Homage to Joseph Cornell

I've been reading a wonderful biography* of Joseph Cornell (1903-72), a stunningly creative American artist known for his boxes and collages (as well as his movies, to a lesser degree). He was a tireless collector of all sorts of objects and images, which he used for his collages and boxes--he made the latter of wood, usually barely a foot tall and wide, and 4 inches deep (30 x 30 x 10 cm). You need to see at least a few to have a sense of what he's about--some works are here, and others in the link above.

This collection is meant to evoke this sort of thing--it's centered around the sculpture Champion by my cousin Rosy Lamb (a prized possession of ours). The shorebird on the right is from our recent trip to Maine, and the little self-portraits are from my high school yearbook, my ID at the University of Calgary (1976-79) and a Mass. driver's license from just before then. The terra-cotta head is from my high school art class. The shadows in the image fit well--Cornell's creations are often called "shadowboxes", and one of the Cornell books on the right is entitled "Shadowplay ..."

*The biography I've almost finished is by Deborah Solomon: Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell (19997)--she takes her main title from the street in Queens (NYC )where he lived virtually all his life with his mother, and his younger brother in a wheelchair with cerebral palsy. Cornell was extremely sensitive and shy, but somehow still enormously creative and innovative.