2011 Shadow Box for Literacy

Here is this year's contribution to the "Articles" invitational show and sale of shadow boxes on behalf of youth literacy. As this show is being held in conjunction with a showing of the movie "Waterlife" it seemed appropriate to explore the theme of the Great Lakes environment. I also wanted to inject something related to literacy. My train of thought brought me back to favourite book from my childhood: Paddle-to-the-Sea. What would he see if he retraced his route through Lake Huron in 2011?



The image inside the box is printed onto lightweight cotton canvas. Using a scanned replica antique map as a background, I added a variety of manipulated digital images representing some current Great Lakes issues: wind turbines, nuclear power development, asian carp, zebra mussels and industrial pollution. There is also an image of the late Dudley George placed near the site of his death at Ipperwash. The route that Paddle-to-the-Sea might have taken in 2011 is hand embroidered in metallic thread.





Here is the canvas, mounted in the box. The box is painted with acrylic paint and sealed with varathane.







Next the "frame" is added to the map.







The birchbark canoe, made from bark fallen from my neighbour's tree, stitched with sewing thread and varathaned.






Finally, Paddles' canoe is installed and the shadowbox is complete.

3 Books in a Boxed Set

My spouse is a writer who recently produced a memoir of ancestry, childhood and adolescence. The intent was to capture important information and memories that will be available to our children and grandchildren when the time comes for them to show an interest in such things. I offered to put the memoir into book form.
Because of its length it presented planning and design challenges. What resulted was not one book, but 3 volumes for which I created a display/storage box.



The books were inkjet printed on hand torn 90 lb Bienfang Aquademic watercolour paper. This has a nice texture and opacity. Each volume comprised 10-12 signatures bound onto tinted needlepoint canvas using wax coated embroidery thread.



Endpapers and covers were photocollaged using images from family albums and scrapbooks.



The box was lined and covered with photocollaged images reflecting significant events and cultural icons of the time period covered in the memoir. Being the 1950's -1970's the effect is decidedly retro!


Sorry I don't have a good photo of the insides.