A Clockwork Orange
The Poem
My name is Melissa Horvitz. The book that I chose to do is True Tales of Buried Treasure, by Edward Rowe Snow. This book tells fifty, supposedly true, stories about finding buried treasure. It tells tales from all over the county. Treasure found in the caverns to a common civilians back yard. However the common trait in these stories is the wonder and delight that the treasure finders feel when the treasure is finally theirs. I chose to make a wax box. I covered a book in wax, because of the intrigue in a book. Each book contains a thousand treasures inside, so I liked the symbolism. I also feel that the wax adds intrigue. I feel that it makes a viewer want to know what is inside. After removing the cover, which is tied up to heighten the interest of what could be inside, you will find a small box filled with dried flowers. In this is a clue, which leads to the next box. In this box you will find another clue, which leads to the buried treasre in the bottom. I chose to use the dried flowers, button and marbles, because each of the stories in the book tells of finding the treasure in a different random place. Places that you would never think of finding it.
In the book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," by Maya Angelou, the cage is indicative of the cages which the author finds herself in throughout her life. On the underside of the lid there are packages, books, and a bible to represent the roles played in her life by travel, literature, and the church. The bars are irregular to symbolize the everchanging constraints and challenges which she overcame. Inside there is a white ceramic church representative of the peace and inner spirituality that she has found within herself through her experiences. The bird flying away on the top is indicating that the author has found a way to escape her "cage" and the demons which accompany it.
Mark Martin
My book is, Close Cover Before Striking by Steele Heimann Dyer. I have constructed a large matchbook to an enlarged scale of an actual one. The book, Close Cover Before Striking, is a book based on the history of matchbook covers, thusly, within my matchbook are color reproductions of some of these classic matchbook covers. The matches themselves (also to exact scale) contain literature from the book.
Jody Nichols
This book object is based on The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. The table shows what things may have looked like through the eyes of Alice, trapped in a world in which time and space were distorted. The objects are all things that Alice might have laid on the table at the Mad Hatter's Tea party. The book of cards is a collection of quotes from the original story.
Lucas Sheridan
My sculpture is based on the poem CONSTANTLY RISKING ABSURDITY , by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. It was included in his book CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND. This project called for a book but I used this piece of Beat poetry because it does a wonderful job of explaining the role an artist plays in our society. The Poem should be read from the base in an upward, spiraling pattern.
Jennifer Swanson
The matchbox illustrates a passage in Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel that says, "...each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can't strike them all by ourselves...we need oxygen and a candle to help." The items inside the matchbox represent the main character's primary desire...cooking. So enclosed are a wooden spoon and a whisk, along with recipes in "monthly installments" which proceed each chapter of the book.
Courtney Vagliardo
Life Doesn't Frighten Me, by Maya Angelou presents works on the premise that life is a journey. All of us come across many "monsters" through life and I have represented these obstacles like child-like monsters from my interpretation of Maya Angelou's book.
