Terry Cook is a maker of sorts. Describing himself as a tinkerer and a doodler, his work includes both traditional and traditional medium: watercolor, acrylics, and inks, on the one hand, and robotics and high voltage on the other. “I paint whatever I like,” he notes on his website, “but usually things relating to my hobbies and interests. I have also painted things relating to pop culture icons even though I have little interest in them, purely for the joy of painting!”
His interests also include animals and insects, the sciences (particularly physics and biology), robotics, automatons, magic tricks, and experimentation in general. One of his more experimental projects incorporates balloons, with his recreations including birds as well as human heads.
According to Cook, each balloon sculpture takes a couple of hours to make and then more time on top of that to photograph. With his bird series, the idea came to him quite naturally. “I am obsessed with birds (Mostly British and European) and have been since I was a child,” explains Cook on his website. His balloon heads came afterward, having watched the bird balloons deflate. “I thought it would be cool to use the creases that form naturally on the balloon surface as the latex begins to degrade and lose its form,” he writes. “I made heads and then photographed them over a period of weeks as they began to deflate. Some went quicker than others.”
Cook notes that he only uses Qualatex balloons made from natural latex, which are biodegradable and break down easily. Scroll down to see some of his creative projects – balloon-made or otherwise.
