Description
Homage to Cornell is a piece inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell, an artist's artist from Queens, NY whose work inspired me as a young artist. He made lovely jewel boxes from inspiration, caring little for art world accolades.
You can see a magnificent collection of his boxes at the jewel-like Menil museum in Houston where they are housed in the exceptional surrealist art collection.
My wax box, constructed from beeswax, cardboard and a found print of the constellations of the night sky also has a small ball (balls were a frequent addition to Cornell boxes) made of violet flowers.
Each Spring, Curtis and I gather the tiny white, purple & lavender violet flowers (viola odorata) early in the morning, as soon as the dew has dried, so we can make our springtime honeyed medicinal syrup. I cannot seem to ever throw away the spent blossoms, and because of the high mucilagenous content of the plant material, they stay bound together after I fashion them into spheres, using no glue or any binders of any kind.
You can find the violet spheres all over our house, making appearances on altars, windowsills, on top of flat rocks and in jars. I guess it is one of my own personal talismans for health.
Violets are an old wives remedy for cancer and tumors of all kinds, they are good for the lungs, digestion and heart. (And, of course, these comments are not evaluated by the FDA.)
Another name for violets is "hearts ease" which says it all, for why I find this purple flower to be a wonderful plant ally for me and our home, in any form!
You can see the shot on this page of a group of these mixed media wax shadow boxes and icons. They look good either one at a time or in a group like this.
Contact me if you're interested in purchasing a selection of these pieces. I'm happy to discuss it and make an arrangement suitable to your needs.
Read more about my work in my artist statement, Creating Spiritual Art for the New Millenium and resume.
