In Progress: Illustration project

The biggest project I'm working on right now is my Illustration project. It's inspired by the work of an artist named Joseph Cornell*. (I promise that link isn't spam - feel free to click away!) I found a really good description of his work from another website and wrote it down in my sketchbook. This is what it says:

By collecting and carefully juxtaposing found objects in small, glass-front boxes, Cornell created visual poems in which surface, form, texture, and light play together. Using things we can see, Cornell made boxes about things we cannot see: ideas, memories, fantasies, and dreams.

Joseph Cornell's boxes are full of imagination and I love looking at them. Here are a few of my favorite examples:






As a class, our boxes were to have a theme, and that theme involves a man named Bezalel. Bezalel was the very first person in the Bible who was mentioned to have been filled with the Holy Spirit. It's also important to mention that Bezalel was an artist!

Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, ''See, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, skill, and ability for every kind of craft, for the art of designing and working in gold, silver, and bronze; for cutting stones to be set, for carving in wood, for every kind of craft. (Exodus 31:1-5)

Basically he is referred to as the ''chief artisan of the Tabernacle''.

And that leads me to the project I'm currently working on now. I decided that the box is going to be the inside of Bezalel's workshop and I'm capturing the moment in which the spirit of God (in this case, a dove) comes upon Bezalel (in this case, through a window).

The box is constructed from old cardboard boxes and I cut out Bezalel's hands and a dove using cardstock. I also decorated the inside of the box using newspaper, acrylic paint, and matte medium to add texture and feeling to the inside of the room. Bezalel will have one hand in front of the other, as if he is shielding his eyes from the light. His left hand is going to be in the foreground, his right hand will be in the midground, and the dove is in the background. My finishing touch will be adding rays of light coming from the dove and possibly through his fingers, plus I plan on staining and putting on a frame which is going to give the box a more completed look when the inside is finished.

Here's the progress so far (sorry, this picture was taken with my phone so the color is probably somewhat distorted):

I have a lot of work to do... so thank goodness the weekend is coming up!

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated!

* For any Illinoisians who might be reading this, the Art Institute of Chicago has an exhibit featuring many of Joseph Cornell's boxes! So if you're ever in the area, you should go check it out! I'd be happy to arrange a trip. Weekend train passes to Chicago only cost $5 for me, so it's a pretty sweet deal! Oh, and for all your Facebookers, you should become a fan of the Art Institute of Chicago by going here!