If ever there was going to be a date to add a new post to my website it was today! I am so surprised that there have been so many views over the past couple of months. I am not sure why but it may be the story I wrote about discovering a new Joseph Cornell box via a visitor to my Facebook page! (Denise’s Boxes / Denise McDowell Art)
I was commissioned to complete a box as a bon voyage present just before Christmas and thankfully the customer was pleased with it.
My love of assemblage art goes on, I love to find new artists and add them to my Pinterest page.
I was absolutely thrilled when a viewer to my Facebook page Denise’s Boxes / Denise McDowell Art contacted me during the week.
A lady by the name of Lana commented that she had actually met the assemblage artist Joseph Cornell many years ago, and not only that, he had given her one of his boxes as a present. Now, as most of you know, I am a huge admirer of this particular artist and have been inspired to create box assemblage pieces through his work.
To actually be able to ‘meet’ someone who spoke to him and received a gift from him is absolutely fascinating to me. Lana and I exchanged some messages and she has given me permission to tell her story on my blog and has provided me with some photographs to share.
As a 16 year old working in a store on Main Street, Flushing, Queens, NY, Lana lived only a few miles from Joseph Cornell. The store sold fabric and the artist would come in every now and then to buy fabric. She remembers him as ‘very quiet and polite’. He also asked if she and another girl would work part time cleaning his home – Lana says that unfortunately her mother would not give her permission but the other girl did work for him for a time. In her own words she says, “What a lost opportunity, can you imagine I would have been able to see inside his home and his unfinished works”. I agree!
Joseph Cornell presented Lana with a tiny box assemblage which she has treasured since 1966 and which shows on one side an image of a child, possibly a Medici print which have featured in many of his boxes. On the other side of the box is a simple stamp showing a seahorse. The box is papered inside and you can plainly see Cornell’s handwriting where he has dedicated and signed the artwork personally to Lana. Oh my goodness, how excited I was to see these photographs!
I really am honoured that Lana contacted me and feel that this is a very important find not only for Cornell followers but the world of art in general. I hope you get as much pleasure from looking at this tiny treasure as I (and Lana!) have had.
This is a newly finished box which has been in the pipeline for some time! Â It is packed full of vintage finds including a baby boot, old nib, tiny Bible, china hand, cigarette holder, wooden glasses case and the list goes on. Â Hope you like it!
This box was auctioned off for a lovely charity last weekend and this is the reply I received from the lovely winning bid!
What a treat, what an absolute delight. Just unwrapped, with great excitement, a parcel from the postie. It is so much more than the photographs show. I absolutely love it and will treasure it forever. Need to keep looking at it to take in all the detail.
Thanks you Meg, it was my pleasure. Â So happy that this wee box brought much needed funds and also a lot of pleasure! Yeah!
-SOLD- yes someone did ‘Bring it Home’ (sorry I had to!!) and I loved the style of the box, French inspired and the wire front to it just added to the theme.
Thanks to my daugther for providing suitable quotes for the front and inside of the box – To love another person is to see the face of God –
JUST ANOTHER LES MISERABLE SONG TITLE BEFORE I STOP!! I am a big fan of the stage show so cannot wait to see the movie this weekend. Â A friend asked me to make this box before Christmas and I was happy to oblige.
Boxes of all shapes and sizes, mostly sold now but lots more to come in the new year, but I need some more themes to work on, any good ideas? Â Let me know!
This box was one of the first I did and it now resides in the War Memorial Museum in Belfast! Â It does remind me a little of an episode of Dr. Who – you know the one I mean when the little boy with the gas mask asking, “Are You My Mummy” – weird or what!
* SOLD * someone has gotten in early for their Christmas shopping and bagged this unusual Alice in Wonderland inspired box, one of my bigger boxes it will make a unique present for someone. Â Thought this sepia photo did it justice!
Denise's Boxes 