Today we’d like to introduce you to Danny Arnold.
Hi Danny, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
My inspiration started in the Cuyahoga Valley, which links the two cities I grew up in, Akron and Cleveland. Eventually moving from Ohio to North Carolina and New York, I carried with me memories of Northeast Ohio: watching baseball and building models with my dad, walking through the Arcade in Cleveland for the first time, and returning to the Cleveland Museum of Art over and over after my dad passed. My memories are structured by these places and landscapes. Along the way, I started collecting used paper bags to note whatever I saw, felt, or experienced. To memorialize my memories of the people and places along these routes, I developed an artistic medium using my growing collection of paper bags.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As someone without formal artistic training, I struggle with identifying my voice and building a sustainable practice around it. Early on, there was tension between genuine excitement for creating art but also comparing myself to other established artists who know themselves and how to navigate the art industry. As I continue creating, I’ve realized that my feelings of lack are a call to build self-confidence. I need to keep creating, trusting my artistic process, and putting myself out there for people to engage my work. Then, when I look at all these great artists, I can take solace from learning their experiences and journeys.
My process requires a substantial amount of time and patience. From assembling boxes and lines to cutting and placing on a board and repeating this process thousands of times, I am limited as to how many pieces I can make in a month or year. My first piece, Cuyahoga, took over two years. I remember having seasons in which I had no desire to work on it or I could do nothing else but work on it. As I open myself to creating pieces as commissions, I am learning how to balance the concept of a piece, the timing of the process, and the opportunity to create with and for others in a way that can be more self-sustaining.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a visual artist building three-dimensional landscapes that are memorials to the recurring act of remembering loved ones, places, and experiences. My process uses recycled materials and a distinctive technique that requires thousands of repetitive motions. Each landscape rewards viewers from any vantage point, standing far away or examining up close, from the left or the right. They interact with light and shadow, revealing depth in varying shades of brown and white. I take pride in each landscape’s imperfections, the mashed boxes, and slightly warped lines that ring true to the imperfections of memories.
I work with quotidian, found materials that would typically be discarded or overlooked. I prefer the predictability and simplicity of these industrially produced materials. I start with used paper bags. I remove the handles, cut along the seams, flatten the bag into a broadsheet. I divide a bag into hundreds of squares or hundreds of thin strips. I cut and fold squares, glue them into boxes. Strips are layered and glued into thin rows. I repeat the process. Sometimes I intersperse cut prayer cards and invitations. When thousands of boxes or thousands of strips of paper are arranged together, a landscape forms. My artwork miniaturizes landscapes according to their exact natural proportions referencing topographic maps. Each piece translates mountains, riverbeds, and plains into mounds of paper. Yet each landscape becomes a commemoration consisting of materials gathered over time, materials that originated in a specific experience in life, and a continual return to a place in memories. A landscape contains a complete spectrum of mundane to profound.
What’s next?
I am launching a commission-based process to work with others—their memories and materials. We all have experiences of loss, joy, and regret woven into real places and objects, and I am excited to learn how to create memorials for others using their memories and materials.
Speaking of materials, an underlying focus of my work is the sustainability of using everyday mass-produced materials, whether man-made or natural, that are easily thrown away. I started with used paper bags, but I am excited to use new materials. I have already incorporated used funeral prayer cards, and I am exploring broken subway tiles, struck matches, coffee stirrers, and leaves.
Pricing:
- Commissions are typically between $500-$1000. Smaller pieces already made are between $300-$500.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dannyarnoldart.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thousandsofboxes/
