some the challenges H um that's a really good question you know um I guess for me when I make assumptions of what things are going to be simpler than others you know because when you see like say when I did um I did a piece I've done I've done quite a few now I'm just trying to remember I did a piece on um that required so much detail oh oh oh oh yes the the the chess set the co chess that piece had so much detail and you know because it's really just a portrait of America about what we were going through at the time and I mean everything from you know suits to EMT uniforms to doctors you know and you know labor work the whole shebang it just runs the spectrum of America it did that piece and just thought um wow oh oh then oh I'm sorry and then the one I did after that was this R La it's omage a piece called 19 um an omage to the LA Rams the history of black players in the LA Rams from from 1943 to 2022 so everything um up to you know Lea helmets up to a you know Aaron Don like the the moderns so all the detail that went into that piece as well from players before before there were you know hard shell helmets and face masks up to what you are currently the detail that went into that piece was just I mean it was it was an exhausting amount of detail yeah okay so then the next piece I knew I was going to be making for the show in in Soul Korea um called Soul system an homage to um um Florence FL Joe Florence Griffith join and Jackie join a cur in the five Olympic gold medals they won in so in so Olympics so I say okay well these women might be they're going to be a bit simpler you know because I don't have to do all this not the pads and the numbers and stripes and this making a different helmet because I'm telling you making helmets are a nightmare see this takes five you know five minutes to sculp you know it it'll take few more hours to paint obviously you you know it could take up upwards of you know a a few hours to to to a day or so depending on how much detail I put in these guys or a few days the helmets themselves can take you know six hours wow yes just to sculpt them and then sculpt the face mask and all that stuff then paint them they it takes a it's a process so all that detail so I figured okay these women will be a bit simpler and boy did I underestimate [Laughter] that because when you really focus on the Deep the the the detail in the uniforms these runners wear and then the numbers on the front and the back and then the logos you know you know all the Insignia on the outfits and then the hair and then the ribbon in the hair and the she was like it's just as much as anything else and you know the challenge just to pull that off and then when you're you're doing things like broad jumps and hurdles just the challenge to to Really execute all that in motion and still um like because because you know figures are floating around the people I mean it's just doing a lot so you know and and then the and then other challenges are when I decide to animate them how I'm going to execute certain things you know because you know players take flight athletes take flight a lot you know even when it's tennis you know and I did Alia Gibson jumping in here them all so you know there's a lot of there's quite a bit of rigging involved to get those actions right and then a lot of paint out you know Lindon for the sake of time uh we're gonna move ahead and show a very short clip of you painting one of the figures and Then followed by another short clip with some of the animation because we want to save time for just uh sampling uh some of the other items in your collection so let's look at the painting with some nice background music yeah so this is um the World Cup piece I did called Museum in Miami it's part of the World Cup show and um but now this piece is owned by the lack the Los Angeles it's part of their permanent colle this is a really fun one to do a few of these I animated a few of the moments in this it's a recre it recreates great moments in World Cup history between 197 and 201 I think this is one of the pieces I animated yeah there he is that's fabulous that's fabulous how long did that take you in real time oh the the piece itself the entire or just painting that painting because that's that's definitely a few hours there wow wow really time laps down but that's a few hours well let's see a very short example of some of the uh [Music] animation yeah those a Dan piece oh fabulous fabulous um and again just because we want to enjoy some of your work um a quick word as we sample uh as many as we can in the uh seven or eight minutes we have left right so this is James Harris this is part of the LA Rams piece 19 and so this is you know James Harris is being U the first black starting quarterback for the Rams in the 7s nice nice this part and then there's althia Gibson and that piece was made for a clip in a net in a NE Netflix um animated short and this was part of that yeah fabulous fabulous yeah just the muscle tone that you get is incredible oh thank you yeah thank you yeah and that's a piece that's a recent commission um that was for a a birthday gift um yeah that one oh I love making horses I just love thorough Breads and then you know and even the jockeys themselves you know you know because they're such incredible athletes and so this was a really fun piece to make I just I did this one last year I believe it's a recent nice nice yeah and there's um there's soul so you can see you know the women you know it's everything from the relay races to the 200 meters to the javelin throw you see shot puts you see the long jump you know I mean that piece was so much fun to do that was your creativity is it's incredible to watch and process and then something like this the final product and the number of variations that you keep coming up with to display your work W thank you yeah it's fun stuff yeah and that's a that's a detail that's one of the um pieces from um Co chess set so it's an EMT workers and again like you know and then there's a

