STYLE
CLOSER
BOX ART STILLS
BOX ART
EARLY WORKS
POSHING
13 Photos
Self-styled shoot with John Fletcher
Featuring:
♦ Inherited lace and jewelry
♦ Costume glasses
♦ Rose drape from my past
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POW TIGHTS
7 Photos
Self-styled shoot with photographers Sydnie Michele & Stephen Salmieri
Featuring:
♦ Emma Rose leggings
♦ Part of a Mel en Stel jacket
♦ My favorite rose pin
♦ Vintage Tucker skirt
♦ Rabbit shirt from H&M
♦ United Nude heels
♦ Necklaces my sister didn’t want anymore…
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PICNIC DRESS
9 Photos
Self-styled shoot with photographers Sydnie Michele & Stephen Salmieri
Featuring:
♦ Concept 70s Swirl dress
♦ Vintage beaded sash from my grandmother
♦ Inherited lace top
♦ Belt from a Mel en Stel jacket
♦ Pancake ring
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CONFESSIONAL POLKA
12 Photos
Self-styled shoot with John Fletcher
Featuring:
♦ Arm sleeves from a high school dance performance
♦ Hand-me-down jewelry and fabric
♦ Dotted dress with a backstory
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STAR SHOOT
3 Photos
Self-styled shoot with photographers Sydnie Michele & Stephen Salmieri
Featuring:
♦ Vintage ceramic Medusa belt
♦ 70s dress
♦ Polka dotted scarf that acted as my security blanket through some very hard times… falling off me now
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LADY LIBERTY
14 Photos
Self-styled shoot, photographs by John Fletcher
Featuring:
♦ Liberty mask and peach from my grandmother’s studio
♦Necklace from my grandmother’s closet
♦Thrift shop scarves
♦In-N-Out Burger hat scored with my friend Lauren at an LA drive-thru
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IT’S YOUR STORY
8 Photos
Self-styled shoot with John Fletcher
Featuring:
♦ Betsey Johnson lace
♦ Scarf and belt from my grandmother
♦ Halloween props
♦ Pom Poms from Michael’s
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PINK PANTS
5 Photos
Self-styled shoot with photographers Sydnie Michele & Stephen Salmieri
Featuring:
♦ My great-grandmother’s lace
♦ Necklace from the Met
♦ Pants from a sale rack
♦ Hummus ring
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MISCELLANEOUS
4 Photos
Shots by Sydnie Michele, Stephen Salmieri, and Nathalie Michel
Featuring:
♦ Fading Away in Florals
♦ Gran Jacket
♦ Me and Marilyn
♦ Purple Cowboy
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EGGS AND OWLS
12 Photos
Self-styled shoot, photographs by John Fletcher
Featuring:
♦ Me at home
♦ A plastic egg from my grandmother’s studio
♦ My favorite black tie
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CHARTREUSIN
5 Photos
Self-styled shoot with photographers Sydnie Michele & Stephen Salmieri
Featuring:
♦ Lace from my childhood dress-up box
♦ Peeling earrings from high school
♦ Pancake ring
♦ Beacon’s closet vintage
♦ On my ring, yes, mini pancakes again
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THE BEAR FACE BOX
19 Photos
The Bear Face Box was inspired by my concern for the state of our ecosphere, and features a lit-up bear head held by a rigid lady in a bear mask, deserted ships, a chopped forest, an abraded strawberry patch, and stuffed antelopes juxtaposed with a rusting sink.
The box takes into consideration the challenge of being a participant in something so devastating, while at the same time celebrating the beauty that exists when that devastation is accepted, and the world is observed more closely. It asks how solitude and our own personal happiness may need to be reinvented inside of our modern circumstances.
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THE RODRIGO BOX
12 Photos
The Rodrigo Box was created for a gentle, free-spirited man in New York City. It speaks to the themes and challenges that he encountered in his life – from not feeling accepted by his family for his sexuality, to wanting to bust free from submissive patterns and roar in his professional life, to his striving to open and ready himself for a fulfilling partnership. It was time to dance… and this work was to anchor him daily as a reminder.
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THE SALTY MAN BOX
32 Photos
Salty Man sold at SCOPE Basel.
About this work:
One who is “salty” is defined as being “down-to-earth”. Here we see a man who is literally sprayed with salt on a regular basis, but just how “down-to-earth” he is remains to be seen.
Is the fisherman’s gaze one of solitude and contentment with a life on the rocking open waters or one of pain from a heart broken twice by the death of the two wives who had made his nightly dinners and welcomed him back to land, and to a sense of worthwhileness?
How much of what we see in those who appear to love and be consumed by their work is actually escapism?
How much of our desire for solitude is really a fear of intimacy?
How much of our sense of purpose is tied up in others?
On the sides of this box we see: a shot of the beach road the fisherman would walk home every dusk to his hot pasta; we see the tools that are as natural to him as the computers and smart phones of his neighbors are to him unnatural; we see his ship, but looking closer we see that it’s deserted; we see a swordfish swallowing a person, and we see the repair job of a broken bone in a hospital – maybe the swordfish only took a leg, and crutches are in order.
Maybe the fishing poles of this man are pseudo crutches for a kind of pain that isn’t physical. Maybe this fisherman was actually swallowed up by the sea, or maybe he only wishes that he would be, to leave behind the gaping void of loneliness he feels with regularity.
Or maybe this is a man so comfortable in his own skin, so filled with the love of fish, women, and salt, that his eyes are always in flight as he lets his face naturally weather outside of all vanity; he is a man of the deep waters, but one found and free inside.
Or maybe he is all of the above, depending on the tides… kind of like me.
Structure: Maple wood box, yellow boatman chalkware head
Elements: Ironed on photo transfers, repurposed vintage matchbox label, vintage Barbie fishing rods, photo of beach road from Martha’s Vineyard.
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THE FILTERS OF YOUTH BOX
23 Photos
Filters of Youth is available for sale through Alp Galleries in Frankfurt. If you have an interest in this work, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the gallery.
This work speaks to the pleasantly blinding effect that innocence has on our perspective – prior to its erosion – and to the idea that even though our blinders may be on, the heavy social circumstances surrounding us during any stage of innocence will invariably shape our interior development.
The four matchbox drawers feature images of Nazi party leaders and imprisoned victims of the Holocaust, but the severity of this content is brought to the level of background noise; it is overshadowed by bright foreground elements representing the sweeter occupations of a child’s world consumed with funny pets and unicorns, hula hoops and chocolate bars; that Nestle made her candy while financing the Nazi party is of no consequence to her.
And yet, no matter how oblivious to surrounding tragedy we may be, as children or otherwise, our lives will reflect its gravity, as is demonstrated in “Filters of Youth” by the paper doll children that are down-turned (in the fireplace, the kids are still “getting burned”, though they’re playing) and by the red substance dripping down the teddy bear wallpaper; it could be candy apple topping or it could be blood.
The hearty steak dinner comes attached to barbed wire, in other words, with some kind of price; a price that we cannot understand from inside a state of innocence. It may be that our parents had to do something they didn’t want to do in order to put that meal on the table for us. Maybe they are deeply regretting certain of their choices as they serve us that plate, a plate that we only see ripe with the sustenance that will give us the energy to run off and play again.
Structure: Vintage porcelain 4-drawer matchbox made in Italy, vintage unfinished dollhouse miniature fireplace
Elements: Original cutouts from 1920s magazines, barbed wire
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THE ACT NOW BOX
6 Photos
Romance is impatient.
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THE ALEX BOX
15 Photos
Commissioned as a gift for Alex, who was on the cusp of graduating from Harvard.
Alex is a carnivore who was living in the vegetarian co-op on campus (and happened to love ham and salami sandwiches); could be found reading in Caffe Reggio on MacDougal Street or riding his prized bicycle when visiting his hometown, NYC; is a deep thinker and philosopher, was arts chair of his school newspaper, the Crimson, and dreamed of living in Cairo!
For the Alex project, I chose to go with a 4-drawer vintage matchbox structure so that I could speak to some of his loves and goals in a more segregated way. I spruced up the front of the box with an original “Good Luck Matches” label, to send an obvious well wishes message to Alex about his future. The dollhouse miniature ham sandwiches in the lower right drawer were handcrafted in England, and next to them at left is an original frame from a contact sheet I made in college, of a Portsmouth, NH exterior that I felt had a Harvard-esque vibe. Most of the other elements were extracted from old cookbooks, advertisements, and stacks of ephemera!
