Existing comment:
The Red Bull Shuttle
Thomas Symonds, 26, Video Game Artist
Shrewsbury, PA
"I participated in the Philadelphia Art of Can – I like the idea of recycling cans to make art," says Pennsylvania's Thomas Symonds. "And when I was trying to decide what to make with cans [this year], I heard that the Space Shuttle Atlantis was going up for a historic repair mission to the Hubble Telescope." Inspired, Symonds set about creating a two-foot-high, "relatively to scale" model depicting Atlantis on a launch pad. "The best part of the process was researching and learning about the Space Shuttle; how it works and how everything fits together. The whole system is a marvel of modern engineering," the 26-year-old artist enthuses.
When he's not fabricating art from cans, Symonds, who received a bachelor's degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004, is usually working on some kind of figurative illustration. He's employed at Firaxis, where he creates objects for videogames, and in his personal time he often uses Photoshop and a digital drawing tablet to sketch futuristic and comic-book-style characters. He adds, "I always keep a sketchbook with me, always trying to better myself at life-drawing." Symonds would like to thank his friends Trevor Amery, Heather Boyd, and Colin Vogel for their assistance and support on his "Red Bull Shuttle" project. |