Materials: Wood box, mirror, shaped balsa wood, copper, black velvet,
acrylic paint, wire, fishing line, steel globe, sandstone figurine.
I 've always loved the unique, 3-dimensional constructions of the artist Joseph Cornell. who elevated the box to a major art form. Cornell was also an accomplished collagist and filmmaker. In New York between 1921 and 1931, he began exploring the city and its cultural resources. His art has been described as romantic, poetic, lyrical and surrealistic. Self-taught but sophisticated, he created his first collages and box constructions in the 1930s. By 1940, his boxes contained found materials artfully arranged, then collaged and painted to suggest poetic associations inspired by the arts, humanities and sciences.
He believed aesthetic theories were foreign to the origin of his art; said his works were based on everyday experiences, "the beauty of the commonplace:' I loved that. An insatiable collector, he acquired thousands of printed and three-dimensional objects; searching libraries, book shops and antique fairs in New York and relying on his contacts across the United States and in Europe. With these objects, he created magical relationships by combining disparate images.Cornell was an imaginative and reclusive private man who, despite never having traveled, mingled images of global fantasy and reality, produced works outstanding not only for their originality and craftsmanship but for their complexity and diversity.
While my mind doesn't lean to the deep symbolism of his work, I wanted to create something inspired by his works, that built on my own experience as an acrylic painter, graphic designer, and storyteller (See my fiction page fiction page). I wanted to explore the 3-D space created by the box itself, incorporate reflections, various textures and put in some fun details. While Cornell called his work "Shadowboxes'; a term I love, I refer to my first effort as a "Memory Box': commemorating a month-long trip to China many years ago. I remarked to my wife that I was surprised to find myself creating a piece of art using not just my accustomed brushes, but also powertools.
