The Adventures of Harun al-Rashid

I'm excited to present my most ambitious resin yet, "The Adventures of Harun al-Rashid." Inspired by a drawing from 1920's era illustrator Willy Pogany, I sculpted and printed this work for 2026 The Enchanted Brush Exhibition at the Mazza Museum in Findlay, Ohio.

"The Adventures of Harun al-Rashid" is an archetypal story within a story from the classic Middle Eastern folktale One Thousand and One Nights. The title character, Harun al-Rashid, is a ruler beset by ennui. While languishing in his palace, his advisor suggests they don merchant garb and take to the streets incognito. A nested narrative ensues as Harun al-Rashid meets colorful individuals whom he invites to his palace to hear their stories.

Pogany’s evocative ink drawing of Harun al-Rashid has an almost comical appeal. The royal wears what he thinks are merchant clothes, yet still looks completely outlandish. In my sculptural adaptation of this work, I wanted to evoke the same feeling of a fish out of water: a man so steeped in fabulous wealth that he is incapable of living a normal life. His left hand rests upon a stack of books, representing his layered reality as a fictional character listening to other fictional characters tell fictional stories.

Sculpted in ZBrush, clothing created in Marvelous Designer, patterns created in Photoshop, printed in resin with a Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K S at 8" tall.