thinking {inside} the box

Works by Michigan sculptor Larry Fox will be featured at ARTfest Feb. 6 and 7. COURTESY IMAGES Artists usually pride themselves on thinking outside of the box.

Michigan sculptor Larry Fox gets creative by thinking within the box and redefining its very essence.

His wooden wall hangings, for example, are an exploration of texture, form and color. The asymmetrical painted shapes combine to make mysterious, abstract pieces.

“I’ve always worked three dimensionally,” Mr. Fox says, talking from his studio in Omena, Mich. “I’ve built things forever. When I got out of college, I built furniture and did architectural work. I also did film sets. And those three disciplines are kind of what make up my sculpture. They’re architectural. The painting on them is kind of loose, like film painting. And a lot of the technical, practical aspects of making furniture, of woodworking, are part of the work.”

FOX Mr. Fox is one of 200 artists whose work can be seen at ArtFest, held in downtown Fort Myers from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 6 and 7. ArtFest includes paintings, photography, glass, jewelry and fiberwork.

This is the first juried show for Mr. Fox. In Florida, he typically exhibits in Bonita Springs at the Bonita Springs National Art Festival held at the Promenade, and on the east coast in Coconut Grove. Other festivals he’s exhibited in include the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington D.C. and the prestigious Evanston Fine Crafts Show in Evanston, Ill.

“I’ve been doing this full time for about eight years, but I’ve been building things for 30,” he says.

During the past six years, he’s been making “pieces whose only function is to look at them, rather than use them.”

Previously, he made furniture — tables, chairs. Then he started making smaller pieces, such as sculptural shelves that hung on the wall, and sold them at shows. “That was the evolution,” he says. “The practical building aspect of them, a painted surface with paper and canvas.”

He generally makes a rough sketch first of what he wants to create. Sometimes the piece stays close to the sketch, and sometimes it evolves into something else. Depending upon the piece, he’ll either paint directly on the surface of the wood, or upon the paper or canvas that covers its surface.

“Some of them have a substrata of different materials,” he says. “That evolved from my furniture work.”

He worked on film sets, mainly in the Detroit area, for a number of years. He worked on “Evil Dead II,” (“a classic horror film,” he calls it), which was directed by Sam Raimi, and “The Abyss,” directed by James Cameron.

“I worked my way up. Eventually, for my final film, I worked as a production designer. On others I worked as construction coordinator. Sometimes I was a carpenter. In the beginning, I was a promotion assistant. I usually had my hand in the paint and building.”

Painting for film, he says, is similar to stage painting, but not as rough. “It has to look more real,” he explains.

The last film he worked on was 10 years ago. But then the technology began changing.

“It’s different now, because they’re digital,” he says. “But 10 years ago, they were using mostly film. A lot of times you needed to create different surfaces with the paint.”

He names Louise Nevelson’s assemblages as a major influence, as well as the work of architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier. Mr. Fox initially studied architecture before getting a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

He paints his wood pieces, often with more subdued colors. “But sometimes I use brighter colors — they pop more,” Mr. Fox says. “It’s a play between the form and the surface. The more you treat the surface, the more you lose the form. They’re sculptural. There’s a play there: how much do you treat the surface, and how much do you let the sculptural aspect of the piece speak out? “Every piece is different. Sometimes the surfaces are played up. Sometimes I use tool marks to create a texture, and that’s the actual wood that you see. Some of them are built like a box, with the skin of paper and canvas.”

Some pieces are inspired by nature (“Snowstorm,” “Grassland II,” “Fields” “Forest View”), yet he’s done an entire series based on industry. “I have different influences,” he says. “I did a whole series of architectural pieces. The thought behind each piece is a reaction to or an observation of an architectural element. I went out to a show and went through Pennsylvania, and they have a lot of interesting barns out there. So just by looking at them, and reacting to them, I did a piece about a barn. You can kind of see the barn, but you have to look kind of hard.

>> Works by Russell Yerkes, Lea Alboher and VIctoria Sexton will be on display at ARTfest. “Sometimes they’re more identifiable, sometimes they’re more abstracted. I don’t want to build a model of a barn, but I want to translate the feeling of a barn, the elements that I react to.”

Mr. Fox did a number of freestanding sculptures in his tower series. And he also made a series of small, 8-inch by 8-inch architectural squares that hang on the wall. Selling for $155 apiece, he calls them “entry-level pieces for fledgling collectors.”

Artist Larry Fox is one of several hundred artists whose work will be on display at ARTFest. COURTESY PHOTO The squares, he says, were for an online show.

“I was experimenting with how that works,” he says. “I made 60 and put them on there. Each one is different. I’ve probably made 200 of them by now.”

He sold 35 of them to a real estate developer in downtown Chicago, who created a bigger piece by grouping them together.

Some of Mr. Fox’s larger pieces can be found in corporate collections, including Disney in Orlando, Arco Corp. in Chicago, and the Toledo Art Commission Public Collection in Toledo, Ohio. A 26-foot-high waterfall, a commissioned work, is housed in the Wells-Fargo Bank headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa. The abstracted wooden blue waterfall, which is 26 feet high, can be viewed from two levels.

Nearly 60,000 people are le eek’s expected at this week’s ARTfest in Fort Myers with ers c 200 artists. Picuted are works by artists Eric Paige and Rich Fizer. COURTESY IMAGES AND BY S HAPPENINGS MAGAZINE “It’s a frozen moment kind of thing,” he says, describing it.

Some festival-goers are unsure what to think about his abstract work.

The public, he says, would sometimes rather see something more representational, so they understand it. If it’s something they recognize, they feel more comfortable with it.

“Sometimes it’s harder for people to see beyond the design of it,” he says. Sometimes a patron will like a piece and not even be able to explain why.

“It’s funny,” he says. “They don’t understand it, but they’re attracted to it, and will purchase it. They don’t even know why. It’s all about reacting to it emotionally. If they can connect with it emotionally, at whatever level that is, then they react to it.”  ARTfest guide

>> When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 6 and 7 >> Where: Edwards Drive from Monroe to Lee Street, downtown Fort Myers >> Cost: free >> Information: www.ArtFest- FortMyers.com or call 768-3602