Jack in the Box

I apologize for the formatting on this blog post.  Since the article was fairly long, I wrote it in Word and pasted it here.  Blogspot always gives me a lot of grief about adding pictures when I do this. The pictures are here, but not in an orderly manner.  After the better part of an hour of trying to get the post to look right I just had to go with what the blog platform would allow me to do.  Please scroll down to make sure you see the whole article.  There are more pictures and text after the blank spots.

My Jack in the Box is the fourth in my “Jack” series.  Jack is an archaic word for a mischievous nature spirit.  This piece is a play on words as it is an anthropomorphic Jack O’Lantern as well as a Jack in the Box.  I made this as my Halloween project last year.  This particular box is not a true Jack in the Box because it does not spring open.  It is merely made to look like one that has already sprung open.  However, it is a bobble head figure, which is quite popular in Halloween pieces.

I made the box myself from corrugated card board.  I had intended to start with a purchased cardboard box, but could not find one the size I wanted at my local craft store.  I cut out a box pattern, scored the cardboard and taped it together.  Then I covered it with paper maché.  Even after sanding, the box was not as smooth as I needed it to be for painting, so I covered the paper maché with dry wall compound then sanded it smooth.  Not only did this make for a smooth painting surface, it also gave additional weight to the box, which helped balance the top of the box.

The Jack O’Lantern is a doll shape with a wire armature.  I had actually made a number of doll bodies with the intention of having the basic doll bodies available so I could make themed dolls without having to start at the beginning each time.  (My husband said it creeped him out to see all those doll bodies with no heads.)  The armature was wrapped with batting, then string, and then given a skin of muslin.  I added the wire for the neck and made a head from aluminum foil which was covered with paper clay.  The head and features were painted with craft paints and then varnished.  The pumpkin shaped body was made from fabric that was sewn onto the doll body.  It was then stuffed with fiber fill, and painted with a mixture of craft paints and fabric medium.  The “melon” arms are hand painted fabric using the same mixture of craft paints and fabric medium.  (There are fabric paints available for purchase, but a bottle of fabric medium turns any paint you have into fabric paint rather than having to purchase additional paints.)  The doll was painted before it was stuffed into the box.

 

The box is painted to tell the story of my pumpkin man’s adventures on Halloween night.  I wanted to portray some of the themes, games, folk tales, and merriment that go along with Halloween in this piece.  There are so many different ideas that it was hard to decide what to put in and how to present them.  I hope to preserve some of the stories and customs that are fading from our culture.  Each panel of the box tells a story.

The front panel elaborates on the theme of strangeness of Halloween night as well as portraying the game of bobbing for apples.  Jack is using a fishing line to try to catch something from that barrel.  Even the cat thinks this is bizarre.  I chose to have bobbing for apples in this section because although you hear about the game of bobbing for apples, it is generally not played at Halloween parties today.  Most people don’t want to put up with the potential water spilling or soggy costumes. While bobbing for apples is played and talked about it is becoming a thing of the past.

The panel on Jack’s right (your left as you face Jack) shows a group of anthropomorphic pumpkin men dancing at a bonfire while another pumpkin man plays a drum.  A bon fire is a traditional Halloween practice.  There is something special about being around a fire at night.  It is a time to let loose with dancing, drinking, and storytelling.  If you have missed this, make time for it in your life.  It is really something special whether it is part of Halloween or just for fun.

Costumes are the trademark of Halloween.  To add that idea I painted the back panel with Jack in a matador’s outfit.  Black cats are also a theme of Halloween, so I have Jack brandishing his cape at a cat, rather than a bull.  Halloween is not just about strangeness.  It is also about playfulness and silliness.  I hope that this panel represents these ideas.

The final panel tells a folk tale.  Old world folk tales said that spirits would come out on Halloween night and stay until the cock crowed at dawn.  This panel shows a pumpkin man shushing a rooster, telling it to be quiet, as other pumpkin men sneak past.  The pumpkin men want a little more time out before the cock begins to crow.  People that live in cities may not know this, but farm people will know that a rooster will crow any time there is a disturbance.  Strange creatures about would certainly make the rooster crow early.

The top of the box features a spray of stars.  This is one of those cases of when you can’t fix a mistake, turn it into a feature.  I started out with a few stars.  I wanted to add the constellation of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).  However when I added it I made a mistake and had it too close to the original stars and it crowded the initial design.  I turned it into a spray of stars to cover up the mistake.  Sometimes you have to just roll with it.

Next blog:  New pictures of the Faux Tesla Halloween project.