The whole world in the palm of your hand

A Swan Lake for Tamara Toumannova (Homage to the Romantic Ballet)1946 by Joseph Cornell
 

Joseph Cornell was an artist who created small environments contained in the confines of a box.  He worked with objects and images to build poetic dioramas.  The lesson plan described here is based upon building a box and creating a self-contained world based on a poem.
 
Grand Hotel Semiramis - 1950 by Joseph Cornell
 
 
 
 
 

Students will look at the work of Joseph Cornell, an American artist.  Cornell was a well respected member of the surrealists, a group of poets and artists that worked with psychological and dream imagery.  Joseph Cornell lived an interesting and unusual life, never moving from the house in which he was born. There are a number of web resources for examples of Cornell's works along with a short biography from the Web Museum.
 
 
 
 

 
Links to Joseph Cornell and his work
 
 
Lesson Plan
 

Students will look at examples of Cornell's works, and discuss how he uses color, objects, images and texture to create moods, similar to that in poetry. The students will then select a poem to base their own project around.  For this lesson, students will create 3 layers using Adobe PhotoShop, with imagery drawn from the poem they have selected.

For the example shown here, the poem chosen was:

click on this image to see larger image

"Application for a Driving License"
                                    by Michael Ondaatje
Two birds loved
in a flurry of red feathers
like a burst cottonball,
continuing while I drove over them.

I am a good driver, nothing shocks me.
 

There are a number of images listed and implied in the above poem, including:  birds, red feathers, driving, steering wheel, windshield, cottonballs, road.  Students will take a look at their poem and make a list of objects that can be looked for to illustrate their poem. Some actual objects, such as feathers, beads, confetti, lace, netting, etc., can be included along with prints of 2 dimensional art.

There are any number of wonderful free clip art sites on the web, including these:
 

  •   Brad's Favorite Clip Art - list of common objects
  •  CMU English Server site - more common objects
  •  Alt.binary clip art collection - lots of good black and white images
  •  Barry's Clip Art Service - links to clip art sites
  •   Funet directory - great source of clip art objects
    •  
    Students will need to collect clip art images, either through the internet or as scanned images.  While my class worked in black and white and then hand-colored the images, you can also look for color images if you have access to a good color printer.  To make retrieval of images easier, students are instructed to name their images so that they are easily identifiable and to create a new folder if necessary.

    After collecting the images, students are going to decide which images will be on the front frame layer, and which images will be on the background of the box.  Images may also be printed and cut out, and left 'floating' inside the box while it is being assembled.

    Creating the front of the box - the frame

    Students are instructed to create a new file (file - new) and make it a specific size.  8 inches tall by 6 inches wide is a good measurement, but any size that will fit on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper will work.  It can be landscape or portrait oriented.  Keeping in mind that the center of the page will be cut out, images will be copied and pasted around the outer edge.  Students need to know how to:

    1.  copy and paste images from one file to another
    2.  shrink and resize images
    3.  flip horizontally or free transform
    4.  choose objects with lasso tool and magic wand
    Here is a print out that outlines each procedure.  Cheat Sheet

    After creating the first file - the outside frame - students need to know how large their open area is going to be.  Using the ruler tools, or printing out the file and measuring the open space, students will then create a second file to create the background of the box.

    Both files will be printed out and hand colored.  Colored pencils work good with direct copies from the printer.  Watercolors give more versatility, but cannot be used on a copy from a printer as the ink will run.  To use watercolors, photocopy the printer copy onto card stock.  Files with various objects can also be printed, so that the objects can be colored and cut out, and perhaps mounted on small pieces of mat board to give stability.

    After hand coloring their printouts, they need to be trimmed to size.  Both the outside frame and the background will be the same size, to make for easier assembly.  Cut a piece of foam core poster board to the outside dimension, then cut out the inside slightly larger than the opening in the printed frame.  Glue the background under the frame, centering the image.  Place and arrange all the floating and interior objects.  Cut a piece of acetate larger than the opening in the foam core, but not all the way to the outside edge. Using rubber cement, attach the acetate over the opening.  Using glue again, glue the frame to the assembly, matching all the edges.  To cover the visible raw edge of the foam core, you can cut strips of paper and glue them around the edges.

    I displayed these with a copy of the poem that inspired each box.