Christy Dickinson's Box Series

The band, All Aboard, will be playing in the courtyard.

Artist Statement:

The Box series came about one night sitting around a table with friends. I said I wanted to make a box where I could turn it into whatever I felt like. My fine art shoots at that point were typically relegated to the outdoors, mostly forests. It’s challenging to create concepts when you can’t control the environment and the light. So I set about making a 12’x12′ box in my backyard. It was originally supposed to only be up for 2 months, but COVID turned it into 2 years.

My original idea was to make the box like a Dutch Masters studio, like Vermeer’s. I wanted to make images that were like paintings. And I did that. I shot about 10 concepts in the spirit of the golden age of painting, but that bored me so I started adding my own twist to them. Covid hit and turned out to be both a blessing and a curse for me, as I needed to finish the series, but couldn’t, so I worked on my concepts. It enabled me to come up with ideas that totally veered away from my original concepts. I love both sets of images from this series, before the pandemic, and after some kind of normalcy resumed.

I love the contrast and comparison. The 25 pieces in The Box series are a result of something I had no idea was coming. The pandemic and turbulent past year definitely influenced my ideas. When you have a year stuck at home, you can either sulk about it or use the time to do some serious soul searching. This is what you see in the images I’ve created in The Box.