Amy Flynn is a self-described Fobotologist. The American illustrator turned Fobotologist scours flea markets, garage sales and even looks in dumpsters to find discarded car parts, old tin cans, rusty watch parts and any interesting metal bits and pieces to construct her whimsical FOBOTS (Found Object Robots) statues. We caught up with the North Carolina artist to find out more about her wonderful recycled metal FOBOTS.
Please describe your artwork.
I take cool vintage junk and solder and bolt the pieces together to make one-of-a-kind robot sculptures.
What does FOBOT mean?
FOBOT stands for "Found Object Robot", but if it sounds like "Fauxbot", that's good too.
How did you start making the recycled robots?
I was an illustrator for 27 years —my first job out of college was with Hallmark, and I've been freelancing for greeting card and gift companies. But last year, when the economy started getting really sucky, I had clients canceling jobs, going bankrupt, failing to pay me. My biggest client put a one year moratorium on buying any new freelance art. I was starting to get pretty depressed. But I've always loved robots, and I've always loved flea markets, so I started making the bots out of flea market finds and the junk in our basement. It was just for fun, to take my mind off business. Eventually, I showed them to friends who own a craft gallery, and they encouraged me to start selling them.
Has your background as an illustrator influenced your current work?
Yeah, but it's more like my whole life has influenced my current body of work. Every skill I've picked up so far has gone into them — the design sense from years as an illustrator, the machine skills from home renovation and from making sets and props for theatre, soldering from years making stained glass windows, even Photoshop and web design have gone into it. OK, maybe not EVERY skill, but a lot of them.
What are the FOBOTS made from?
Anything that strikes my fancy, car parts, cameras, clocks, tins, pool balls, sprinkler heads, hydraulic fittings, oil cans, machine gauges, wrenches, spinning tops...I could go on for days. It just has to be old and cool.
How big are the FOBOTS?
I make little necklace bots that are only about 3" tall, and ones that hang on the wall that top out at about 30". Too much bigger, and I'll have to learn how to weld.
Where do you get the materials?
Flea markets are my favorite, but I'm not above dumpster diving, or shopping on Ebay if there's something I need.
Do you use only recycled materials?
They're about 95% recycled, but I draw the line at nuts, bolts, screws and washers. You want those to be new and rust-free if they're going to hold everything together. And I could go on about saving the planet by recycling stuff, but it's also an aesthetic thing. The old stuff just looks better, and it gives the bots more personality.
Do the materials decide the robot or do you have a design in mind and seek out the materials?
Oh, absolutely the materials decide the robot. On rare occasions, I'll think, gee, wouldn't such and such be the perfect thing for this bot, but that's pretty rare.
How long does it take to make one of the FOBOTS?
Tough question. I usually start with one piece, a body piece or a head mostly, and just keep adding and subtracting junk until it's right. And I'll have several at a time in the "composition" phase at one time. It can take minutes, or it can take weeks. I've got this one lunchbox that I've had for months, I'm dying to use it, but I just can't find the right head.... Then there's all the time spent hunting/gathering, taking their pictures, website maintenance, bookkeeping, shipping...really, the only aspect of production I can quantify is the assembly time, and that may be from hours to days.
Did you set out to make environmental art?
No. I set out to have fun and keep the creativity flowing. I never thought a year ago that I'd be doing this for a living.
Anything you would like to add?
People are always saying, "Your robots have so much personality". I think it's because I try to make them asymmetrical, funky, a little "off". I can have two perfectly good arms or legs or eyes or whatever that match, but I'd rather they didn't. It's like they say, “We like people for their virtues, but we love them for their faults”.
The other thing people always ask about is the names. All the FOBOTS are named and have a copper tag with their number on their butts. I reserve the right to be completely arbitrary in naming them, but it's one of my favorite parts. My favorite name so far, one that had both male and female characteristics named Hermaphrobot. Oh, and there's one that looks like Wall-E and E.T.'s love child — Wall-E.T., of course.
Visit: http://www.ifobot.com/
Show/Hide comment form