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THE BALL BOX
5 Photos
Here’s a sporty little matchbox reward made for a Kickstarter backer named George in Australia. The football box was one of the Ohio Blue Tip Fancy series from 1955. The shoe is courtesy of Ken.
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THE FORMATIVE YEARS BOX
17 Photos
Formative Years is available for sale through Alp Galleries in Frankfurt. If you have an interest in this work, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the gallery.
Psychologists speak of the first five years of a child’s life – termed “formative years” – as being the most crucial where concerns the development of their mental and behavioral patterning. This work asks: To what degree do we have the power to re-shape the way we were initially formed?
This work’s surreal landscape offers us the view of a baby being impressed by external influences within his formative years. Why is the sink of his kitchen so dirty and abandoned, and covered in addictive food choices? Is that his Father on the back wall, and is he sick? Is the sink only in this state temporarily as a result of his Dad having a fever, or is his Dad’s sickness actually mental, and the sink is always like this?
On the outside walls, we see a view down the child’s suburban neighborhood block (showing us a lot of ‘sameness’), a view from a wall of his basement (of tangled cords and chipping lead paint), a view of a plump – though browned – sunflower (the natural world playing a part in balancing our imbalances, like a built-in human safety net), and a view of his dinner: a salad made of Shell oil. Maybe his Father works for a corporation that is hurting the Earth, but so that he may provide for his son. Maybe he is sick from his job or from his choice to remain there. How many of us work in industries we don’t believe in, or participate in polluting and corrupting the planet, but we still love our families? How many of the “negative” impressions fed this child in his first five years were born of good intentions?
Finally, this child is mesmerized by a form that is right in front of him. It is as though this claw for which he is curious is making none of the other surrounding influences have any effect on him. The viewer is asked to decide if they are, or they are not. How much choice in the matter of our development do we indeed have? Can the manner of our focusing be our saving grace? Further, can we use the power of mind to shift our circumstances to those that are healthier and wealthier if our formative years may have impregnated us with less appealing information?
Is our true bliss discovered only when we completely accept our circumstances and surrender to the way in which we’ve been formed, rather than seeking to alter ourselves?
Structure: Maple wood box, battery-powered push light
Elements: Ironed-on photo transfers; vintage Volkswagen, Shell, and Bayer Aspirin ads; personal photo taken in Park Slope, Brooklyn (of basement wires); and a claw I found on the beach
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THE BABY JANE BOX
17 Photos
Baby Jane was a commissioned piece created for a talented writer named Ethan Hon. He asked me to interpret the Robert Aldrich film from 1962 – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? – starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. It’s a psychological thriller – the story of two rivaling sisters, both former stars, living in isolation in a decaying mansion.
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THE STICKY SITUATION BOX
7 Photos
This is an autobiographical piece featuring the distress brought on by an adhesive mind, and the yearning to re-access the carefree child residing deep below the swings of adult imbalances. It is illuminated by battery powered flicker candles.
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THE 5 O’CLOCK BOX
6 Photos
Made for Gillian in Ontario. Something of an old fashioned ode to Happy Hour! The Redheads label at the face of the box is Australian vintage. The yellow flowers in the vase come from my childhood collection.
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THE DAD BOX
14 Photos
This work was inspired by the pain and strength of my Father.
Though a devastating car crash broke him, and Parkinson’s shaped his movements and speech for decades, his unyielding spirit would still remark at the magnificence of the new apples on the tree. He epitomized what it meant to trust; he was modest; he felt things in his heart that carried him beyond the weighty package of earthly circumstance.
Some views of this box feature the dangling feet of my youth and the whimsical yet blocking straws before my Father’s chest, reflections on a time when he could dangle more freely – when the red spice and leopard energy were more available to him – and references to those simple moments of sharing dinner and talking in a kitchen that can easily be taken for granted.
I made this work when my Dad was still with us, and I gave it to him. It is sadly again with me. But so remains Dad, ever deeper inside my heart.
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THE ALICE BOX
9 Photos
This work was commissioned as a surprise gift for a woman named Alice.
The elements I had to work with: Alice was new to the Board of MoMA (and taking the learning curve quite seriously), loved Southern food and swimming, her boat, and had a spectacular style which usually included exotic beaded jewelry and sometimes rich floral prints. She loved to walk for miles anywhere, with a fondness for New York.
For Alice’s box I chose a matchbox from the 1930s (which originally contained a picture of Stonington, Connecticut’s Cannon Square at its face). I covered the box with a far more festive vintage ‘Lady’ label, which I was happy to let wrap around the side of the box. The yellow dress is a cake topper; the background image is a reappropriated image from an old copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull; the vintage ladies come from a reservoir of purchased ephemera; and I threw in some NYC grid and collard greens for purposeful effect.
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THE HEIDI BOX
12 Photos
This commissioned work was made as a surprise gift for a generous, intuitive spirit named Heidi in NYC.
Married to a masterful dealer of Old Master paintings, and with three children flowering in their young adult lives, Heidi was often found with her cherished King Charles Spaniel named Edie in one arm while attending to life with the other. Her surroundings were filled with pleasing objects, a plethora of animals, lots of light, and her warm maternal intention for everyone’s wellbeing.
Heidi was in a love affair with all things Italian, from the Tuscan hills to the Venetian streets to the outdoor Campo de Fiori market in Rome. She was an adept gardener at her getaway spot in Nantucket when not doing yoga, and she loved to cook up pescatarian meals!
When I think of Heidi, I think of balance, abundance, health, attention, all things fresh, beauty, and of enjoyment. I wanted this box to serve as a window into the landscapes and forms that both amuse Heidi and renew her inspiration. I was inclined to go with a very clean painted exterior and to keep a lot of white and solid color space within the work, so that it could breathe the way Heidi might when at the beach or on her yoga mat.
The TV on the mantel portrays Mount Rushmore; Heidi’s childhood was spent very close to it, and she had lost her Father there recently. Other touches included the incorporation of her favorite bookshelf, Edie upon her hands, a ‘vegan’ gelato, some dollhouse lobster buoys, and a very tiny version of her husband sprouting from the rooftop of a villa.
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THE VALERIE BOX
14 Photos
This was a commissioned work for an author named Valerie Gross.
The piece explores the theme of sorrow as it is felt in both the loss of something gone and the letting go of what’s still here. It features a beauty queen suffering from her image-addicted surroundings, craving an escape into the inner world of accepting forms, as represented by the tent of solitude she leans upon. We don’t know whether her man is shrouded for burial or merely blanketed from her sight, trapped in words.
The Valerie Box suggests the depths trapped beneath our suggestive gesturing, asks from where we derive our pleasure, and is a reflection on the many layers of a woman’s daily consideration.
Valerie wrote the captivating, ambitious book “Magdala: A Love Story That Has No End,” which served as a stellar research tool for exploring Valerie’s many layers as I formed this work for her.
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THE LAST TWO WEEKS BOX
36 Photos
The Last Two Weeks is available for sale through Alp Galleries in Frankfurt. If you have an interest in this work, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the gallery.
This Multimedia Box was exhibited at my shows in Kunow and Frankfurt, Germany. The following text I wrote at that time, to explain my thoughts behind this work:
Might the 14 cells of this box represent some of my observations over the course of the past two weeks, or might they represent the last 14 days of my life? And would they look differently in either case?
The Last Two Weeks offers a stripped down (object and audio only) version of the themes that pass through me on a daily basis: intimate relating, death and aging, image attachment, the balance and violence of nature, environmental devastation for the sake of upholding our human lifestyles, the sadness of celebrity, socially derived judgments, emotional denial and the facades of appearances, inner child, and the seriousness inside of all that looks happy: the duality of ourselves.
Starting with a vintage industrial metal wall cubby unit that I flipped 180 degrees from its intended orientation, and illuminating each cell with push button lights, The Last Two Weeks houses objects of deep personal sentiment and significance. Six of its 14 cells inspired a verbal poetic response from me; when you pick up the phone receiver, I recite those poems to you.
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THE AMY BOX
8 Photos
This box was commissioned as a birthday gift for an executive named Amy at Blackstone.
Some tidbits I worked with from Amy’s profile: she liked artichoke salad, caffe lattes, running and exercising, going to the theater, hot tamales candy, and roaming all around NYC!
