{"id":214102,"date":"2025-06-11T12:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/?p=214102"},"modified":"2025-06-17T09:04:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T13:04:48","slug":"step-inside-the-marvelous-mind-of-new-orleans-sculptor-walker-babington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/step-inside-the-marvelous-mind-of-new-orleans-sculptor-walker-babington","title":{"rendered":"Step Inside the Marvelous Mind of New Orleans Sculptor Walker Babington"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sabatom_studios\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Walker Babington<\/a> looks like he came straight out of a vaudeville tent, the curling ends of his thick mustache bookending a mischievous smile. That theatricality extends to the rest of the New Orleans artist\u2019s life. Babington is a working stuntman, trained to fall, fight, or catch on fire. And he\u2019s a self-taught sculptor whose giant Seussian structures\u2014previously spotted only at such festivals as Burning Man and Mardi Gras\u2014now have Smithsonian street cred.<\/p>\n\n\n<!-- Promo shortcode start --><div id=\"nlf-1c\" class=\"gg-promo topic-weddings big\"><div class=\"grid\"><div class=\"title\">Get G&G Weddings<\/div><div class=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/promos\/weddings-big.jpg\" alt=\"decorated wedding table\"><\/div><div class=\"right\"><form id=\"nlf-1\" method=\"post\" class=\"form\" action=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/newsletters\/\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"gg_form_submit\" value=\"nlf-1\"><div class=\"dek\">Sign up to be among the first to know about G&amp;G Weddings&mdash;a new digital offering launching November 1.<\/div><div class=\"action two-items\"><div class=\"input-left\"><input type=\"text\" name=\"email\" class=\"email-input\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"you@example.com\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"group_id\" value=\"150868468\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"shortcode_form\" value=\"nlf-1\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"prev_page_id\" value=\"214102\"><\/div><div class=\"gform_footer\"><button class=\"g-recaptcha button button-primary after-email\" data-sitekey=\"6Lc-hRkaAAAAAI84hbB81Jl48pGievR_C_UgHdnY\" data-callback=\"on_submit_nlf_1\" data-action=\"submit\">Sign Up<\/button><script>function on_submit_nlf_1(token) {document.getElementById(\"nlf-1\").submit();}<\/script><\/div><\/div><div class=\"captcha-terms\"><p>This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p><\/div><\/form><\/div><\/div><\/div><!-- Promo shortcode end -->\n\n\n\n<p>Babington says he\u2019s always been \u201cextra.\u201d While he was growing up in Maryland, \u201cmy parents saw potential success but also worried I might end up in jail,\u201d he recalls with a laugh. After a few years globe-trotting, in 2011 he enrolled in a Seattle stunt school and has since landed roles in such films as<em> The Magnificent Seven<\/em> and stunt-doubled for the likes of Sam Rockwell. He also picked a home base. \u201cWhen I was traveling, every time I hit New Orleans, I felt roots grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"880\" height=\"1100\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_03-880x1100.jpg\" alt=\"A portrait of a man with a curly mustache, sitting in an orange room\" class=\"wp-image-214105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_03-880x1100.jpg 880w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_03-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_03-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_03-960x1200.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Babington at home in New Orleans.<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"image-credit\" style=\"text-align:right;\">photo: BRYAN TARNOWSKI<\/figcaption><div class=\"caption\">Babington at home in New Orleans.<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There, in 2015, Babington began developing what he calls his \u201clarge-scale, fantastical symbolist folk art.\u201d But his fascination with building started long before. \u201cI\u2019ve been collecting reclaimed materials and reassembling them into figures since I was four,\u201d he says. Burning Man, the avant-garde arts festival in Nevada, \u201callowed me to envision taking it to a larger scale.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His first bigger piece, a rendition of the Russian folklore figure Baba Yaga, included a twenty-foot-high \u201cwitch house\u201d held aloft by legs of corrugated metal feathers and, he explains, \u201coystershell \u2018chicken skin\u2019 plastered on.\u201d Babington debuted it at the T-Bois Blues Festival in Louisiana, and an art collector later commissioned a similar one. His reclaimed materials resonated. \u201cI\u2019m always on the hunt,\u201d he says. \u201cThe side of the road, the banks of the Mississippi, local architectural salvage stores, and of course dumpster diving. I\u2019ve also got an arrangement with the local scrapyard, where I slip the manager on duty a bone and scavenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has another secret weapon, too: his wife, the filmmaker, producer, and artist Shana Betz, whom he met and married in New Orleans. \u201cAs a visual storyteller, I like to act as a prompt for Walker to support the narrative behind each sculpture,\u201d Betz explains. \u201cIt creates a strong root system as he refines his sketches.