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| Our mountain lion: Queen of all she surveys |
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| Camouflage- helping desert animals survive, even in museums |
One of the things people love in museum exhibits are animals- and in a museum that focuses on celebrating the desert and local Native American voices, animals are especially important. There are currently two animal statues in our exhibit, both so lifelike that they might be mistaken for real animals. Early in design process, we determined that all representation of animals in the exhibit would be sculptural. In many respects, this follows the current trends in the museum field; it also played into the strengths of our design team.
Bridget
Keimel is a Senior Modelmaker at Weldon Exhibits. When making statues she starts with lots of
reference photographs for the animal she will be creating. What does it look
like? How do muscles bunch, tails drape, and eyes shine?
For
the case of both our desert animals, she began with the same premade foam base
sculpted bodies that taxidermists use when mounting animals. The foam manikins
can be altered to fit a desired pose.
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| Fishing line for whiskers- art from the unusual? |
Our
animals were made in Weldon Exhibits’ workshop in conjunction with the rocks
that would be their domain. An animal that will stand where it can be touched,
like our Borrego, has rods in its feet anchoring it to the rock base. The
mountain lion, on the other hand, was built separately to fit a rocky perch
that was designed in the workshop. The lion was put into place when she reached
the museum. The lion’s tail was a
separate piece attached later, allowing for last minute adjustments to the
rocks as well as the tail for the maximum realistic effect.
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| Some assembly required |
Some
parts of our animals are made with common materials. Glass eyes give the
Borrego his soulful gaze, and the mountain lion’s whiskers are made from
fishing line. Cement, epoxy putty,
and stucco are used to make layers of muscle and fur, with stronger materials
used if the animal will be touched frequently.
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| Photo op! Only time you'll get a Borrego to pose with you |
Our Borrego was designed with the idea that he would probably
be touched a lot; he will endure a lot of wear and tear.
In fact, he has become the center of a new social media campaign- Sheep Selfies (#shelfie). Designed as a photo opportunity, we invite people to send us their photographs of themselves and their families with the sheep for us to post on Facebook and Twitter. Who knows- can his own Twitter account be far behind?
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| What's it called when a sheep takes a selfie? A #shelfie of course! |
