These boxes largely dominated the webpage when I searched Joseph Cornell's name. While I'm not entirely sure that all of these pieces are his work exclusively, I can say that they are the ones that drew me in the most. I love the rustic look of them all. There's just something about that aged look that captivates me. None of them seem to convey any particular message so much as a feeling or an homage to something or someone, like in this last picture. This works really well for these works of art. Something else that I like about these boxes is the way that most of them have a very muted color scheme, making the brighter colors really pop while still blending with the rest of the piece. Overall, these are by far some of my favorite things that I've looked up for this class.
This one really grabbed my attention because of a few different things. Firstly, the eye holes are not only shaped in an unusual way, but the fact that they too are partially covered really struck my interest. Secondly, the shape of it is really cool because of the way that it is clearly designed to conform to the shape of the head so closely, whereas other masks might add a few extra bumps, ridges, or angles, not to mention anything that might be protruding from it. Finally, it looks beaten and battered, which is something that I really love about masks like this. They're meant to look like they've been through some kind of battle or battles, resulting in the damage that you see. It's fun to look at it and imagine what might have put them there.
These masks were apparently made by a man named Jorge de Rojas. He makes all kinds of Halloween-themed artwork out of paper mache. These masks really caught my attention because of the way that they feel stylized, yet still retain a great amount of detail, all while being made of paper mache! I didn't realize that people did this sort of thing with this particular material. Generally, when I think paper mache, I tend to think of poorly made pinatas. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.
