From his first job doing layouts on The Brave Little Toaster in 1985, Stevan Wahl calls his career a wild ride. He’s worked as everything from Assistant Director to Lead Animator on projects as wide-ranging as Disney’s Tarzan and the TV series Futurama.
Wahl’s artistic interests expanded when his son, Marsden, was eight. “He became interested in world mythology and theology, and I became drawn to it by reading and talking about it with him,” Wahl says. The more he studied the subjects, the more he realized the importance that most ancient cultures give to masks to represent their beliefs.
“I had already started building art out of found objects as a way of self-expression that didn’t involve drawing,” Wahl says. “I started constructing masks of various mythological characters in my off hours.” The process was therapeutic, and he compares working with found objects to playing chess with yourself, “a constant shift of pieces until they fall into place.”
Ganesha depicts the elephant-headed Hindu deity worshipped as the remover of obstacles. For this piece, Wahl used old baskets, embossed leather, a vacuum hose, and curtain rings—all fastened together with wire since he doesn’t use glue. The junk jewelry at the top of the trunk represents marigolds, a flower used in Hindu festivals. Wahl tries to incorporate recycled objects whenever possible, to keep them out of landfills.
Ganesha is among the largest masks in Wahl’s series and is owned by fellow TAG member Steve Moore. Additional masks will be displayed in his next exhibition in partnership with his wife, animation veteran-turned-fine artist Cristi Lyon, at the MorYork Gallery in Highland Park. The show opens May 5th and runs for two weeks.
More of Wahl’s work can be found at his website.
