Artist # 9 Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell's work is much different than what i'm used to seeing as art. It seems like he has a theme of birds and kind of that natural thing going on. Most of the images that came up on google, his work seems to be in some kind of frame. There are different pieces that look like they're in some kind of box with a viewing window. Other's are just in frames themselves.

I like to first look at the images and try to see what the work is about before I read about it. Because I had no idea about Joseph Cornell, I had no previous perceptions of his work. To me it comes off very natural and strategically places in these boxes or frames. His work all looks old. He's not using new objects, so recycling them maybe. As far as the content, i'm not really sure. I don't know what he is trying to get across. I'm not the best at reading art pieces, so after reading I learned a little more.

He was mostly self taught. I thought that was interesting. He uses found objects. The way he worked is pretty interesting as well. He collects objects from flea markets, souvenir shops, junk stores etc. Then he organizes the objects into categories. The boxes that he uses are very old and they're personal. They are for people that he might not have ever met, but was maybe connected in some way. It said it took him years to organize these boxes. (Joseph Cornell)

Here are a few of his pieces:

The way he organizes his boxes is with great craft. He doesn't just throw it all together, but I think he really thinks about where each object is going to go with relation to everything else around it. Honestly thought, when I read the descriptions of some of these pieces, I didn't see it at all. There are some direct references I guess, like the bird representing freedom, but my mind just doesn't think about that yet. I don't draw those similarities or references yet so its hard to really understand his work.