Hiroyuki Hamada begins his process by constructing a form with wood and foam, painting and shaping the form and then wrapping it with a layer of burlap. After adding a plaster shell he continues to shape, drill and embellish the sculpture with wax, resin and paint.  An interview with the artist on Booooooom has pictures of the process.

Enamel, oil, plaster, tar, wax

Enamel, oil, plaster, tar, wax

Enamel, oil, plaster, tar, wax

Each piece can take up to two years to complete – they call to mind details of ancient map points, barnacles, buoys, some long forgotten language or code…blueprints of another way of life?

Enamel, oil, plaster, tar, wax

Enamel, oil, plaster, tar, wax

Enamel, oil, plaster, tar, wax

Enamel, oil, plaster, tar, wax

NY based Hamada ,who has an MFA from the University of Maryland, often feels creatively blocked and uses a variety of interesting prompts to work through the block – I’d say his method is successful and worth noting:

“Making is…hard. Actually, I generally feel blocked. And the process is so slow that I can barely see it. It’s like trying to see plants grow. But in a way, this might be helping my brain to stick with the really important stuffs, the kind of things that actually seep out of my brain and slowly drip onto the piece without myself knowing about it, or something like that… There are a few things that I do when I get really desperate. They sort of help me to see the work more objectively. I use a mirror to see it flipped or upside down. I take pictures of it and see them on a screen or/and open them with Photoshop to see them differently. I would put away the piece for a while. I would try different lighting.“. Hiroyuki Hamada in an interview with Spray Blog. Read it here.