Fantod Under Glass No. 1

mixed media, 12 x 5 x 5, 2009, $600

In 1953, three years before I was born, Edward Gorey wrote the semi-autobiographical graphic masterpiece, “The Unstrung Harp, Or Mr. Earbrass Writes a Novel”. In 1972, the story was included in a collection of Gorey’s work under the title “Amphigorey”, and in 1977, Val Warke read it to me. In the story, the beleagured Mr. Earbrass is dragged by his publisher into an antique store, where he wonders “why anyone would bother to have a fantod stuffed and placed under a glass bell”. On the very next page, a few frames later, Mr. Earbrass is seen reading the newspaper in an easy chair in his own parlor. The fantod, still under the glass bell, is sitting over his left shoulder on his own fireplace mantle. Apparently, as odd as he found it, he couldn’t resist. The same was true for me. I searched, half-heartedly, for over thirty years before, in 2007, I came across a glass bell at Tap Plastics, and my urge to own a fantod was finally realized, some 54 years after Mr. Gorey first drew it.

I am a problem solver and a producer. My media is whatever it takes. Sometimes the result is artwork, sometimes it is not. I will let you be the judge. Is a book art? Does it matter if it is mass-produced or hand-made? Is a robot art? Is the painting made by the robot art? If I intervene, is it still art, or is that what makes it art? Is the design of a website art? Is the code behind that website art? Can a 3D model be art? Does it have to get 3D printed first?

Ray is an award-winning architect who has practiced in Seattle for more than 35 years. He founded CyberToys, Inc., producing multi-media software for LEGO and the White House, and was President of Blueprint: for Architecture 1984-1985 and CoCA 2009-2013, currently serving as CoCA Publisher and CEO of WORKSHOP 3D, LLC, an Augmented Reality company.

He is a 1977 graduate of the University of Washington, and received a Master of Architecture, with Distinction, from the Harvard GSD in 1982. He has taught at the University of Washington's Department of Architecture and Design Machine Group, Boston Architectural Center, and the Career Discovery program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.