A question I’m often asked is, “When did you become an artist?”, or the variation, “When did you start making art?”
The answer to both is that I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing or painting or making something. My earliest memories are of holding a pencil and scratching at a piece of paper.
Ok, maybe I have an earlier memory of standing in the backyard of our house when it was being built. I was barely 2 years old, looking down at my shoes on the rough dirt clods wondering that all was and feeling really unsteady. But I digress.
Growing up, we weren’t allowed in Mom’s kitchen, except to get in one small drawer. In the drawer were construction paper and a cigar box full of kiddie scissors and crayons. We could get into it any time we wanted. I loved that box, the crayons, the creative time, everything.
My artistic journey began with that box, as it was the first step on the path to explore the joys of creating.
That box has gained mythic proportions in my memory, so I wanted to elevate those simple objects into something important.
In this modern version, I covered a wooden cigar box with vintage white buttons and half an eggshell painted gold to make it a jewel encrusted treasure chest.
The box is full of crayons in all the colors! Full size ones, broken ones, ones worn down to nubs. I glazed them so they are glossy, like jewels. I display it with a few crayons next to it on the table, as if they have spilled from an abundantly full box.
The style is influenced by memory jugs, a folk art tradition of gluing sentimental objects to a jug or vase or other vessel.
Medium: cigar box with buttons and crayons
Size: 9.5 inches wide x 5 inches high
Signed: on the bottom
Exhibits: Reverse Archeology (2019)
