This post describes two altered wine box artworks currently on display at my exhibit at the Uptown Dental Clinic. I have made several mixed media relief art works using old drawers and boxes. Most of these are fairly small, and can be hung on a wall for display or they can displayed free standing on any flat surface. Some of these include LED lights intrinsic to the artwork.
The Mining Museum
The Mining Museum is one of the two altered wooden wine boxes that were provided by a local art enthusiast.
I removed one of the two “shelf” fittings for the wine bottles, and cut a circular hole in the center of one short side of the box. This became the top of the art piece.
Then I installed a coil of battery operated tiny LED lights over circular hole. I used one of the glass pieces from a candle stand on top over the lights; this references a old style miner’s lantern. There is one bare “bulb” LED dangling down into the “mine” display that is the main section of this piece.
The miner is a cast in clear resin from a paper clay original that is used in another artwork. The relief sculpture was based on a pencil drawing. I doodled this draped figure originally on scratch brown paper, then found him charming. The sculpted figure & subsequent casts are low relief, that is they are partial figures about 1/4” – 5/8” thick. The miner is clear with a touch of iridescent pearl pigment. I mounted him in the box after I lined it with a poly litho print. I cut and covered foam pieces in order to create the irregular top to the mine.
The miner’s “pick axe” is made from three found nails. I found these rusty nails buried in my yard. They are an old type of square nail. I placed the two metal parts in the scene to evoke machinery used in a mine. I placed a selection of rocks, minerals & made resin pieces in both the mine area and in the lower section of this box.
The lower section represents the museum rock collection display. Museums often display rocks & minerals in lit and mirrored cabinets, so I used pieces of mirror to reflect light in my arrangement.
The second wine box became a piece called “Forest Angel”.
About Forest Angel
“Forest Angel” is a mixed media dimensional artwork in a painted wooden wine box. The box is lit by a long coiled string of LED rice lights that can be plugged into an outlet or operated by a battery pack. The lights are covered by a translucent material featuring a print of stylized trees.
Forest Angel has similar “ingredients” to the artwork called “The Mining Museum”. The two pieces started with two matching black wine boxes.
Forest Angel features a relief resin “angel” over a 2-dimensional forest. For the Forest Angel I removed one of the sections that held the wine bottles, and cut out the three wine bottle circles that were at one short end of the box. This end became the top of the artwork, and I installed the LED lights above the cut circles to light the inside of the box.
The strong angel figure protects a threatened forest. The angel is translucent rather than clear, and has a very pale greenish tint. I mounted my protective angel over a poly litho print of bare trees under a fuzzy moon. I repeated the moon motif using a tinted clear resin half sphere on the adjacent strip where the forest has been cleared of trees.
So the upper section of the artwork represents an endangered forest and habitat much in need of protection by this angel.
The darker lower section is darker, with a gloomy underground feel. Bright copper coils and pieces with glitter show brightly within. I have placed a mix of natural and man made pieces here. These are intended to catch the eye, and also perhaps to puzzle and disturb the viewer.
I hope this piece is thought provoking, as well as attractive.
These two altered wine box artworks are a bit dark, both visually and in mood. Hence the lighting! Both are intended to engage and also to puzzle you a bit. I hope you enjoy them!