I used a vintage Italian-made matchbox holder for this work. Multiple drawers allowed for more than one instance of surprise for the recipient.
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THE ELANA BOX
21 Photos
I was approached on Facebook by an undeniably sharp, eccentric, enthusiastically maternal, and creatively driven woman named Elana. She was interested in having a turning point in her life memorialized in matchbox form.
Having moved to Berkeley for her husband’s job, and having focused much of her energy into helping her son Maxie overcome speech and sociability challenges in his formative years, Elana was ready to start fueling herself from the inside out with a progressive business direction that mattered to her and that was born of her own terms; one that could hone her talents for writing, design, and the conceptual realms of life she was so clearly fluent in.
A peppering of Elana’s pleasures included: yoga, Thanksgiving dinner, the Mediterranean (her Mom grew up in Tel Aviv), Barcelona for the Gaudi architecture, Morocco for the tiles, stone fruits like peaches, snickerdoodle, Union Station in LA where she was married, anything peacock and Art Deco era related, sea horses and dragons, her Lalique ring holder, Wonder Woman, New York Times crosswords, chocolate chip cookies, anyone with a sartorial or linguistic flair, an unabashed laugh or a generous spirit, and all the fascinations induced by her favorite little love, Maxie. (As for the latter, he is now so integrated and outgoing that Elana began calling him the Mayor of his preschool! You’ll find a mayoral reference at the top of this work, and if you look closely, you’ll find a happy Maxie popping out of Elana’s new work desk; as Maxie is in love with donuts, I included a map for how they might find some together.)
My intention with Elana’s work was essentially to build her a mini office or studio soaked in her sources of inspiration and talents, a miniature-model-as-reminder to take this transitional point by the reins creatively. I spent considerable time as a spy detective exploring the landscapes, architecture, foods, and fashions of her interest on her Pinterest boards, and then working elements of those into her piece as they fit the overall mood and mission. So everything from the pink typewriter to the fruit cobbler in the mug to the multi-dimensional children’s book to the featured Art Deco women – these details are anything but randomly selected.
Sadly balancing out Elana’s pleasures is the pain of having lost her older brother when she was 8, and then her Dad when she was just 16. I incorporated a dollhouse-sized book into her piece entitled “Losing a Parent to Death in Early Life”. I snuck it underneath her desk atop one of the drawers, such that it is largely hidden; not to minimize the weight of such painful experience, but more so to suggest that whatever we might be devising atop our desks – however playful and of whatever aesthetic – it is laced with the richness of what we’ve been through; those things in our desk drawers. These passages inform the design of our lives, and our businesses, too.
As for the structure of Elana’s piece, I went with a 5 5/8″ wide dollhouse miniature replica of a Chinese painting table that was handcrafted of Oregon myrtle wood, oak, cherry, birch, and plywood. Atop that is a 1970s Vintage Soviet Latvia matchbox holder with drawers, and atop that is a vintage kitchen size matchbox.
As you can see, my assemblages have started growing even more “out of the box”. I find I like to build up and out much in the same way I wish to be building up and out the dreams of the subject I am working with, as opposed to boxing those dreams in…
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THE BUTTERFLY AND THE BEAST BOX
29 Photos
I was asked to produce a work to serve as the centerpiece of a scene in the short film, “Butterfly & the Beast,” created by Joe Nardelli and Nathalie Michel.
This work represents my adaptation of Joe’s script, in which “the Beast” behind the lens falls in love with the illusive, wanderlust French teacher, Rapunzel, a woman he never attains. The box personifies the Beast’s heartache, Rapunzel’s shunning, a student’s self-involvement, and hints at the instrumental waves that carry the drama to its climax.
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THE BUFFY BOX
15 Photos
I was asked by award-winning author Jimmy Traub if I would create a matchbox art piece in honor of his wife, Elizabeth (Buffy) Easton, in time for a benefit dinner at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting & Sculpture.
Director of the Center for Curatorial Leadership, Buffy was being honored for her commitment to the school and her advancement of curatorial training and practices. Jimmy surprised her with this piece the night before the event!
I chose a vintage 6 drawer matchbox holder as the structure. The three drawers on the left reference her work life, and the three on the right, her personal life.
From photos of her office and favored objects that were snuck to me, and after an unrelated visit to her home, I was able to gather up the details that formed the fabric of her interests: shells, orchids, china, white candles, Paris, modern appliances and fixtures, Impressionism, clear space. And most of all there is her love of painter Edouard Vuillard, of whose Interiors of the 1890s Buffy wrote her dissertation.
Inside the second drawer on the left, you’ll find one of her favorite Vuillard paintings being handled in white gloves, very fitting for her profession. In the top drawer on the right, some of Vuillard’s women make an appearance in Buffy’s kitchen. In the drawer just below that, Vuillard hangs out with Buffy’s son and her favorite light fixture.
And finally, on the face of the box is one of Vuillard’s self-portraits; the squiggle across it reproduces a Degas line drawing of a frame profile that holds great significance for Buffy.
As for Louis Schmooy, well…. let’s just say that among Buffy’s favorite things you’ll not find the ornate frames made popular by French Kings with the name Louis!
Other appearances in the box include the facade of the New York Studio School, the entrance to the Center for Curatorial Leadership, Buffy’s fireplace at work and stationery emblem, some paint brushes, a carrot and Buffy’s afternoon cup of tea.
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THE MARION BOX
14 Photos
A little about Marion from Paris: she was crazy about traveling abroad, peaceful green gardens, her sofa and tv after a long day, reading French comics, anything with chocolate, Flamiche au Maroilles (French cheese tart) and Pot-au-feu, occasions to put on a backpack or her black dress, and growing her burgeoning Etsy poster business (which I also represented in box art form).
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THE HILARY BOX
10 Photos
This piece was commissioned as a gift for a woman named Hilary, a prize-winning author in a love affair with architecture (primarily French 17th century and American 20th century), and most notably the grid system of NYC. In charge of NYU Abu Dhabi, Hilary appreciated the “kaleidoscopic” effect of street life afforded by the grid, and supported the rise in green infrastructure. I learned that apart from her otherwise healthy diet, ice cream sundaes were her delight.
For Hilary’s box, I used a slim 4 1/2″ wide “Grand Hotel” wooden matchbox, which is mounted with a rare 1980s plastic Barbie sundae and some early French architecture.
On the inside of the box: The woman is an extraction from a faux-vintage greeting card (something about her stance, her look, and her sparkle reminded me of Hilary); the backdrop is from an old postcard of the NYC subway; the NYC grid makes three appearances, and iconic buildings from Abu Dhabi make two.
The phrase “Wash the day away” is intended as a wish for Hilary’s renewed health, like a whisper from a side wall suggesting that it may be easier to wash away the harder things in life if we can remain immersed in our fondest loves.
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THE WINNER BOX
40 Photos
The Winner Box is available for sale through Alp Galleries in Frankfurt. If you have an interest in this work, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the gallery.
Winner plays with the Cowboys & Indians theme of America’s past to raise questions about cultural domination and what it means to live as an innocent biproduct benefiting from the comforts of a lifestyle born from ancestral violence and betrayal.
It also asks:
Who is the real winner versus the perceived winner at the end of any fight?
How long can you play a game of take-over before you become the loser?
Is it fair for there to be a winner if one side isn’t playing the game, is only tricked?
At what point do we stop remembering the brutal choices of our ancestors and just become mothers with strollers making turkey dinners?
At what point does tradition become a series of automated responses, and the meaning inside its origin forgotten?
In “Winner”, we see a Native Indian man slumped on his horse in a pose of defeat, a woman in a canoe of her heritage but plummeting to her death, and a Chief nestled in front of a bear: the bear is a sacred symbol to the Native Indian culture, yet here is it really the stuffed animal of a white man’s child that is looming over him? We see a can of buffalo meat before this man: the whole of the buffalo was used by native tribes for food, shelter, weapons, clothing, and to make blankets, but just who invented the canning system? In other words, the white man has made an industry out of robbing natives of their livelihood.
We see a little columned building structure; that is the monument at Plymouth Rock, the site in Massachusetts where the Mayflower to America was officially disembarked in 1620, and the first American colony was established. If you look closely, you’ll see the tourists at the front of the building, wandering around complacently.
