JEREMY MAYER

Portrait of Marvyn A. Pelzner

Jeremy Mayer

Typewriter Parts

16”x8”x15”(41cm x 20cm x 38cm)

2013

This is my latest project- a portrait commission. 

The client, Mark Pelzner, came to me with 3 typewriters bequeathed to him by his late father, Marvyn Pelzner. Mark wanted me to take those typewriters and make a likeness of his dad that would be mounted on a box which holds Marvyn’s ashes. 

There are some parts in the sculpture that came from other typewriters in my stash, but most of the parts are from Marvyn’s typewriters. The eyes, for example, are made from his Smith Corona desktop, the shoulders from his Underwood portable, and parts of the head were from his desktop Underwood No. 5.

Marvyn was an Optometrist in the San Francisco Bay Area who was a big San Francisco Giants fan and a doting grandfather. 

Many thanks to the Pelzner family for coming to me to work on such a powerful and personal project. I feel very fortunate to have been entrusted to do this. 

As usual, I made this using only typewriter parts- no solder, no glue, no welding, no armature.