The Art of Thomas Kuntz
From the artist's site:
Thomas Kuntz is a contemporary artist fighting to bring ancient arcana and modern technologies together as weapons for aesthetic enlightenment. He was born in Phoenix Arizona as the youngest of four siblings.
His father, a surgeon, and his mother, a folk artist and doll maker, both provided the necessary genepool and a stimulating environment for him to grow into early on.
Thomas has been working constantly as a professional artist since 1986, but his private projects tend to feature the mysterious,uncanny,sometimes darkly horrific and bittersweet sad aspects of human nature.He has devoted a lifetime to aquire the skills of designer, sculptor, mechanician, automatist, animator, modelmaker, painter and conceptualist.
Thomas' work is pretty amazing! Be sure to watch through the demonstration of the automaton above, the second half of the video details some of it's construction. There are more movies of Thomas' creations here, and you can visit his website here.