Both this reference and the Thanksgiving turkey dinner platter to its right ask us what it is we’re really celebrating. We may have shared a celebratory meal with the Indians, but I’m sure there were two very different ideas about what that celebration meant. For the Indians, it marked the beginning of their demise. Straight up from the turkey platter is found an overly fed colonist, in hierarchical placement.
The white mother pushes around her baby and travels back to her white colonial home and its fireplace. It looks like she just went shopping, as we see the classic “I Love NY” shopping bag attached to the stroller. But what did she just “buy”?
Manhattan was “purchased” from the Indians by the Dutch for $24 worth in beads. The Natives were deceived by this gesture, as land ownership was a foreign concept to them. So we see a suede cowboy boot territorializing the birch trees, and proclaiming “Best Wishes” to the Indian Man…
Structure: Vintage Winner Matchbox from the Federal Match Corporation
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THE DOMESTIC BLISS BOX
23 Photos
Domestic Bliss is available for sale through Alp Galleries in Frankfurt. If you have an interest in this work, please contact me and I will put you in touch with the gallery.
This work speaks to the illusion of the American Dream.
I always find myself attracted to advertising from the 1950s and 60s, with its optimistic nature and its transparent agenda, yet also for its ripeness with the “everything is dandy” smiles and emotional facades that may have infiltrated society as a coping mechanism post-war.
The central focus of “Domestic Bliss” is the bear-masked, knife and party horn holding 1960s housewife, attached to a piece of toy Wonder Bread.
The four drawers of the work serve as sneak peeks into her daily experience. She gets to exercise while doing housework; drive to shop for crackers; bake pies with her kids; pour a drink for her husband when he returns home from work; rely on modern appliances to save her time… Yet she is doing all of this while feeling trapped and withdrawn from the happiness the lifestyle had promised her.
Why is she wearing a bear mask? As a Native American symbol, the bear is considered as free in spirit as the revered wind, and grander than its mass. Yet its unpredictability swings the bear from one minute peacefully foraging in the woods to the next exhibiting extreme ferocity when provoked. It is the potentially furious storm beneath the surface of bear that demands our caution.
Does this housewife not even know what face is on the mask she’s wearing?
Can her husband see that she’s a bear?
Is the predictability of the life she’s living about to snap open the furious storm inside her?
Are those party horns for the kids at her child’s birthday party?
Or does she just need to blow out her corked anxiety, and soon?
Is that knife she’s holding for cutting the birthday cake of her child?
Or is it to take her own life?
Is the head of the man coming out from behind the bread the way her husband feels beneath his façade, disgusted?
Or is she really the disgusted one, refusing to accept what will be required of her if she is to taste the peace and the freedom that lies outside of the false dream she’s already built a home inside of?
Structure: Vintage 4-drawer Souvenir of London matchbox holder, vintage celluloid doll from a family set by MARX, party horns
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THE JULIE BOX
22 Photos
This matchbox was commissioned as a surprise for Julie in Bentonville, Arkansas!
Some facts about Julie: Her favorite places included Cabo San Lucas and New York City, she loved biscuits and gravy, milk, Facebook, and fashion – in particular shoes – and high on her priorities list was the mothering of her two kids, the development of meaningful relationships, and her spiritual connection.
For Julie’s box I chose a 4 3/4″ wide Ohio Blue Tip “Springtime” Matchbox from 1955; featuring one boy and one girl (like Julie’s kids) and a church, it was a great foundation piece.
The mini photo featuring the number 3 at the face of the box is one of my early street photos, and was cut from a Cibachrome contact sheet. (Julie was born on the 3rd of the month, and is also a collector of my close-up photography, so it was fun to tie that in.) The rest is just a fun play on her above-mentioned interests!
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THE ELAINE BOX
7 Photos
An early matchbox study, featuring my Mom. A tribute to her nursing school days.
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THE JACK BOX
13 Photos
Featured here is a box I made for a game design student at NYU Gallatin named Jack.
When not busy with course work, Jack enjoyed watching bad movies with his friends, gaming (naturally), smoking on his balcony, and chowing on Ramen, Coke, and Ethiopian Tibs Wat.
His three favorite places were filled with green: Seattle, The High Line in NYC, and British Columbia, but his Village apartment was as much of a prized location.
Jack’s major goal was graduating college. His reason for commissioning a work from me: he was curious about how other people saw him!
I chose for Jack’s piece a vintage “Winner” matchbox, a rare type I’ve enjoyed incorporating in a number of my works for its blatant message. In this case, it acts as the wording on Jack’s diploma, and also as a vote of confidence as he sets sail with creative projects in his adult life – like the young man featured from the back on the box face, having to choose which path to take.
The walls and floor of Jack’s “apartment” are cloaked in views of British Columbia and Ramen noodles in their uncooked state. There is literally a bad movie on the vintage dollhouse television, Jack’s friends are throwing up their hats in silhouette, the little photo of spray painted “Jack” is a shot I took in the NYC subway, and the phrasing about the cool, un-cuckoo girl is left to your (and his) imagination.
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THE MADELEINE BOX
25 Photos
Commissioned as a surprise birthday gift, this four-drawer matchbox from the ’60s now tells the tale of a Swedish artist living in Hoboken, named Madeleine.
Married to a Lebanese doctor and with four grown children, Madeleine’s primary interests included abstract landscape palette knife painting of the New York City skyline from her 24th floor windows, taking care of her two grandchildren, and writing poetry. She was crazy about fabrics by the Swedish designer Josef Frank, her white Volvo station wagon, white wine and Gravlox.
Her most important goal of the moment was: to buy a house in the country and start a vineyard!
Besides NYC, Madeleine’s two favorite spots were Stockholm and Lebanon, each given a representative “drawer” at left. At right, we have the view from her apartment, Frank seats, and painting materials in the above drawer, and her grandchildren and future vineyard merging together in joy in the lower right.
The image of windows plump with vines and streaming light is a shot I took when I was 19, living outside Venice. Some friends and I snuck onto a deserted property, where we found that building and a terribly irritated swan!
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THE SHELLEY BOX
11 Photos
Made for a great friend of mine, Shelley is a professional hair and makeup artist, singer, Reiki healer, a woman with spice and flare and the warmest heart of gold.
Some facts about Shelley: she loves the woods, the ocean, and the Egyptian desert and Pyramids; listening to music; time with children and her cherished cats; daydreaming; chocolate, Japanese and Middle Eastern food; and her most important goal at the time was: to continue to write and sing and to share her work with the world.
Starting with a 1930s wooden matchbox, Shelley’s piece seemed to want to go erect like a building, almost as though I were creating more of a totem pole crafted of reminders of her own delights.
Some of my thought process:
Birds are creatures of the wind, as are songs, and I wanted to seal Shelley’s work with their wings. Hot air balloons add a reminder of flight, but also childlike wonder, to a landscape symbolic of soul searching. The wooded scenes near the top were chosen for their luscious stillness, areas where Shelley might retreat to find her words with success.
The cats were selected for their laughter-inducing power, and I wanted them to serve as the equator of this piece, as laughter would bring Shelley back to her center if ever found lost from it.
My feet on the beach at the work’s base add a touch of our friendship and the metaphor of our shared journey as creative women with forever questions. Above my feet is a dollhouse scale Popular Songs book. To the left of my feet is a vintage metal tree my Gran gave me.
And at the very top of the work is an empty, festively dressed dinner table in the middle of the woods; it reminds me of an enriching weekend spent with Shelley and some of our mutual girlfriends many years ago upstate, a time of healing and connection with the Earth and our freedom…
My wish is that Shelley always dance with this inviting table of mystery, surrounded by splendor, and that she do so while singing.
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THE YOU ARE UNLIMITED BOX
4 Photos
Where your focus goes, energy flows.
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THE JASON AND ELIZABETH BOX
7 Photos
This work was commissioned as an alternative form of wedding gift!
Referencing each of the newlyweds’ careers, their interests and backgrounds, displaying sneak peeks of the two of them in a cake, on a television set, on the face of a Mad Men era paper doll, and shuffling in symbols of the NYC culture and landscape in which they dwell and which they so appreciate, the assemblage result is what you see here.
The work is approximately 10″ x 5″ x 10″. As I deeply enjoy the research, material scavenging, and assembling processes associated with commissioned portrait projects, this was a great deal of fun to create.
