Altered E Art

I am drawn to decorative boxes that look liIke trunks or suitcases, holding the energy of the traveler.  I typically use found boxes of all kinds and a few of the larger ones were custom made by my carpenter husband. 

 

I also love the little wooden cabinets of curiosities.  They are typically free-form pieces for me, not working from an overall concept or working through specific feelings.  They are like greeting cards of the moment. 

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About the BOXES

 

I gather and collect boxes of many sizes and shapes, always ready at hand.  The little cabinets are designed for doll house collectors, but I love them as special containers with their secret doors and shelves. They are typically around 4" wide and 1 5/8" deep.

 

I may come to a box with an idea, a feeling to be expressed, an issue to work through.  Sometimes the box itself leads me in a certain direction.  At other times, it is a blank slate, awaiting paint and images. 

 

I love to add secret elements to the boxes, things that can only be seen by looking within, elements that may not be noticed at first.  Each part of the box becomes a canvas for expression. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The box becomes a planter for an emerging plant whose finally flowering blossom I cannot always see completely from the beginning of the assembling and constructing of the piece.

 

When I create a box for another, I include all the colors, images and elements that I feel echoes or reflects that person, sometimes including aspects I see within them that they may not recognize or identify with themselves.

 

Each box becomes a moment in time, a glimpse of another world or realm.  I may begin a piece with a clear meaning, but often the meaning becomes more subtle or allusive as I work. 

 

Over time the boxes ‘settle into’ themselves and they change from expressions of an issue or meaning into becoming a piece of art that holds its own mystery and meaning beyond its first impetus and my ideas.