Description

In the 1950s in Queens, NY, a gentleman organized his little collections to create some of the first assemblage art…spools of thread, found glass bottles, buttons, and printed matter about ballet . Joseph Cornell was influenced by the European Cubists and Surrealists, but had few art contemporaries. He was a singular, often imitated genius. The making of a box sculpture is a fascinating pleasure …and common household supplies are all you need. In the first 15 minutes of this class, you learn about Joseph Cornell and other assemblage artists of the past. I will introduce the project, in the second 15 minutes: themes like a dramatic scene, a natural scene, or a symbolic story scene will be discussed. Or, the box sculpture you create may be entirely improvised from objects’ shapes and colors. After additional technical tips, you will start creating your own, and we will work together in our studios simultaneously for the duration of the class, with a halftime break for discussion. Box Art (aka Shadow boxes) can be as beautiful and meaningful—and, therefore, they make great gifts—filled with mementos and natural decorative objects…or as more serious art for the artist. Once begun, a practice of making box art can be highly addictive!

We will be using a combination of the following:

-Household odds and ends
-things you’ve saved and don’t know why — go on a “hunt” through your home or even neighborhood for treasure….
-stuff from your recycling bin
-Momentos, meaningful souvenirs
– a box of ANY size…or several. Made of cardboard, wood, etc.; either large or small
– sandpaper and white paint
– old book that can be destroyed; any printed matter, magazine, etc.
– scissors
– thread, yarn, wire, strings
– hardware like eye hooks and or small tacks and nails
– glue (as many types as handy)….Elmers white glue for porous materials like wood, fabric, cardboard; some kind of “gorilla” or “superglue” for hard-to-glue glass and plastic; other heavy duty bonding epoxy may be useful, but not necessarily; a glue gun if you have one handy; photo mounting spray adhesive, if you plan on using snapshots.