Cigars, Stain and Cornell

Cigars, Stain and Cornell

With readily available materials, some encouragement from an instructor, and inspiration from Joseph Cornell-- I have put together a couple of 'painting boxes.'


(Cigar box 1)

With several of my recent ideas, my instructor asked me why the pieces should be on canvas. He was encouraging me to 'think outside the canvas,' if you will. Get outside the confines of the square or rectangle. Think of installations, collage, sculpture.

Well, I got off the canvas-- but stayed in a box. I tore apart some old cigar boxes, and have begun using both the boxes and lids for ready-made surfaces and frames. With these first two pieces, I used cutouts of scrap paper that had picked up woodstain in an interesting pattern.

I'm intrigued with the idea of both found and created art, and liked that these stained sheets of paper were both something I created-- albeit somewhat 'accidentally' (when I was staining wood for frames)-- and something I discovered, when I noticed the interesting marks and decided I had to keep what most others would see as garbage (or at least paper for recycling).

Instead of throwing these sheets away, I saved them, knowing I'd do something with them at some point. When I decided to work with the box lids, I remembered these sheets. I tried different sections, selected and framed the compositions that most appealled to me, then added pen and pencil.


These two pieces remain basically two-dimensional (except perhaps for the slight bit of paper that comes up the side of the box frame), wheras Cornell's collage boxes are unique and odd assortments of 3-D objects.


(Cigar box 2)

Next ... to again use the much-overused phrase... perhaps I'll go even further in thinking outside (and inside) the box, and go 3D. I do have other scraps and ideas on hand -- wire, saved papers, broken glass, twigs.

For information and images of Cornell's work:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/ http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cornell.html

Cornell's Pink Palace, currently on display at SFMOMA: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cornell/p_palace.jpg.html.

Kid in an Art Shop

Kid in an Art Shop

About five years ago, I was on a business trip to New York. Staying in the SOHO neighborhood through a weekend, I had some time to relax and entertain myself. I asked someone where I might find an art supply store or somewhere to buy a sketchbook and pencils.

Such a simple question. How would I know that I was about to stumble into what must be one of the most complete, funky and 'candy-like' of art stores? I was directed to Pearl Paint on Canal Street.

At that point, I hadn't even been doing any sketching (but had been painting for years), and didn't know what I would sketch. I didn't even really know what I was looking for. But this old building, with staircases that lead to more and more art supplies, was oddly intoxicating.

I truly felt like a kid in a candystore.

There were supplies of every type imaginable. Thousands of brushes. Paints. Papers. Everything.

I grabbed a sketchbook. A pen or two. Some colored pencils. A graphite pencil. A leather pouch for holding pens and pencils.

When I went to purchase the items in my basket, some were rung up, and then I was instructed to take other items to a different floor. Pens were tracked and sold on a separate floor from the pencils.

This seemed ridiculously kooky and perhaps a bit sophisticated.

It is a gigantic, magical mayhem:

"Pearl is a gigantic store

(an entire building, in fact) that offers everything from origami paper to portfolios; they sell hundreds of different types of paint, drawing utensils, and other art supplies. If you are overwhelmed by the bounty of goodies, their helpful staff will show you where to find whatever you are looking for. " http://www.ny.com/shopping/art/pearl.html

"There’s no art or craft supply you won’t find on these floors of mayhem. Most stores have a few shelves of pastels; this place has half a roomful of them. " http://www.newyorkmetro.com/pages/details/977.htm

It's been a while since I've been to NY, and the last few trips haven't included a trip to Pearl. (There's one here in SF, but it doesn't carry the magic.) Sometimes I wonder if a repeat visit would live up to the memory. In some ways, I suspect it would. But, in others, it simply couldn't. That initial discovery and surprise, upon finding each floor of what seemed to be never-ending art supplies. . .

Yet, seeing others' enthusiasm....
(http://www.yelp.com/biz/GfP4vWcc3TN_YMfFafcMXw)

• "Pearl Paint is Art Student Heaven. If Pearl Paint doesn't have it, it doesn't exist...."
• "Fun to romp in, sometimes buy."
• "My absolute favorite thing about a trip to Pearl Paint is climbing the rickety, hideous stairway all the way to the top and visiting the tiny room where they keep the most amazing array of papers I've ever seen. "
• "Each floor is dedicated to a specialty and each floor has the specialists to sell it to you. A NYC institution. . ."

. . . I will have to make a point of revisiting Pearl on my next trip to New York. In the meantime, I'm shopping in online candystores, where the art supplies are probably as comprehensive, but the experience isn't quite as funky.

The online version: http://www.pearlpaint.com/. Other online stores: http://www.dickblick.com/, http://www.misterart.com/. And my little neighborhood store (which isn't big, but often has most of what I'm looking for): http://www.maggiesarts.com/index.html.