Beverly Hayden Art at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver, Co.

The Cherry Creek Arts Festival started today in Denver, CO; the festival continues through the 6th. It's a juried show and there are many excellent artists.

I met Beverly Hayden from Chattanooga, TN. She had some art pieces which jumped out at me because she uses vintage items, such as washboards and irons, etc. and creates shadow boxes with old photographs. The piece I admired today, called "Luck of the Draw" incorporates photographs of her mother as a child and some of her spinster - or shall we use childless? - aunts. It seems that I can not snag that image from her web site to show my readers. She seemed genuinely enthusiastic when I told her I was attempting to research and write the story of my childless female relatives.

Here, however, is how she describes her process for making these "Boxes":

Striving to explore dimension and layers, I assemble vintage found objects with objects of my own construction. At their heart, most of my pieces are deeply personal reflections on introspection, self-awareness and personal growth. I explore universal experiences such as “finding oneself,” the tricky art of family relations as well as love and loss. I express the underlying theme of time passages by using layers of beeswax, paint and even minute differences in depth in my placement of objects. I love to incorporate old objects that have their own “life experiences” to add to the sense of history and timeliness of each piece.

I call the boxes and drawers that house these objects and their ultimate stories/expressions “homes” because I view them not only as a final resting place for these unexpected groupings, but also because each piece ultimately is about finding one’s home – that place within where peace, calm, happiness, safety & sense of family exist in abundance. Through our shared life experiences, celebrations & struggles, I hope your spirit finds a home and sense of kinship within one of my “homes.”

I was intrigued with her pieces, too, because she gives me a place to begin when I start to assemble some family pieces with photographs. I was visiting with my brother and he has some of my father's toy lead WW1 soldiers. I had conceived of the idea while I was in New Orleans that I should make a shadow box with a portrait of my father and some of his soldiers to give to my brothers. Of the collection of soldiers my brother had in his possession, many were of nurses, wounded and stretcher bearers. The Ambulance Corps is not my father's experience, but I couldn't not take those soldiers because of where my head is with these letters from Herb. Hopefully my shadow boxes will turn out as beautiful as those of Ms. Hayden, though with perhaps a narrower appeal.

I was able to scan her card: