10. Colin Christian

Colin Christian was born in London on March 30, 1964 to a loving and outgoing mother. He disliked school, and apart from art classes, found the whole thing rather frustrating and useless. At the age of 15 he left school and lived for a year in Morocco with his mother, brother and sister. He found the cultural differences to be very liberating. Upon his return to England at the age of 16 he worked at a record store, and in 1982 became a DJ and stage manager for a large nightclub in the south of England. This is where he met his wife, Sas, in 1989.

In 1992 Colin moved to the U.S. where he and his wife started a small business, called "Hotbox, Inc.," making latex clothing for fetish stores around the country. Their work was featured in Penthouse and Skin Two magazines. Taking what he had learned from clothing manufacturing and combining it with his interest in movie special effects, Colin started to produce fiberglass figures and displays. In 1998 he produced his first figure, an anime girl called "Suki," towering at 7 feet tall and anatomically correct.

Colin decided to put his career on hold for a few years to take up commercial sculpture. Sas was developing as a painter and if this was to be encouraged she had to be able to devote herself full time to her work. The commercial work paid the bills and would support them both until Sas was ready to support herself. During this time, Colin produced pieces for stores, museums and various businesses. A robot he made for the American Heart Association was interviewed by Katie Couric on the Today show. He also constructed the worlds largest mousetrap for pest control company Truly Nolen, which is now featured in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Colin now works full time on his original sculptures, finding inspiration in old sci-fi movies, pinup girl/supermodels, Anime, ambient electronic music and H.P. Lovecraft. In 2004 he started using silicone in his sculptures, a difficult material to use but one that helps him achieve his goal of true cartoon realism: a line drawing made flesh. He is not looking to create every imperfection and flaw, but to take the exaggerations and perfections of cartoons and turn them into a realistic 3D form.

Colin combines eroticism with references to science fiction. He customizes his pin-ups in futuristic fashion, rendering them semi-cosmonaut, semi-robot. Colin creates their fashion according to a flashy neo-punk dress code, always suggesting their dominatrix spirit.

See more work by Colin HERE