Because of covid and the fact of no longer driving a car I shop on Amazon for everything. The orders come in many size packages and with various packing materials. The other day a piece of packing material, rough but light, 14 by 20 to fit the size of the box, with intricate indentations caught my attention. I liked the design feature of the boxy spaces, supposedly to provide strength to the thing which protected the product I had ordered. I decided to hang it on the wall.
A friend of mine in her visit the other day noticed it and said, “Isn’t that a piece of packing material?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “I liked the design of it.”
She shrugged and continued discussing the topic what ever it was. People learn to expect such behavior from me.
When I mention art one might immediately think of pictures hanging in a gallery or in a living room. The fact is that one can find design in everything, living and nonliving. Anything you look at in nature has design in its making. And human beings use design in everything they create. And that is what fascinates me in my visual world. The shape, the color, the line, the response to outside or inside events, the influence of distance and more, create the intrigue of the thing I’m observing.
I’m considering adding color to this packaging material to make it my own.
Chlele Gummer, Author & Artist 