Kickstarter

The project I am working on is a large sculpture of a pregnant praying mantis for Burning Man.  Burning Man, as you may or may not know, is an art festival in Nevada where people are free to be wildly creative and fun with their art!  As my skills in welding have been developing, I've been doing more and more art for the burn and other events, so this year I want to do something big.  Fertility is this burn's theme, so what better time than now to make a huge sculpture of one of my favorite beings?  An interesting insect - they tend to eat the male right after mating to ensure the lives of the many many young that will be growing within.  The male tries to get away, naturally, and its body will even keep struggling after its head has been eaten!  Crazy!

Mantises come in many shapes, colors, and sizes, but this one will be large and steel, towering at about ten feet tall.  The shape will be made of a steel frame covered in sheet metal, which I will cut with a plasma cutter to have interesting shapes and patterns for the LEDs inside to shine through. The LEDs will be powered by batteries charged by solar panels, so they can glow all night and won't require a generator.  By day the lights will be off.  There will also be a few lights on the ground so the whole shape can be seen in the dark.  The belly will glow from within, as I plan to make it out of a steel framework, wrapped in cloth.  This way, people will be able to crawl inside the abdomen and their silhouettes can be seen as they move around and get reborn!  The head of the Man-tis is a mantis head morphed into the shape of the head of the "man" that is burned signalling the end of the event.

With your help, I will be able to buy the materials to build my Man-tis, including steel, LED strips and other electical bits, cloth, and solar panels as needed.  I will also have to rent a trailer/truck and pay for the gas to haul the art up to Burning Man and back.  Then upon return I will try to find a permanent home to display the mantis, hopefully here in Phoenix.  We can always use more public art!