Ghastly Thoughts with Jeff Wehenkel

Well it’s been a quiet month at Ghastly Creations, out here on the edge of the country. Quiet mostly because I’ve been sick with some sort of respiratory virus for the past several weeks. Ugh, I really hate being sick and I turn into a 5 year old when I am. Demanding to be waited upon hand and foot, I love my patient and saintly wife. I feel guilty not making it into my shop very much. On the scant few days I actually made it to my shop I tried to concentrate on the projects that I am working on for myself, before I start a new batch of commissioned pieces. I had a zombie in the works, and a latex version of the Glenn Strange Frankenstein that I used for my Abbott and Costello display at a show this past spring. I am also working on a hand for my Keith Richards bust that will hold a pirate pistol.



The Glenn Strange Frankenstein was a mask I made for myself. I have dabbled in silicone, and there are so many artists that do amazing work with it. I don’t think I’m there yet, so for my copy I wanted a latex one to display. The zombie was one of those pieces that I just started building up clay with no real direction other than I wanted a zombie and I had an idea how I wanted the mouth to look. I really like to just push some clay around and see what happens. I compare it to the film “A Bucket of Blood”. My sculpting method is very much like Walter Paisley’s, pushing around a lump of clay and telling it to “be a nose!” Well that’s what I tell other people anyway. I generally begin with the eyes and move to the rest of the face blocking out a very general shape. When I get the likeness I’m looking for I’ll block out the rest of the head and start to refine everything. There is a point when the face you are trying to sculpt starts looking back. I really can’t explain it any better than that. I remember when I was working on the Keith Richards bust, that I recently finished, that I went round and round with the design of the head, starting with a grin and changing it so many times. There was a point though when I realized that Keith Richards was looking back at me and I thought “well, there you are, where have you been all this time”. The rest of the sculpture came easily once I had Keith in front of me, egging me on to finish him.


I tried to put off making molds of these pieces while I was sick for as long as I could; I figured that all of the dust that the process makes would be detrimental to my continued breathing. Eventually I felt well enough to get back to it and molds were made. I have a pretty cool new dead guy looking at me from the shelf. I added some beard stubble to him because I really like the effect of it. It makes the finished piece look that much more alive, well, er, dead. Keith Richards is done and finished as Captain Teague, from Pirates of the Caribbean. And, the Frankenstein monster is patiently awaiting paint and hair. After the Thanksgiving holidays are over and family members head back home, I’m looking forward to starting some really fun commissioned pieces for collectors. I’ll be showing the progress of those pieces here.
Until next time, I’ll be here making monsters.