JOHN MEADOWS

Radical Modernism

MY PROCESS:

I originally selected the artist Dan Friedman, because of his poster using night photography (Meggs' Fig. 22-18 shown here). I have a strong interest in photographing night scenes. When I researched his works, I discovered that he designed furniture, as well as department store gift boxes (Meggs' Fig. 22-20 Bonwitt Teller boxes).

In addition to having a photo of Friedmam’s Dream Box, it was also mentioned in an article about his work.  I decided to duplicate the dream box and the gift boxes he designed, as a way to hold my chapter cards.

I purchased a box from a craft store, spray painted it red, then dusted it with black metalic paint. I used wood letters for the word Dream, painted them a lighter red, and glued them on the side of the box. I enlarged a copy of the circle on the front of Friedman’s box, and created stencil pieces out of clear contact paper. I first sprayed a purchased wood disc red, then attached the stencils and sprayed the disc black. When the contact paper was removed, the red symbols could be seen.

The top of the Dream Box had lights, so I sprayed small bathroom cups with gold paint and glued them on the top. I put small battery lights inside to give the illusion of electric lights.

For the boxes that needed to hold my chapter cards, I purchased a box set at Hobby Lobby and decorated them to resemble the boxes that Friedman designed for Bonwit Teller.

The different size boxes worked well, as I had the chapter information written on different size cards throughout the semester.