Bronze Skullwalker by Brian Flynn

Brian Flynn invited me over to check out his first bronze sculpture, The Skullwalker. It’s hard to pass up an opportunity to make my own animated gif, and I was curious after reading Brian’s interview with Spanky Stokes about the decision to create a bronze piece. Here’s a snip:

Ultimately, I wanted to make something unique and different, and no one had been making toy size figures in actual bronze, so we decided to give it a try. Now that we have it, I am completely sold on bronze as an outlet for some of the designs I wish I could make, but simply can’t because of the difficulties (often the simplicities) of the figure design that cannot be toys.

The thing about bronze, in my opinion, is it really needs to be felt in order to be appreciated. To be honest, seeing the design in two dimensions on a web page didn’t do much for me, but in person, when I held it, there’s an undeniable sense of gravitas.

I think it’s also pretty cool that the Skullwalker was both conceived and produced in The Bay Area (sculpting by Brin Berliner and casting by the Artworks Foundry). Suck it, LA!

It’s interesting to position the bronze Skullwalker amidst Super7’s vinyl Monster Family figures. It fits…and yet it stands out. Says Brian:

I think it is much more of a fine art approach, but you cannot deny that it has a toy sensibility…Overall, I think this fits better in a gallery as opposed to a toy store if nothing else because of the price point for bronze, but I think fans of both sides of my work will enjoy it, and I think it can live in both worlds easily enough.

The 3-inch solid bronze figure just went live on the Super7 site. It’s limited to 30 pieces for $300 each. If you’d like one for either your art collection or your toy collection, click here.