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Cigar Box Art
Published in: December 1, 1995
Published Winter 1995
Cigar Box ArtMost cigar boxes have the cigar makers' names and emblems on the exterior; inside, you'll find your favorite smokes. But some people are stretching the imagination of the cigar-loving public by using cigar boxes as canvases for their artwork. From carvings and paintings on the exterior to intricately detailed dioramas in the interior, these cedar cases are not just boxes anymore: They are artisic visions.
A 10-inch-high hand-painted cigar-store indian box cast in resin from the original sculpture, .Three examples of Carol Turrentine's "Window d'art," . The Tennessee-born photographer often returns to her roots to examine tobacco farming today. She frames her photos in old, peeling window frames that she finds in her travels.
Two designers who take cigar box art to the limit: Wayne Neuendorf makes his cigar box dioramas from scratch. Each design has movements, fiber-optic lights, and sound and are accurate to the smallest detail. He has completed 20 so far. Fred Schornstein has been a cigar smoker for 25 years. all of his work uses materials strictly from cigar boxes. If you push the book askew on the shelf in the dollhouse, left, the wall revolves revealing a secret room; behind the painting there is a wall safe. Schornstein's wooden car, below, has a trunk that locks with a cigar box clasp. Photos from Fred Schornstein
Designer Harry Hurwitz takes empty cigar boxes, replaces the inner labels with antique ones, then creates a painting inside the box that relates to its image or title. He often uses hollywood legends, such as Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando and the Marx Brothers, and noted intellectuals, such as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, as subjects for his pieces. He recently had a one-man show in Los Angeles.
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