 National Guard guy just giving out groceries so everything to the mask you know down you know the everything the orange gloves yeah and the roll of toilet paper oh yeah right it's incredible I mean just fun stuff the doctors and yeah you yeah and there you go Chef s and this piece was um that piece is and then next yeah the next slide you show yeah the um you know the elderly and you know in the in the um in their homes you know I mean all this was I guess said this was telling the story and you know that story is still telling itself yes indeed indeed and there's the the piece in you know in its entirety you know red States versus blue States yeah coming up again yeah yeah you know it never ends and then this piece yeah this is a piece that um was in the as part of um Glenn Kyo show at the mass mocha Massachusetts mocha and this was there for 18 months so this is a Rec I recreated like 18 scenes of protest history and this is the Edmund Pettis BridgeWalk you know with John Lewis leading the way and so the way that was displayed they were hung on these floating asphalt rocks and a pin light was shined on them and so the Shadows were cast like this in life siize onto the wall so as you walk through the exhibition you also become your Shadow becomes part of the the pieces that the exhibition itself so so it's very interactive that way that was a fun to do big most definitely show that Glen did could you speak a little bit I mean you've touched recently on some of the examples on how you use your art for different causes different uh activism say issues yeah you know the work um I just like to do work that has some social impact um and you know just tell stories of history and um because you know it's bizarre now how some of it so so much of it is trying to be erased away it's TW 2024 what are we doing somebody trying to rewrite history trying to erase history you know it's just bananas to me so I just feel as artists it's part it's part of our duty to keep that history alive and tell these stories and educate you not only educate other people but educate ourselves because you know it's just it's too important and so yes I like to do work that has that sort of in you know that's that social and economic or economic educational all that impact to just show where we've been you know where we're going you know what um yeah I mean it's our story and so there are and like I say there are it is portraiture so this portraiture really I mean is also tells the story of you know the world and everything so um you know now there are wonderful artifacts that uh document both the past and the present for sure for sure what's some of the reaction and feedback you get to your work oh you know on it's people appreciate it on the surface just for like seeing it in the context of sculpture and then recreating these moments but then the biggest impact comes when um I tell them what it is if they don't know you know you know um it's it's getting because even now most people don't know and so you know it's getting to the point now where hopefully that you know it would become recognizable I mean oh my God that's just where we know what that is but they just think first they you know well it's in twofold if they see it on film first they think they're really big figur you know like not normal like six to n inch stop motion puppets and then when I take them out I'm in festivals and I show them I they just lose it you but then even in exhibition when I tell them no these are chewing gum rappers they just like what they can't believe what are you talking about yeah yeah these are rappers so I'm constantly being encouraged to even when I do the films like to animate the rappers coming come taking shape you know because I just do them just as story and as a characters already but I have to do them like from scratch and even I might have to do that with exhibition so they see what it is first because I mean this is the size of these guys that's incredible all just the dexterity that you have is amazing and this is the other thing you got to see so if I put this in camera see the helmets do come up yeah really remarkable remarkable so yeah um so each player yes gets fitted with a hat yeah well so glad you started at a young age and have been inspired to continue it to this day um we're all the beneficiary of your work so thank you um Lindon unfortunately we've come to the end of the program want to thank you so much for being here explaining the process you go through showing us just a sampling of the many things you've created and will continue to create we'll have contact information in the credits and uh look forward to following upcoming endeavors well thank you Jay I really appreciate this man it's been fun it's been great talking to you and know just sharing this you know and um I I hope we you know covered enough because there's so much to talk about oh fabulous introduction for sure and uh we'll keep in touch with uh your online presence very good thank you my man also want to thank those of you watching for joining us and hope you'll be able to tune in next time .