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THE 4 WINNERS BOX
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Featured here is a specialty multimedia box I was commissioned to make as a gift for a woman who has lived and breathed by the passion of her belief in art’s ability to create enormous social and developmental impact, and who has dedicated her life to it.
For this work, I decided to use a 16″ wide Tenk Hardware Co. seed box from the 50s. This afforded me the chance to use the increasingly widening partitioned spaces (relating to the value of its four originally housed seed types) to showcase what I arrived at being the four most important sectors of my subject’s life, according to their “rank” or priority.
Perhaps such ranking is futile. One’s major loves may hold equal space in the heart. But extensive research on my subject had me feel convinced that the widest space of this box needed to be allotted to her family; herself as a mother, a sister, and a daughter en route from Cleveland to New York, and those journeys that took place in-between. It could be seen as cluttered, this room I created. It’s intended to be as chaotic as raising a big family can be, yet bursting with the same colorful rewards that go along with it.
Next at left is the “dining room” representing my subject’s love of artists, and the home entertaining she is known for. This room I papered and decorated in works from her own personal collection, as well as persons in the arts who have held significance for her, simply but a few to represent the many.
Next at left is referenced the arts organization my subject founded decades ago, which still brings art education to many thousands of New York City kids every year who would otherwise have no such exposure. It brings the children and artists into a direct working relationship with each other.
Finally, in the leftmost zone, you’ll find references to my subject’s past involvement with MoMA.
The box in its closed position features a transfer I made of a vintage ad that would make sense to my subject as a family reference – together with the lone Fruit Loop. I wanted the transfer to show up as more of a ghost inside of the box’s original woodgrain.
At the top of the box are four push-button audio boxes on a base attached by Velcro; each one corresponds with the four zones of the interior, and are lettered for them. They are each approx. 90 seconds in length, of just my voice, and are packed with personal references that I carefully stitched together after thorough research on my subject’s past.
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THE ROBERT BOX
25 Photos
I made this box for a spirited man with a wonderful communication style named Robert, the Managing Director of a Financial Services company in Sydney, Australia.
Robert’s rare passion for vintage matchbox labels originally prompted our acquaintance online.
Some facts about Robert: his favorite places include Lord Howe Island, Melville Island, and his native garden at home in Port Stephens; he enjoys cricket, fishing, gardening, bee keeping, and dining on seafood, nuts, and fine wine; some of Robert’s favorite objects include the Sydney Harbor Bridge (seen from his office window), old Australian cricket team photos, indigenous plants, and Redheads brand matchboxes; he is passionate about aged stamps, coins, pennants, and bottles, but also share market investing, takeovers, and financial analysis!
Though his four teenage children may not have shared his hobbyist enthusiasm, they did share in his love for overseas travel and lovingly tolerated his eccentricities.
Robert’s goal for the year: getting fit!
Starting with a 1955 Ohio Blue Tip Matchbox with a ranch scene, I wanted to make Robert’s box an explosion of his pleasures.
The references are fairly self-evident, though I will contribute that the redhead was extracted from Robert’s favorite Australian matchbox label series, the red fishing pole is vintage Barbie, and the white shoes are cricket shoes… he may wear the black shoes to the office, but he’s got the white ones on the mind. In fact, Robert responded to his box with the following: “The box arrived and I love it! It is fantastic – I intend to display it prominently at work as a reminder of life outside work!”
May we all remember – and further still, partake of – the activities that bring us joy.
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THE DIANN BOX
25 Photos
Featured here is a personalized matchbox made for a very hip educator, writer, and 29-year visiting nurse from Illinois named Diann!
Considering herself a wacky and unconventional sort, Diann dreamed of being a published author of a creative nonfiction book of essays or a memoir.
Having adopted a 7-year-old with HIV, her daughter was then 25, and Diann felt so grateful for her presence in her life, a life rich with: community health leadership, journal writing, making artist trading cards, drinking glasses of wine by her fireplace, visiting the forests of Door County, Wisconsin (referenced inside the fireplace and on the floor of the interior box), or the San Francisco City Lights Bookstore (interior right wall), watching a little trash tv like Pawn Stars or American Pickers (the cast of the latter making an appearance above the mantel), and surely spending time with her beloved Scottie. She also happened to like the Cheshire Cat!
Diann ordered a box from me because she felt my work helped to ritualize or memorialize our identities in a visual design.
I was thankful to receive her response to her piece: “My wonderful matchbox arrived last week and it is amazing and a treasure. It is displayed prominently in my house and I love it!”
You were a delightful subject, Diann. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to create a landscape from your life.
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THE TOM BOX
10 Photos
This box was commissioned as a gift for someone’s brother.
Some facts about Tom: He worked for The Economist Magazine; he loved riding his bike and sitting in diners at odd times of day and night; coffee and babka were among his favorite foods; he lived in Hong Kong for five years, at which time he had many a suit and shirt custom made; and his favorite word was “complicated” – he saw the world that way and his sister confirmed that the word well described him!
For Tom’s box I chose an Ohio Blue Tip Matchbox from 1970, mounted atop a dollhouse miniature diner stool that is spouting babka. The pointing hand inside the box has an hourglass for a wristwatch, a resized element from an Italian book of absurd inventions (my favorite kind).
The rest is self-explanatory!
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THE BRIAN BOX
11 Photos
This box was made for Brian, the CEO of a clinic whose mission for client wellbeing was centered around empathy.
Some facts about Brian: He loved Palau in Micronesia and travel in general, snuggling in bed, eating well (enjoyed honey, yogurt, and nuts), Dodge Challengers, his iPad, and the most important goal in his life at that time was: having a successful relationship with the person he was in love with.
Brian’s late father was a real maverick in medicine and made important advances related to the relevance of mega doses of Vitamin C in treating chronic illnesses. A painting of Brian’s Father is something Brian treasured.
What vintage matchbox could be sexier than this Ohio Blue Tip classic? The flame of love provided a great shell to start with. The interior floor and sidewalls showcase Palau, while the rather concealed background features the bed of a medieval dollhouse scene.
I wanted Brian’s honey to be wild, like his passion and dedication. The matchbox car is a No. 1 Dodge Challenger by Lesney, made in England in 1975.
And for representing Brian’s Father, I brought in a vintage ad featuring a glass of orange juice, touting Vitamin C as a Powerhouse. I believe that word suits both Father and Son. Wishing every happiness to you, Brian.
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THE JENNY BOX
12 Photos
This matchbox piece was made as a surprise for someone’s wife, a woman named Jenny in LA.
Some facts about Jenny: she loved traveling to French Polynesia, reading, photography and family photos, sushi, and among her most prized possessions was her wedding ring. Jenny was focused on the launch of her new startup, and on having a happy family.
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THE COFFEE BREAK MATCHBOOK
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A little Kickstarter reward for Andrea in Beacon.
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THE BIRD BOX
2 Photos
The “origin box” of my Matchbox Me project.
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THE LIFE ON THE ROAD BOX
12 Photos
Made for Gerald in Canada.
For Gerald’s box, I used an Ohio Blue Tip Matchbox from 1955. The three rear view mirror frames at the face of the box were cut from a contact sheet from photos I took in college.
On the interior of the box: A vintage Hertz car rental ad and a plate of half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich with french fries that I got at an international dollhouse fair at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.
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THE SARAH BOX
27 Photos
I made this piece for the star of a show on MTV named Sarah.
Expecting her first child, Sarah felt inclined to memorialize this moment of great transition in her life, intrigued by the idea of owning a “multidimensional snapshot of an artist’s perception of an individual.”
I was enriched by the imagery I discovered in researching for Sarah’s box, as two of her favorite locations are the Scottish Highlands and CA’s Big Sur, both breathtaking.
Along with those landscapes, I took Sarah’s activities of interest (like going on road trips with her husband, nesting in the nursery, or dancing alone), her favorite foods (Cara Cara oranges and mashed potatoes – and let me restate mashed potatoes), and her approaching motherdom, and I merged them with the most important goal of Sarah’s life: to have a strong, vibrant, and loving family.
For the structure of Sarah’s piece, I used a “Non-Poisonous Baby Stuart Matches” kitchen sized vintage matchbox, as well as an additional “drawer” from another matchbox, so I could have both a left and right room to work with aside the face (now showcasing a wooden family).
