The Tithonus

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

As many of you know, I used to work in sideshow and spookhouses. I still do occasionally work in prop design and creation. Readers of my website often ask about my home. Simply put, I could open my home as a museum come Halloween. I'm often asked to share pictures and the like, and I usually refuse, but I got a camera for xmas, I like you guys and I thought I would share a couple of things. Just some of my sculptures, paintings and the general 'cozy' ambiance of my home. By no means is this everything. I am limiting this to only things I have made myself - within my kitchen. I do not display my historical collection publicly by any means.

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/35/10156109cf1.gif

My lamp, or Time Machine, as I like to call it. The statue in the back there is a self portrait. The banner paining is mine as well and is of Lentini, The Three Legged Man. (http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/2006/08/francesco-lentini-three-legged-man.html)

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6498/15524943wd1.gif

A better shot of it. It's acrylic on canvas by the way. The circle is covering his two sets of genitalia.

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/4272/15701386hq2.gif

My two-headed baby sculpt. He spent a lot of years in a very large apothocary jar. He's not latex, rather he is solid resin. The skull is a 'BigFoot Skull'.

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/2093/94412328yg6.gif

Another banner, this one for The Tocci Twins (http://www.thehumanmarvels.com/2006/09/tocci-twins-blended-brothers.html).

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8240/64872535ib1.gif

Jar baby is mine. A latex sculpt. The ear is mine. The brain is a baked resin sculpt. The 'How to Cook Everything' book behind them is plain hilarious.

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/4567/28743844hz5.gif
When I first started performing, I wore a leather mask I cut and sculpted. Now it adorns my medical skull.

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/1365/27738500jt7.gif

Rear wall and a few bits of history. The thing in the center is a Bigfoot cast. Just plaster.

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/1454/41305688yq4.gif
Shrunken head. Latex and resin filled. Real human hair. Real bone.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/9616/13gs8.gif

My cyclopia baby sculpt. Rubber. Moved her into the bathroom right after the pic.

There you have it.

A couple of other props:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3237/n56290521914986539ci0.jpg
One of a million corpse sculpts I have done. This one a bog mummy.
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9653/11139334uf8.gif
Another one of my lamps.

So, questions and comments are welcome.

[MLE]

I totally love everything about this.

[bigtimecow]

put an http:// in front of all your links

but man you have some cool shit

[Tadao]

Thanks for sharing, it would be a shame for my eyes to have never seen your work.

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Thanks guys, and gall.

I have way more stuff, but like I said, just focusing mostly on what I made. Questions, please ask away.

And I fixed the links. Thanks for the heads up BTC.

[Tadao]

I was gonna just look at your web site instead of asking but I like talking better. So, how long have you been working with sideshow type o stuff?

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Just over 20 years, really. I started collecting stuff at 7 years old. Professionally performing off and on, since I was a teenager - busking and what not. Stage and touring sideshow off and on for about five years. I consider myself retired now. I am no longer involved in the sideshow aside from occasionally promoting a few friends who are still involved.

I don't even consider myself a sideshow historian. I am a teratological historian. My site itself has been up for a couple of years now.

Been doing props and the like since I was a pre-teen.

[terrva]

That's friggin' awesome! When i grow up, i wanna be just like you.

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

I will never grow up!

[Chojin]

you ever done props for films?

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Yes. A lot of movies. Mostly cheap horror stuff shooting out of Toronto. But most recently I did props for a an upcoming film called The Summit. I've worked on a number of film sets in different roles as well.

[Cosmo Electrolux]

those lamps are amazing....your home is fantastic. Thanks for the look inside.

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

You are welcome. I plan on taking a trip out to my studio in Toronto next week. If I remember, I'll snap some photos there as well.

Anyone else do props here?

[Dixie]

Every now and then I am called upon for stage props and photography particularly for a band called October 31. The heavy metal props are always fun and goofy.

The last of which I worked on was a 1' tall rubber rat dubbed The Rivet Rat with "frankenstein green" hand-stitching on his belly, red "ruby" eyes, and a spiked collar of course. One guy made an entire stage set for them years ago that was very similar to what you have posted but it was so huge, heavy, and over the top we couldn't get it into most clubs and had no way of transporting it. It makes an awesome basement decoration though hahah.

I love what you've done, if you have any reccomendations on how to get into that line of work more seriously I'm all ears. I even currently work on an on-call basis at the local theater mostly as a carpenter.

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

More stuff.... another lamp...
http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/4774/machine2js0xf4.jpg

A really old manipulation from about 5 years ago.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4900/byjpednaudfl8.jpg

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Recently, I was asked to participate in contemporary art collaboration. I was not only asked to perform a bit, but to also read a bit of my book and to collaborate with a local artist in some way.

Now, the major theme of my book is that many monstrous myths have a kernel a fact behind them. In 1512, a deformed child was born on Ravenna. This birth was recorded and Pope Julius II ordered the child starved. Within months, the child became known as ‘The Monster of Ravenna’. Now, I believe the reason why this very real child became a monster so quickly was because when the story travelled, it of course mutated, but also described in terms most common people could understand. This was of course a time before television, radio, and readily available literature. As a result, animalistic characteristics were often used as reference. Many took the descriptions too literal.

I thought I would give the artist – one Peter Mihaichuck – a description of ‘The Monster’ recorded by a travelling apothecary as he travelled through Ravenna in the same month of the birth. His description was based on an illustration he saw of the monster.

I was interested in seeing what Peter would come up with from the description. The results are pretty awesome.

His version:
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5341/monsterzl8.gif

A woodcut of The Monster as it appeared in Pare’s Des Monstres, first published in 1573.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/2082/monster2xf0.gif
The similarities are pretty surprising and seem to support my hypothesis.

[Nick]

Man, your stuff is awesome. :)

[ZAKO the GREAT]

a tribute.
http://wm50.inbox.com/thumbs/8_4f9dc_1277a513_oJ.jpg.thumb