Autumn Satyr

Having always been intrigued by the liminality of the figure of the Satyr, for they are treated as being either fun loving pranksters, excessively sexual, or even dangerous, I wanted to create a mask that expressed this fluidity.

This was one of the first laughing masks I made, for I wanted the character to have a mischievous quality. Many of the classic components of the Satyr figure are present in the mask: the horns, the beard, the elongated faerie ears.

Save for the real wood handle, this mask is entirely paper mache--where the a variety of papers have been utilized in a variety of ways. The most intricate work on this mask involved the thick vines that sprout from the handle and on to the mask, and the autumn leaves, some of which are depicted as deteriorating with the progress of the season. This was also my first attempt to create a paper mache beard, which took some experimenting.

The vines were made my simply twisting a considerable amount of brown butcher paper (wetted in paste), and then shaping it as I wanted. The leaves are made from thick, brown paper, with a metal stem inside (this allows me to shape the leaf as I want). I made the irregular holes in the leaves with a wood burning tool. (Interestingly enough, the smell of the burning paper, which had been soaked in the paper mache paste, was amazingly fragrant--kind of like autumn fires!) The beard was created by soaking very thin brown paper in paste, and then hand-shaping it into place.

The face-work is also unusual for this mask, in that it is oil painted. I had never done this before, and I like the possibilities that oil paint allows. My intent here was to try and capture some of the greenish leaf shadows, which tints the forest light.