Consolation Series

A ring of paper boxes with drawings and paintings on them, sitting on a gray floor.

Garden. Abandoned student drawings, oil paint, thread, metal garment snaps, gesso. 6.5 x 46 x 46 inches.

I started the Consolation series in 2006. It focuses on connected strings of geometric paper boxes, which form circles, arcs, or ellipses.

Some of the pieces are displayed directly on the floor, while others are pedestal-based. In Garden, I folded the drawings my students had abandoned into large paper boxes, and then painted monochromatic oil paintings on the inward-facing segments. The outward-facing components have only a blank primed space without a painting.

A circle of white translucent paper boxes with blue oil paintings in various geometric shapes added to the insides and outsides.

I Do Not Know Their Limits. Vellum, oil paint, thread, metal garment snaps, gesso, graphite. 1.5 x 15 x 15 inches.

In I Do Not Know Their Limits, I created a circle of white translucent vellum boxes with blue monochromatic oil paintings in various geometric shapes added to the insides and outsides. They are eerily the same, and yet undeniably different.

As in Garden, these paper boxes alternate inward/outward configuration, and connect to each other with metal garment snaps, which allow them to be disconnected and reconnected in various configurations, like Legos.

I like the reversal of the inner versus outer vessel orientation. For me, it suggests a contrast of introspection, versus external engagement.

A paper sculpture by artist Joanna White, featuring pink paper boxes with red oil paintings on top. Some boxes have geometric holes cut through the front, and one box is made of clear plastic.

Consolation III. Paper, oil paint, clear plastic, thread, gesso. Approximately 3 x 12 x 12 inches.

Some pieces in the Consolation series feature clear boxes and cut-out holes, which create absences, placeholders, and passageways.

A circular string of green and gray paper boxes with abstract geometric oil paintings added to the tops, and small junk mail boxes hiding inside.

Consolation I. Paper, oil paint, junk mail, thread, gesso. Approximately 3 x 12 x 12 inches.

I added geometric oil paintings to the fronts, tops, or insides of the pieces, which are vaguely suggestive of views through windows — landscape or sky views. In some instances, there are smaller boxes folded from my own unwanted junk mail hiding inside the larger boxes.

A circular string of paper boxes with abstract oil paintings created on the top.

Overhead view of Consolation I. Paper, oil paint, junk mail, thread, gesso. Approximately 3 x 12 x 12 inches.

While the boxes function linearly like a timeline, the sense of order is confused by the circular shape, without a clear start or end. At the same time, there is much more completion than open-endedness, with the closure of the circle.

A ring of gray ink-stained paper boxes with small, colorful post-it note boxes inside with paintings on the front.

Consolation II. Ink stained paper, oil paint, post-it notes, thread, gesso. Approximately 2 x 8 x 8 inches.

I exploited the contrast of the inside and outside, by hiding something more visually exciting inside, such as these tiny boxes made from my own discarded post-it notes. Each small box has glimpses of hand-writing, plus a colorful abstract oil painting applied directly to the front, like another window.

A circle of printed letters folded into boxes with abstract oil paintings applied to the front in a geometric shape.

Sharpen. Printed letters, oil paint, thread, gesso. 1.25 x 5.5 x 5.5 inches.

For some pieces, I used other discarded materials, such as letters from a friend. The words are broken up by the folds of the boxes, and covered over by the abstract paintings, leaving only hints of the conversation. The dialog becomes more of a fragmented jumble.

An oval of paper boxes with one the bottom half painted white and smaller colorful boxes added to the top with clear plastic domes.

The Heads That Grow Back. Abandoned student drawings, plastic, post-it notes, oil paint, thread. 9 x 35 x 28 inches.

In The Heads That Grow Back, I experimented with progressive size changes in the boxes. I also painted one half of each box a solid white, creating a visual split from top to bottom, but also unifying the connected halves through the solid color. Riding on top of the oval are smaller, colorful boxes folded from used post-it notes, and painted with abstract oil paintings. I sewed clear plastic domes around each of these tiny boxes, similar to the Peculiar Cases series.