THINKING OUTSIDE NOT A BOX!

Visit your local library or shop your local indie bookstore.

My latest collage available for purchase is pictured below and based on the book Not A Box. Creating this collage was a challenge that I wasn’t expecting. You could say I was a bit "boxed in" - ok I'll stop now. When deconstructing and reconstructing a damaged book I follow a process that I designed when I first started making collages from damaged books. I detailed the process in my September 22, 2017 blog post. So why was this one a challenge? Most of the books I've recycled to date have stories with a beginning, middle, and end even if some pages are damaged beyond use a book I select to collage must have enough elements intact to stay true to the process. I struggled with my collage of Not A Box until I approached the piece/story as a concept and not a progressive arch. When I first selected this damaged book I thought I would I would have a little "quick" fun with a relatively common shape - the rectangle, on occasion a square, but I was not prepared for the amount of time that this collage tested my artistic sense and then - I was done!

Not A Box by Antoinette Portis, a Theodore Seuss Geisel Honor Award Winner, celebrates imagination and creativity in her book inspired by her own memories of her and her sister sitting in a box in their driveway. 

Boxes hold a special place in my heart and I have many fond memories of box inspired imaginative play as a child, parent and teacher. I remember my son's first Christmas when my mother-in-law gave him a wonderful and appropriate baby toy (don't remember it) but he (and we) were all memorized and captivated by his amusement in the empty toaster oven box from the gift we received. Over the years my son, nieces and nephews, students and even family pets enjoyed the many hours of imaginative play and fun a box provides. Below, second graders inspired by the book Second-Grade Friends by Miriam Cohen make life sized cards. 

As we approach the "season of giving" I encourage all to remember that books are not only presents you can open again and again, but reading with another person no matter the relation also makes memories to cherish.  Inbox me to buy the collage. Click on the book caption above to buy the book. I have yet to qualify for any cash back for book sales, but the links have been monetized. I present the NOT A BOX! Collage, enjoy.

18 x 22 Framed Under Glass