‘That Godzilla Guy’ inserts himself into annual artist tour

When Sean McGuinness was 6 or 8, his mother took him to the movie theater at Dutch Square to see “Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.”

So began a lifelong obsession for McGuinness, now 43 and a Photoshop artist who inserts the towering Japanese monster into all sorts of unlikely environments.

This weekend, art lovers can visit “That Godzilla Guy” at his West Columbia home as part of a free, self-guided tour of artist’s studios in Richland and Lexington counties.

McGuinness is one of 41 people participating in the fifth annual Columbia Open Studios, allowing visitors to see artists at work, talk about art and perhaps buy something to take home. The event is presented by the 701 Center for Contemporary Art, which has a guide to participating studios on the website columbiaopenstudios.org.

The tours extend from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

McGuinness lives and works in the home where he grew up; he created a studio out of a one-time garage and childhood playroom. “So it’s kind of appropriate that I use toys to make my art in my gallery,” he said, sitting at a laptop among a collection of at least 400 Godzilla figurines.

During Open Studios, he plans to have a video game or Godzilla movie playing in the background and, if children visit, he’ll offer to doodle a “Godzoodle.”

McGuinness chooses a setting for each of his works – a famous piece of artwork, say, or a historic photograph or promotional poster – and picks a toy monster to embellish the scene. He photographs the Godzilla and manipulates the image to fit within the setting.

He has placed Godzilla on a Civil War battlefield, at Columbia’s Busted Plug Plaza and within Biblical tableaus.

Sometimes, he’s making a political or social statement. After all, he noted, Godzilla was created to protest the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Other times, though, he’s just hoping for a laugh.

He has no illusions about an artistic legacy but, still, considers his work to be legitimate art that stimulates thought and emotion.

“Is my artwork going to be seen hundreds of years from now, when aliens come to see our desiccated planet?” he asked. “Probably not.

“But I’m going to have touched someone. And that person is going to go out in the world and carry that sentiment; it’s going to set things in motion.”

For McGuinness – who is “100 percent self-taught” and makes a living as print room operator for the Palmetto Health hospital system – the prospect of sharing his studio and his artistic process brings him a lot of joy. He’s one of seven first-time artists participating in Open Studios this year.

“Art’s not created in a vacuum,” he said. “It’s meant to be shared and celebrated.”

This story was originally published April 5, 2015 at 4:30 PM with the headline "‘That Godzilla Guy’ inserts himself into annual artist tour."