“I have trouble focusing,” says Bonelli, a self-proclaimed, ‘Jack of way too many trades'. He explains that coming from a theatre background, part of being a prop designer is being able to work every skill, and be flexible when presented with unknowns. Basically, if Scott is offered a project that is foreign to his experience, he doesn't bat an eye before taking it on. He'll simply figure it out. I asked him about a 14-foot high guillotine he constructed last year as a prop for a Halloween theme park. My exact words were, “How the HELL did you know how to build a guillotine?”

He shrugged in mock sheepishness, and explained. “I…looked at a picture of a guillotine, and…I sort of scaled in my mind how big it would be.” And so, asked by the theme park if he could do it, Bonelli “Just built one.”

I examined one of Scott's shrunken heads from his Halloween collection, made to look eerily like the real thing with leathery looking skin, tactile eyelashes and brows, and tribal decorations. The delicate details seemed the work of an artist rather than a craftsman alone, and I asked Scott which he considers himself. He did not hesitate on his answer.

“Craftsman. I don't call any of it art. Art just has artsy connotations. Either you're super faggy or you're super aloof where you have to wear black.”

When I added that he might want to wear a beret with that all black, artsy wardrobe, he surprised me by reaching behind him and producing a fez, which he placed on his head. “The rest of the interview will be conducted wearing a fez. I rock the fez, don't I?”

Indeed. While Bonelli may be adamant about his craftsman status, his creativity is evident in not only his designs, but also in his choices. Currently working on a ‘sideshow' theme, he is reproducing a variety of freaks from the days of old, including mummies of the world, Siamese twin skulls, and Pickled Punks. I found the Pickled Punks particularly intriguing, a reproduced, mutant two-headed fetus, floating in an apothecary jar. Scott explained that this is part of the old school sideshow, where they would exhibit these freakish things under glass. ‘Pickled Punks' was the industry term for a dead baby, a genuine one that is, while a ‘bouncer' was a fake, made of rubber or wax.

“You'll hear in freak shows, ‘real live, under glass, the forgotten children, the children of the drug culture'. Next one I do is going to be worm boy, little head, spiral body with like one flipper sticking out, in a big apothecary jar. Few wispy hairs floating in the water.”

It might seem as though Bonelli is a master of the macabre, but surprisingly enough, he is not a fan of the horror or science fiction genre. Again we see the right-brain, left-brain switch as Bonelli insists that his interests lie more in the technical aspect of things, listing his current reading material as ‘Backyard Ballistics, Mechanical Wooden Toys', and a catalogue from a sewing company that makes straight jackets. Yeah, just a craftsman. Yet somehow the surreal and playfulness always make an appearance, which, sorry Scott, is another artist trait.

I asked Scott about this theme of ‘play' which seems to thread through his work, and how important he thinks play is in the adult word.

And while Scott's products clearly come from one that holds play in high regard, there is another layer, when we consider that much of his creations encourage play in the customer.

“If I can give you a toy, so you can play in a way that you've never played before, yeah. Making it happen. I'm an enabler. It's sort of a weird empathy thing going on. I see it happening, and I'm like, wow, that's way too serious. People don't play enough, we don't touch each other enough, we're not jovial enough. We're not good-natured enough. Someone cuts you off on the road, you flip em off. I spent all of today letting every single person that wanted to pull out in traffic, pull out. I was twenty minutes late because they all took advantage of me and I was bitter and resentful, but I wanted to see if I could do it for a whole day.”

Freak shows, guillotines, custom sex toys, theatre prop designs, this is not a man who would settle for a bland life it would seem, although I'm still a bit stymied by the left- brain, right-brain merge I see in him, this conflict of calculation and creativity. It's clear that there is at least some level of extremity in his personality, despite the mechanical edge. I asked Scott if, as with many creative people, he feels he needs more stimulation than the normal world provides.

“I'm running crazy, I'm building stupid stuff, I'm running to crazy events, I'm just zooming along with it. I don't know that I'm subconsciously filling a void. I'm trying to fill myself, clearly. I love flavor. I don't want Indian food every night, it doesn't have to be spicy and burny, but I want a richness, I want a dark rich color. I want the wood to feel solid. I want the flavor to be robust. I want the passion to be hearty. I want the laugh to hurt my stomach. I want it all turned up to volume eleven. Maybe twelve. I'm rockin the fez.”

More information on Scott's Halloween creations and other crafts can be found at http://www.bigheadstudio.com/toppage36.htm

He's always looking for new commissions and new projects, ‘creative stuff that's fun'. Have an idea? Try him. He'll figure it out. Just don't call him an artist. Unless it's behind his back.

The above article is copyrighted by "The Swamp" and the author, Adrienne Jones.. 

...the photos belong to me, and I know a lawyer...