Two plastic doll rockers from a twins set from the 50s hold up a vintage 3-drawer matchbox. Originally featuring a rural barn scene, it now carries the reference I needed as this work’s heart: the love Sarah and her husband share, the core that would spring her life goal to fabulous life.
I discovered with some research on Sarah’s husband that apart from being the accomplished writer for HBO that I knew him to be, he was also musical and had produced various albums.
As Sarah loves dancing alone, I thought – what more intimate of a display could I present than to have her dancing for him, instead, and to music he’s playing for her. The doe is an important symbol for Sarah, so it shows itself here, watching them, you might say…
In addition to Sarah’s IMDb and Twitter pages given me for familiarizing myself with her, I also explored Sarah’s Instagram photos. I like to inject little details of subjects’ own personal photos or refer to specific statements they’ve made public, as a way of surprising them with direct reflections of self. These direct injections are sprinkled into the larger terrain dominated by my full-on image choices about how to assemble who I believe my subjects to be based on the text responses I’ve received in their questionnaires. I believe this balance of direct and interpretational brings more charge to their viewing experience.
And so, the bowl of carrots that is making a hat for one of her future children, that came from Sarah’s countertop. The dog whose head comes out of the windshield of the orange car on a road trip, that is her dog. Seeking the best waffles on the beach came from a buried Tweet…
My sense is that Sarah’s home is steeped in creative energy, and creative wellbeing, too; they’re not always found together. I could only consider that her child on the way, was lucky.
It was a pleasure making this transitional piece for Sarah, and I wish her and her husband tremendous grace and a lot of fun as they move forward with their family life.
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THE I LOVE SAM BOX
5 Photos
A celebration of companionship. Featuring a vintage Barbie “Go Team” flag.
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THE MORNING BOX
6 Photos
Where your thoughts go, your energy flows. A tribute to the power of the balancing morning routine.
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THE JAKE BOX
19 Photos
I made this box for Jake, who had recently finished three years of flying in Saigon as an airline captain.
When not in the air, Jake could be found chasing his curiosity for ethnic cuisine down side roads of the most remote areas and posting his discoveries to a food blog. Upon his move back to the States to take up a captain position in Atlanta, Jake requested from me a box that would celebrate the adventures of his foreign experiences, something that he could be inspired by observing on a daily basis.
Some facts about Jake: One of his favorite places was an airplane cockpit, his favorite foods included lasagna and goulash, and among his objects of choice was a BAe 146!
For Jake’s piece, I chose a sturdy vintage Ohio Blue Tip matchbox. Its face is scattered with Vietnamese characters and Jake’s favorite aircraft.
The background of the interior of the box is a repurposed photo from an old cookbook – demonstrating how to picnic with the family when on the road.
The floor of the interior of the box is a segment of a photograph from my A CLOSER NY collection, called RWB. Selected for its patriotic splash, it was to act as the foundation upon which Jake’s new foodie adventures in America might spring.
Says Jake: “The box arrived today. I LOVE it!!! You captured where I am right now in my life perfectly. You did an amazing job capturing my personality. Thank you so much!”
Thanks to you, too, Jake.
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THE TAKE THE PLANE INSTEAD BOX
4 Photos
Confinement can be fine. The dollhouse miniatures in this piece include a banana that was one of my first miniature finds as a young girl.
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THE MONKEY AROUND BOX
5 Photos
Made as a birthday gift for a terrific photo assistant I used to work with named Ryan. The monkey references relate with a joke between us about his scanning tasks!
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THE REFLECTION BOX
6 Photos
This little box was made for a gifted intuitive named Claudia.
The matchbox is from a special Ohio Blue Tip series from 1955. The ladder on the exterior was given me by my Gran with other miniature remnants she had in her collection. The 8 ball inside the box is dunking itself in a cup of dollhouse tea, and I couldn’t get enough of the old ad for wisdom pills.
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THE STAY AWAKE BOX
4 Photos
When life gives you cookies and a hula hoop, consume them, use them, and let the cheer filter in.
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THE MACY’S BOX
9 Photos
Made for Dana in London.
The vintage label on this box is one of a series printed during the 50s-70s by the Dutch Co-op. The shoe stickers hail from Japan, and the scantily clad figure is a cake topper!
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THE PARANORMAL NEIGHBOR BOX
9 Photos
Throwback to a time when such tabloid covers would slow down the rate of my gum chewing while I waited in line to buy hair spray at a drug store. Not a throwback: my belief in magic and my support of flyaway hair and the paper doll industry.
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THE DONALD BOX
35 Photos
This box was commissioned by Don’s wife in celebration of his upcoming birthday.
For this piece, I busted out of the kitchen matchbox structure and went instead with a sturdy, handcrafted, mini maplewood box, affording me more usable surface area for this 360-degree work.
Some bits on Donald: he was an avid reader of the NY Times and watched every political show there was through liberal glasses; he’d not turn down a chance to relax on the couch and cheer on the Giants or the Yankees, coupled with a cigar; he was an amazing father to his then fifth grade daughter and delighted in touring the museums with her; he loved Harry Potter and old movies; his favorite songs were “Let It Be” by the Beatles and “Ripples” by the Grateful Dead; his foods of choice included steak, lobster, and grilled cheese and bacon; and he cherished theater and all forms of travel, having recently visited Paris with his family.
Don’s goal at the time was more stability at work and an ever-increasing money flow, something closely tied with his sense of success.
The round white table atop this piece is something I bought for myself from the Small Steps shop in Burlington, VT, when I was about 12 years old, so this work contains a fragment of personal history. The table had been a part of my visual view for so long, I’m glad it’s now a part of Don’s story, and his view of himself.
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THE INDUSTRIALIZED DINING BOX
5 Photos
This Kickstarter reward about cafeterias and food distribution systems in the west contains a cut out from one of my contact sheets from photography class in college.
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THE CLAUDIA BOX
15 Photos
I made this box for Claudia in Illinois.
Claudia was a true romantic. She asked for a work that would capture and celebrate her blossoming relationship with her boyfriend, something that would make her smile whenever she saw it.
Her boyfriend was a truck driver, so he was naturally on the road a lot. Claudia reported that their phone and text communications acted as the bright sun of her daily experience, holding the power to dissipate all struggle, and that they generated that glow that comes only from contact with happiness and a deep sense of being cherished and in love.
Some facts about Claudia: Some of her favorite places included bed (she loved sleeping), watching a sunset, and being held in a loving embrace; she loved bacon, asparagus, and baking and decorating cupcakes; and among her favorite objects was a receipt saved from a time she went grocery shopping with her man. I must say, I resonated with her sentimentality.
For Claudia’s box, I was delighted to find a vintage “Favorite Matches” box, which I thought set the right tone for her piece.
I brought in her love for cupcake decorating over an aged dollhouse bed, somewhat of a fusion of passions that could double as a dream sequence. For additional fusion, I brought in asparagus and bacon that spoke to the theme of love. I made sure to adorn the box with a receipt.
From Claudia:
“First, let me begin by saying I absolutely love the ‘you box’ that you composed for me. I couldn’t remember everything I wrote in my survey response, but when I saw and opened the box, everything was easily recognizable and it matched what and why I wanted the box. I adore every part of it, right down to the actual box you chose. Love that it says Favorite Match. And all the little sayings are great, all thoughts that definitely pass through my mind. Even the asparagus says Sweetheart and the keyboard says I love you, I think that is just perfect. Thank you so much for taking your time to create such a wonderful piece of art for me. I cried when I saw it and took in every part of the box. I have a real emotional connection with it. Thank You.”
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THE BEACH PARTY BOX
6 Photos
This little box was made for a supporter of mine named Marc, who was a 3-time Grammy Award winning sound engineer and producer and happened to love kitesurfing. So I thought, what better of a box treatment than to bring some musicians and their instruments before a miniaturized stereoscopic beach.
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THE FASHIONISTA BOX
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Made for a supporter named Sam. The Barbie visor hails from the 80s, and I got the shepherd fashion box from a woman in France.
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THE MILK BOX
8 Photos
This box was made for Sarah at Adult Swim.
The creamy whisk and sugar cubes hanging inside the box, and the spoon of ice cream atop the exterior of the box, are resized fragments from a Haagen-Dazs ‘five’ ad. The girl came from a heap of digitized ephemera, and I added some drama to her hair.
