james grashow’s cardboard sculptures confront impermanence

Bouquets of cardboard buildings masquerading as flowers, cardboard monkeys swinging from ceilings, cardboard and twist tie birds, a cardboard fountain inspired by Rome’s Trevi Fountain – it’s hard to pick a favorite work from James Grashow’s impressive collection.

Fountain, corrugated cardboard

Fountain, detail

“With each mistake you get closer and closer to the vision of what you are looking for…half of everything is being willing to make a mistake…even more than half.  I’m very willing to make a mistake.” James Grashow

Houseplant Brooklyn, detail

Houseplant Atlanta, detail

Houseplant Atlanta, detail

Grashow credits access to a constant supply of cardboard as a child as the gateway to the purposefully impermanent structures he creates today.

Watch this video and see how witnessing the unintended decay of his sculptures changed the way Grashow makes art.

James Grashow’s website. Get ready to say WOW! He is also a well known woodcut artist. Grashow’s words about his relationship to wood had a powerful impact on me – they speak to the way so many artists feel about their materials, inspiration or compulsion to create:

“When I touched my first wood block, something amazing happened. While others found their tools sticking and their wood splintering, my wood yielded and my tools glided over the surface. Somehow I felt biologically connected to the process. I seemed to respond chemically to the feel of the wood and the richness of the line it produced. I fell in love with woodcuts on the spot. They would be part of my life from that moment on.” More here.