There’s something very rewarding about working with an inexpensive, disposable material like cardboard. I’ve been a fan (short for “fanatic”) of this cheap, endlessly versatile material for decades now
First
of all, it encourages experimentation; you won’t hesitate to toss
failures into the recycling bin. It’s not $5 Arches watercolor paper
you’re wasting; it’s just refuse you were going to dispose of anyway.
Cardboard is easy to cut and, while hard to repair, cheap enough to
throw out and start over. I buy it in 4’x8’ triple ply sheets from a
warehouse in Norwalk. They take 2’ off the top so the boards fit into
the back of a standard pickup truck. You can cut it with a single-edge
razor blade or an x-acto knife and if I’m strong enough to cut through,
so are you.
The use of “humble” material like cement,
cardboard or scrap wood and metal was encouraged by an avant-garde art
movement known as “Arte Povera” that arose in Turin in Italy in the
1960s after World War II. It extolled cast-off, “found” materials in
lieu in of expensive, often unavailable traditional art supplies. It’s a
great way to encourage taking risks.
I’ve done several
interesting projects with sheets of cheap cardboard as well as with
discarded cardboard boxes. They’re unlike anything you’ve seen before.
My first magnum opus was at an exhibit at the Westport Art Center of a
group that called themselves “The Boxists.” Traditionally slick, mostly
former well-known illustrators, they got stuck with me against their
better judgment. However, my higgledy piggledy 8’ pyramid of
discarded Supermarket boxes stole the show. I lit them from within and
filled them with ‘real life’ figures.
They were my artists’ way of getting even.