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THE ASTRONAUT SESSIONS BOX
8 Photos
Made for a musician named Lyndse in Ohio. The piano keys box is from the ’80s.
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THE BODY BOX
5 Photos
Made for Marian, President of Jazz Choreography Enterprises.
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THE KATIE BOX
20 Photos
Made for Katie in Brooklyn, a fellow artist – printmaker, bookbinder, and painter – who was also part of the Etsy team!
Katie loved Maine, art museums, lobster rolls and Oreos, her cacti collection, and had the goal of living more frugally while striking a balance between work, social life, and alone time.
She was born on the 5th day of her month. The mini 5 street paint photo at the face of the box came from one of my Cibachrome contact sheets. The dollhouse piggy bank inside the box was one of the first prized miniatures of my youth.
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THE WOO BOX
8 Photos
Courtship with vintage flavors.
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THE INJURY BOX
4 Photos
I will bury that nut, if it’s the last thing I do, and I will solve your crossword puzzle, yes I will.
Squirrel represents pure resourcefulness, discovery, preparedness, quick changes in direction, danger avoidance, and sees no obstacles that can’t be overcome.
However, it also represents the power of rest and non-movement between energetic bursts. I recall how a squirrel may be seen racing across the lawn one minute like it’s got to be first in line for the latest iPhone release, then suddenly upright and frozen, staring at me like it forgot its die-hard plan! It’s replenishing itself in those still moments.
This box is a reminder to factor in downtime and drinking that tea… for there will surely be another nut to run with soon.
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THE GRAN BOX
2 Photos
This is the first box I completed, and served as a tribute to my Gran, Barbara Dunn, and a gift for her 90th birthday.
A storyteller and practicing artist with a stunning aesthetic, Gran taught me to appreciate the beauty of lichen on rocks, the taste of pickled ginger, and hot orange pillows.
This box explored my interpretation of her pain in having lost a crippled son, my grandfather through divorce, and the mental bandages, colors, and rewards she managed to create for herself in order to continue observing the elegance around her. It also hints at our unique friendship.
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THE MIMI BOX
8 Photos
Made for a woman named Mimi, an art history professor in NYC.
Some facts about Mimi: she was a great cook of all things Italian; a lover of orchids; her dissertation was on artist Mario Sironi; she was then working on an Alberto Burri show for the Guggenheim; and in addition to being focused on getting one of her sons into college, she also had her sights set on a house on Martha’s Vineyard.
On the right wall of the drawer of the box is a hint of Burri’s “Sacking and Red” from 1954; the red monster found dominating the landscape is cut from his “Rosso Plastica L.A.” from 1966, and stands atop a floor made of his “Cretto Grande Bianco”.
Bridging into the photo of a Vineyard dock in the background is a sliver of Sironi’s painting “Urban Landscape” from 1924, while “The Model of the Sculptor” hangs out on the beach at the box’s face.
The vintage box was a one-of-a-kind find; it is hand-painted, with the home on the coast made from a shell.
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THE GETAWAY BOX
4 Photos
Made for Corey in Tennessee.
He said, “I love the box Sherry! It sits proudly on my desk as a reminder of why I work so hard all week… to getaway on the weekend!”
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THE NEW INQUIRY BOX
11 Photos
Made for Rachel Rosenfelt, Founder of The New Inquiry (a literary org committed to idea exploration and promotion), with the intention of representing her non-profit in a whimsical, miniature way.
The vintage box used is a very rare Otagirl piece hailing from Japan and features a blinking eye hologram.
Coming out of a book near the eye is a super tiny Flicker from the 60s which switches between IN THE DARK? and BRIGHT IDEA with rotation. The eye opens with BRIGHT IDEA.
Inside the box is found The New Inquiry logo, and pencils are holding up some of the Fornasetti faces that represented its staff.
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THE DENNY BOX
8 Photos
This box was made as a birthday gift for a woman named Denny living in New Zealand.
Profile information I had on Denny: she had just finished her degree in piano at University, she was a ski lover, and her favorite place was Auckland – a city whose harbor is teeming with sailboats!
For Denny’s Box, I used an old plastic dollhouse piano and repurposed images from a funny Italian book showcasing surreal household items as well as both vintage and contemporary advertising. The matchbox, printed with a nautical motif, dates way back and is from Sweden.
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THE WICCAN HOMEMAKER BOX
6 Photos
I am all of these ladies… and then some polka-dotted others.
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THE TAKE A BREAK BOX
3 Photos
Made for a most gifted musical coach and producer named Kimberly. She’s one hard worker… this work was named for the reminder it was intended to serve as, for her.
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THE DURGA BOX
16 Photos
Made for the lovely Durga of West Palm Beach.
Durga perfectly exemplified the human capacity for delight in seemingly contradictory activities: she was a yogi who loved shooting pistols!
A terrific photographer, Durga’s favorite subject was women. She encouraged me to incorporate some of her own work into the piece if I wished. And so, the nude hunched over inside the box, as well as the tutu-bearing and held woman shots atop the box, are Durga’s.
Some other things about Durga: she was said to be calm and a mother earth type, had curly red hair, loved sports, competition, and anywhere away from cities and crowds, antiques, her husband and four daughters, fruit, most any red food, working with Labrador Retriever dogs, and anything made by hand!
To be respected in the photographic industry as an artist, and to have a happy, healthy family, were her primary driving forces.
I enjoyed the collaborative aspect of making this piece and was touched by Durga’s exuberant response to it.
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THE EDUARDO BOX
14 Photos
Husband to Jenny of The Jenny Box, Eduardo was hoping for works that might serve as unique mirrors of themselves and of home; objects they could take with them wherever they relocated.
A fellow Capricorn, I wasn’t surprised to learn that Eduardo loved his pencils and drawing, stamp collection, childhood soccer trophy, and that his major preoccupation was building a US-based career.
He also loved DC and Europe; Spanish, Greek, and Mexican foods; and he could often be found in comic bookstores.
So here you have a mini 3D snapshot of Eduardo from an interests perspective!
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THE BREAKFAST BOX
6 Photos
Made for Nina in Santa Monica.
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THE IMPORTANT LUNCH BOX
6 Photos
“A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it.” -Aldous Huxley
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THE COOP BOX
6 Photos
In celebration of healthy food choices, and the community element that serves as large a role in health.
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THE GWEN BOX
5 Photos
This box was made as a surprise for someone’s wife, a woman named Gwen in Pleasant Hill, CA.
Information I received on Gwen: she was a terrific Mom to three, detail oriented, loved antiques and New Zealand, and was a lover of all things animal (in particular anything cute and fuzzy).
Gwen had been named “woodgie queen” by her family, as she once saved a baby hedgehog from being run over, and she cared daily for a multitude of cats and chickens, including a Golden Pheasant.
The box I used is a vintage Ohio Blue Tip “Winter Fun” Matchbox from 1955. Its face, together with the applied honey oatmeal from an old ad and the interior waving child from an aged educational book, were included to bring Gwen’s young kids into the mix. The interior walls and floor depict landscapes in New Zealand.
And the rest, well, is very woodgie!
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THE KEEP YOUR PETS OFF THE ROAD BOX
3 Photos
Having fun with a vintage Federal matchbox base.
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THE NIGHTS AT HOME BOX
4 Photos
Made for the husband of a Kathy in Florida, who was a clarinet player.
Kathy reported that she loved to listen to her husband play at night, so I imagined a sitting room, some shared tea, and some luxurious drapes accompanying the sound.
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THE JENNIFER BOX
23 Photos
Made for a young woman in college in Manitoba, Canada, named Jennifer.
Having lost a lot of people in her life at that time, whether through death or just distancing, Jennifer wanted a reminder that life goes on, and that though loss is to be endured, there are memories to be cherished.
Some facts about Jennifer: she loved drawing, reading, and writing; her favorite foods included cookies and melon soda; one of her gems was the Complete Works of Shakespeare.
From the selection of the matchbox itself, I went with a light/passage theme for Jennifer’s piece.
The key-holding flashlight hand and the Grim Reaper in the rearview mirror are elements from award-winning ads.
The miniature tray of unbaked cookie dough is a prized piece from my childhood, complete with pencils and melon soda and Shakespeare. Yet on the doorstep of the endless portal into the unknown, its placement suggests the respite provided by our pleasures and passions when we’re faced with transition.