\u201d<\/p><div id=\"div-gpt-ad-9344607\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad mobile inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1662989\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad tablet inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-8550320\" class=\"ad-container in-line-ad desktop inContent\" data-ad-size-mapping=\"inContent\" data-ad-path=\"\/68000349\/in-between-modules\" data-ad-sizes=\"[ [336, 280], [300, 250], [300, 50] ]\" data-ad-channel=\"\" data-ad-type=\"In-between Modules\" data-page-terms=\"flagged\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<p>That collaboration played out in his largest piece yet,<em> Burden of the Beast<\/em>, a thirty-two-foot-tall bison bisected by a ramshackle house. The curved ribbons of wood that make up the animal\u2019s fur came from homes ravaged by Hurricane Ida in 2021. \u201cI\u2019d been sketching the bison for ten years,\u201d Babington says. \u201cThe idea is a bayou house, wrecked by water. Memories sank into the floorboards, and they convinced the house to rise up, on the back of this bison. Even if your home is destroyed,<em> home<\/em> still exists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"876\" height=\"1100\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_01-876x1100.jpg\" alt=\"A large wood sculpture of a bison\" class=\"wp-image-214103\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_01-876x1100.jpg 876w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_01-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_01-768x964.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_01-956x1200.jpg 956w, https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GG0325_Arts_01.jpg 1897w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Babington\u2019s <i>Burden of the Beast<\/i> looms over the Nevada desert at 2023\u2019s Burning Man festival.<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"image-credit\" style=\"text-align:right;\">photo: BRYAN TARNOWSKI<\/figcaption><div class=\"caption\">Babington\u2019s <i>Burden of the Beast<\/i> looms over the Nevada desert at 2023\u2019s Burning Man festival.<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>With the help of assistants, Babington assembles his sculptures in sections. For 2023\u2019s Burning Man, they drove<em> Burden<\/em> there in pieces to erect it on-site. During a panel, Babington and Betz caught the attention of Carrie Spencer, a curator at the Smithsonian affiliated <a href=\"https:\/\/thehermitagemuseum.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hermitage Museum &amp; Gardens<\/a> in Norfolk, Virginia. \u201cHe was speaking about relevant issues, like rising sea levels\u2014a challenge we deal with here in Norfolk,\u201d Spencer recalls. \u201cI saw [the sculpture] after, and it\u2019s so layered and dynamic. When you add in that underlying message, I knew it was perfect for our museum.\u201d Now<em> Burden of the Beast<\/em> sits on the Hermitage\u2019s front lawn, where it will remain until October. The museum is also exhibiting Babington\u2019s<em> Zozobot<\/em>, a giant Harlequin robot clown with a fiberglass face and a massive telescope, a comment on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Closer to home, Tulane University commissioned Babington\u2019s<em> Kaleidosophia<\/em> for its campus library. The tree-trunk-thick kaleidoscope, made of discarded brass, antique metal, and colored glass, features a crank and a brass pump that produce bursts of feathers, and swirling vintage maps from Tulane\u2019s historic city collection. And soon, libraries may contain his work in a different medium: He\u2019s illustrating a series of children\u2019s books, inspired by his seven-year-old daughter, Willa. \u201cEverything I do has a childhood element to it,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s colorful, weird, and a little slanted.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scrapyard materials and roadside castoffs transform into whimsical, larger-than-life characters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":214104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-06-11T16:06:37Z","apple_news_api_id":"08169b55-d530-46e6-ba09-155720eb6d2b","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-06-17T13:04:45Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ACBabVdUwRua6CRVXIOttKw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784,2398],"tags":[29653,292,36,30280],"authors":[2280],"issue":[30566],"recipe-type":[],"class_list":["post-214102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-arts-entertainment","tag-art","tag-louisiana","tag-new-orleans","tag-whats-new","authors-jenny-adams","issue-june-july-2025"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Step Inside the Marvelous Mind of New Orleans Sculptor Walker Babington &#8211; Garden &amp; Gun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Scrapyard materials and roadside castoffs transform into whimsical, larger-than-life characters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/step-inside-the-marvelous-mind-of-new-orleans-sculptor-walker-babington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Step Inside the Marvelous Mind of New Orleans Sculptor Walker Babington\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scrapyard materials and roadside castoffs transform into whimsical, larger-than-life characters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gardenandgun.com\/articles\/step-inside-the-marvelous-mind-of-new-orleans-sculptor-walker-babington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Garden &amp; 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