At his day job, Lyndon J. Barrois Sr. uses high-tech software to create visual effects for movies like “Happy Feet” and “The Matrix: Revolutions.” But in his free time, he prefers working with a decidedly less sophisticated medium: discarded gum wrappers.
The wrappers are a nostalgic choice for Barrois, who started sculpting as an antsy 10-year-old with a Hot Wheels collection and a pet peeve.
“You’d look in and see the steering wheel and the seats and like … where’s the driver?” he recalled, adding an emphatic expletive.
Barrois fidgeted with clay, aluminum foil, phone wires, even old chewing gum pulled from the bottom of church pews, twisting each material into tiny drivers for his cars. He soon expanded his repertoire to miniature athletes and finally landed on the perfect material in his mom’s Wrigley gum wrappers.
“It was foil on one side, so I can sculpt it, and paper on the other side, so I can color it,” he said.