A quote from Charlie Chaplin on a sidewall reads, “Mirror is my best friend because when I cry it never laughs.” I think we service ourselves best when we allow the full expression of our experience. If I need to cry, I do so completely. I cry like my job is to cry. I cry all the pains out of me, so that the sun can shine through again.
I wish the most brilliant rays to Ms. Jennifer.
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THE KIMBERLY BOX
12 Photos
Commissioned as a Christmas gift for someone’s wife, a Kimberly in Framingham, MA.
What I learned about Kimberly from her husband: she was the mother of two daughters; a successful actor who chose to stay in community theater for the art and the fun of it; a feisty and a caring spirit; a preschool teacher; a lover of peanut butter, Newport, Rhode Island, frozen yogurt, yoga, the iPhone; and she had just learned to play the guitar to better share her love of music.
For Kimberly’s box, I chose a 4 1/2″ wide vintage Ohio Blue Tip matchbox dating from 1955, featuring a cartoon-like winter funtime scene. The interior guitar resembling bread and jam was originally a temporary tattoo, and you’ll notice my fondness for tea bag wisdom.
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THE LABOR EQUALITY BOX
6 Photos
Made for supporter and friend, Brian, in the West Village.
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THE RECOVERY BOX
5 Photos
When life throws tomatoes at you, eat dessert.
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THE LINDA BOX
12 Photos
Made for the dynamic Ms. Linda in NYC.
Linda’s recent years had been filled with catharsis. She had said goodbye to the demands of the entertainment industry to begin the journey of healing the effects of the broken heart that had wounded the generations of women before her and that had left her role-playing in an attempt to receive love from a mother whose heart was locked away.
Prompted by a two-year storytelling course in which her final project was to present a one-hour story based on her life, Linda was able to unweave the cocoon she’d constructed around herself of all the characters not herself, and finally fly freely into a life her own.
The course was so profound that Linda wished for a box art piece that could memorialize her transformation.
Linda gave me a wealthy list of objects that represented this shift for her, including: wings, birds, tigers (her totem), fountain pens, cups of tea, Cinderella, masks, hearts, cats, and any Modigliani portrait. The flight theme ended up dominating the arrangement. It was a joy to create from the rich and courageous emotional landscape that was Linda.
In response, she said, “It is an amazing experience to give Sherry Mills a few sentences about your own life and then see how she translates these words into a work of art. For my own piece, I wanted Sherry to represent a transformative period in my life and my matchbox looks like it could take flight and soar right out my window. It is so rich and detailed that I notice something new each time I look at it. She is a true talent and her insight and sensitivity add dimension and depth to each portrait. Thank you for my beautiful matchbox!”
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THE COCONUTS BOX
11 Photos
Commissioned as a gift for the fiancée of a Michael in Los Angeles.
For years, the couple had dreamed of a ‘me, you & coconuts’ lifestyle. Michael wanted to gift a box featuring a tropical location that could tie in their long-haired dachshund (a major love in their lives).
From Michael’s profile, I learned that relaxing under a palm tree on a beach in Hawaii described his favorite location, a Fender electric guitar was one of his favorite objects, and potatoes were among his favorite foods.
For this work, I chose a 1950s Knutsen Cruise Line Matchbox in excellent condition. The interior side wall graphics came from an old book entitled “Simple Oriental Cookery”. The Hawaiian beach pic on the floor has a palm tree shadow cast that appears to come from the plastic tree installed at right. A patterned dachshund silhouette stands on the beach near a Fender, while Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head stand in for the couple in love.
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THE HOWARD BOX
8 Photos
Gifted to American Author and former music publicist to the stars, Howard Bloom. The blue photo is a miniature replica of a sidewalk shot of spray paint and a feather from my CLOSER project days, as Howard and I have shared in a love of these kind of observations on our walks together in Brooklyn. The show if vintage Ken doll.
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THE RETIREMENT BOX
5 Photos
A Kickstarter reward inside a vintage Simon De Wit, with tiny male figurine and fresh moss.
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THE HEATHER BOX
9 Photos
Featured here is a box I made for Heather in Pennsylvania.
A crafter of her own shadow boxes as part of a creative side business, Heather was curious to have one of my boxes made for her and about her!
I worked to bring central attention to her most important goal right now – making a career change to something she loves – while getting playful around that center with some of her favorite things: The Greek Isles, tennis, champagne and throwing parties, time under the stars…and I mixed her love for cheese together with her designs for a new career in the form of a skyscraper sprouting grated cheese, and her love for Philadelphia into a box of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, which is holding up the forked rolling red carpet upon which she must determine her new direction.
The Ohio Blue Tip box is from 1970, the Barbie tennis racquet from the 80s.
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THE TIME TO THINK BOX
3 Photos
A reminder to rest and connect with nature. The house in the foreground is a cake topper.
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THE ONE QUESTION BOX
4 Photos
One of the many questions that has consumed me since birth.
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THE VITAMIN C BOX
5 Photos
Made for a Lyndse Rae in Ohio as a Kickstarter reward. I was probably C deficient when I thought this one up! The nurse matchbox label hails from the Netherlands, and the dollhouse oranges inside the box were purchased with my childhood allowance money.
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THE MORE DOUGH FOR TRAVEL BOX
5 Photos
Made as a manifestation tool for increased abundance to support travel and new horizons of thought and opportunity.
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THE FEEL FULFILLED MATCHBOOK
1 Photos
A reminder that giving and receiving are one and the same.
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THE ELEVATE MATCHBOOK
2 Photos
Sometimes it’s easier with coffee.
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THE SUMMER FUN BOX
3 Photos
A reminder to stop and smell the roses, preferably with friends.
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THE MAXIE BOX
10 Photos
Featured here is a commissioned piece made for my youngest client yet, 6-year-old Maxie from Berkeley!
Maxie’s Mom Elana (of THE ELANA BOX) wanted to gift her son with a unique preschool graduation gift, as she was so proud of the social flexibility and ease he was able to develop for himself throughout the year (and because she was smitten with him).
Some fun facts about Maxie: he liked to get to the bottom of anything and everything, and to catalog his experiences; his favorite places included the library, the bed where he read his books, the art room at school where he drew portraits of his friends and teachers, and the stadiums for the Oakland A’s and the SF Giants.
Maxie’s favorite authors usually had a good sense of humor, like Mary Pope Osborne or Daniel Pinkwater; he was obsessed with bull, tiger, hammerhead, and great white sharks, also shark attacks; he liked playing Angry Birds and Temple Run 4 on his mini iPad, drawing superheroes, eating mac ‘n cheese and vanilla ice cream sandwiches; he was born on April Fool’s Day and considered himself a “trickster”; and he was very sensitive to others’ feelings.
Finally, Maxie’s obsession for the “once in a while” food he was allowed, DONUTS, inspired his common refrain, “Is it once in a while yet?” And so, naturally, I gave him the same roadmap to donuts that I also put in his Mom’s box, as well as a tiny vintage box of “Special Donuts” at the top of his piece (atop the recessed and somewhat formidable Temple Run 4 head).
Two little drawings at the face of the work are miniature replicas of Maxie’s own artwork. And though I wasn’t certain Maxie liked cookies, I was sure he liked his Mom’s smile, so I put their heads together in the form of smiling cookies at the work’s base.
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THE MISTER PIZZA MATCHBOOK
3 Photos
The sidewalk shot of thrown pizza crust is from my extended CLOSER project collection.
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THE SPRING BABY BOX
2 Photos
The standing metal plant is a vintage piece my Gran had sent me from her art materials collection. The blue shoe is vintage Barbie. The tiny white porcelain shoe goes way back as one of my first dollhouse miniature purchases from childhood.
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THE WHITNEY BOX
14 Photos
Featured here is a box I made for a true powerhouse and social change agent in Santa Cruz, named Whitney.
Seeking more peace and balance in her life, and the manifestation of passionate love, Whitney dreamed of getting away with her young daughter to the beaches of Kauai for some quality time. Running an organization of her design made imperative her ability to know when to slow down and reconnect… When not working, Whitney enjoyed the comforts of her home, unwinding with some tv and her daughter, maybe some steak or Vietnamese Pho, and by making art of her own.
I hope that Whitney’s box served as a propeller to fast-track the attainment of her goals.
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THE HAPPINESS IS MATCHBOOK
1 Photos
Sometimes the wisdom on a tea bag’s string is just what you needed.
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