In the begining..

I have an upcoming show called "Synapses" and this is a piece that is going to be featured in the show. This is my first art show and I have to say I'm nervous. I know things will be fine but I fall back on just being human. I will probably be a little vague about some of my work due to fear of people copying me. I hope that I can inspire someone or just be able to explain some of my work a little better.

This is what started the series that I'm working on. It doesn't look like much in the picture but it turned into something I think is pretty great. This box is called "Vacancy".. or at least you will start to see why.

I got the idea to start a shadow box series about a year ago. I took my mom to the Joseph Cornell exhibit at the SFMOMA in the winter of '07. The idea to use old vanity mirrors/medicine cabinets was inspired by someone I dated a long time ago. She used to display small collections of birds wings, bones, and other little "nature" frick frack in a cabinet that was leaned up against a wall.. I always thought it was a neat idea that you would store non-traditional items in something frequently used and seen as mundane. The broad idea of the project is to have a medicine cabinet that a person walks up to, opens up and veiws a cetain thought, time, or snip-it of someone's life.

"Vacancy" is inspired by what the ideal "father figure" or the ideal man was during the 1920's-50's. I collected old magazines of the time period and started a very detailed collage process.

Most of my work includes wired lights and fixtures. Here are a couple more pictures of the process on this particular box.

The picture above is a detail of the collage process and the mounted light. The below picture is the finished product with the light on.

Detail of finished product and it's contents.

The box more leans to a father figure type. If you see the entire shadow box up close you will start to see details of this emphasized.

None of my shadow boxes are the same, there are similarities, but nothing is the same. As I'm sure you will see in future posts.