The Wonderful Wizard

Spray Foam Magazine – Show Issue 2022 – This gigantic wizard head was a collaborative project between Riggs Fabrication (Mike Riggs) and Smittytown (Kent Smith) for a large electronic dance music festival called Dancefestopia held in Kansas.

This wizard head was the first collaboration project between Riggs and Smith, and they have since gone on to make giant sculptures like catfish and chickens. Their vision is to offer large-scale custom sculptures full of character, personality, and story. Riggs and Smith describe themselves as, “Two creatives who love to collaborate and create unexpected, custom, large-scale sculptures.” They also pointed out that they really enjoy the entire creative process of a project, from digging into research and dreaming up concepts, to refinement of designs all the way through the fabrication, installation, and engagement of the community.

Smith had used spray foam in the past for smaller works like custom masks and small sculptures with great success, so when it came to this gigantic wizard head project spray foam was the obvious choice. Riggs was able to create a framework/scaffold based on some orthographic drawings Smith had made and that framework acted as support for the spray foam. It gave the pair a rough form to carve and sand back after the foam expanded. The spray foam provided them a lightweight substrate that was easy to carve into and would also allow for hard coating and paint over the top to finish.

Due to the large scale of the project Smith and Riggs needed a better solution than the small DIY foam options. They were therefore happy to work with Green Factor Insulation in Lawrence, KS. The crew at Green Factor completed the job in one afternoon, with project manager, William Loy, stating, “We chose BASF SPRAYTITE 178 because it’s a quality closed-cell foam that we use on the majority of our projects.” The two-component closed-cell spray polyurethane foam is designed for use in residential construction and common commercial insulation applications.

According to Riggs and Smith the contractors were able to spray a much denser and quality product than they would have achieved with off the shelf options.

Riggs is a Lawrence, KS-based designer and fabricator and uses technology and creativity to bring custom solutions in unexpected forms. He apprenticed as a welder and from then on, has had a passion for fabrication and building. He went on to get a BS in manufacturing engineering which has given him the skills and knowledge to take on large scale complex projects. His company, Riggs Fabrication LLC, makes a lot of public art installations for music festivals and performance groups. This type of work requires collaboration, precise timelines, and budget consciousness.



Smith is a Lawrence, KS-based illustrator, designer, sculptor, teacher, problem-maker, problem-solver, dimension-hopper, and the mayor of Smittytown. His work can be found on toys, beer labels, custom masks, giant festival sculptures, huge woodblock prints and tiny trading cards. Smith loves solving difficult problems using his crazy brainpower and a menagerie of media to deliver unexpected solutions rich in play and story. His design inspirations are super-heroes, ninjas, monkeys, UFOs, cryptids, robots, ray-guns, and romance. Check out his website Smittytown.com whenever you need an escape or adventure or if you need a unique solution to a creative problem.

Creativity often requires the assistance of quality materials. In this case spray foam was the material that worked its magic in the form of a gigantic wizard head sculpture.