Shoebox Creatures 2016 | isabelhajian

Shoebox Creatures

Spring 2016 - present

I've had a shoebox of collected fabric scraps and discarded craft supplies under my desk for years. I hot glue this miscellaneous material onto cardboard to make palm-sized portraits that I pair with stumbled-upon quotes.

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This was a fairly pretty girl, except that she had legs like an Edwardian grand piano. — Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut, page 37

The shorter the focal length of the lens, the greater the depth of field. If you use a 28mm wide-angle lens, you will get far more depth of field than if you use a 200mm telephoto lens set at the same lens aperture and focused at the same distance; for example, a 24mm lens set at f/8 and focused 10 feet from the subject has a greater depth of field than a 200mm lens that is also set at f/8 and focused at 10 feet. A zoom lens produces more or less the same depth of field at a certain setting as a fixed-focal-length lens of that same length; thus, a 28-80mm zoom lens set at 50mm will produce the same depth of field as a fixed 50mm lens. —Black & White Photography, A Basic Manual, Henry Horenstein
page 49

draw more, less snacks
— seen on a list of new years resolutions

When my mother offers macaroons from Chez Ladurée to Madame de Broglie, she is telling herself her own life story and just nibbling at her own flavor; when Papa drinks his coffee and reads his paper, he is contemplating his own reflection in the mirror, as if practicing the Coué method or something; when Columbe talks about Marian’s lectures, she is ranting about her own reflection; and when people walk by the concierge, all they see is a void, because she is not from their world. — The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery, page 145

Darien, Tuxedo, Kharamel, Telli, Taffy, Pussy Silversides, Morris, Bo, Cassie
— The Incomplete Book of Cat Names, Felix Furbelow page 1

I must now try to make good my reasoning for arriving at these conclusions. (1) The low-shouldered man takes after and is a reproduction of his mother, whose figure and (probably) face he resembles. (2) The square man takes more after his father, and his form is more of the manly in build. There may seem to be a serious discrepancy in my reasoning here. I will try to allay all fears as to an illogical conclusion. A woman for her actual size is strongly built. Her hip frame is more powerful than a man’s, take size for size. So she has greater depth of chest, i.e., from back to front. Of course, too, it will be seen a low-shouldered man never measures so much round the chest as the square one, yet a 36in. low shoulder takes as large an armhole as a 38in. square shoulder, and has a much thicker arm.
— Startling Facts on Human Figures, author unknown, page 49

Maman just went by in the direction of the front door, she’s going out shopping and in fact is already out, her movement anticipating itself. I don’t really know how to explain it, but when we move, we are in a way de-structured by our movement toward something: we are both here and at the same time not here because we’re already in the process of going elsewhere, if you see what I mean. — The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery, page 40

There’re a lot of things I do that I don’t want to share with people but that I have to do to live my life.
— (the incredible) photography professor Jenny Edwards, on shopping for fish

She offers a peppermint lifesaver to the man across the aisle but it’s the same story over there, he barely shakes his head. They are a planeload of people ignoring each other. Alice has spent her life in small towns and is new to this form of politeness, in which people sit for all practical purposes on top on of one another in a public place and behave like upholstery.
— Pigs in Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver

Dolphin Cove
Adventure
Broadcast History: Jan 1989-March 1989, CBS sat 8:00-9:00
Several months after the death of his wide in a tragic automobile accident, dolphin researcher Michael Larson and his two children moved to Australia to start a new life. Michael had been hired by a wealthy Australian industrialist, Baron Trent, to perfect man-to-dolphin communications. Living at Trent’s estate on the Australian coast, Michael worked full-time with the two resident dolphins, Slim and Delbert. — The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 - Present, Tim Brooks and Earl Marsh, page 278

Acknowledgments used to be rare glimpses inside the author’s mind when he/she wasn’t trying to lie to you. Stephen King had some of the best. They were long and rambling, like you’d caught him after dinner and a few glasses of wine. I grew up in rural Australia, the nearest bookstore a town away, and Stephen King never toured here, not even on a motorcycle*. I didn’t even realize authors did tours. Acknowledgments were all I had. They were blogs, before blogs were a thing.
Now blogs are a thing, and tweets, and you never need to wonder what any author thinks about anything. Which is a little sad, I feel, for Acknowledgments. They’ve been reduced to a parade of names. Important names, if you are the author, or one of the names. The names are the reason we have Acknowledgments. But still. I liked the rambles.
* In 1997, Stephen King rode across Australia in a Harley-Davidson. “Until you get here you don’t realize how different it is,” he told the Kalgoorlie Miner. “[America’s West] is empty but you always see a power line or a house twinkling off in the distance. Out here there’s fucking nothing.”
— Lexicon, Max Barry, page 389

You’re literally acting like a computer.
— Levi to his PROFESSOR in a one-on-one meeting

This is the strategy of running: short, quick steps.
— Gabby’s mom, on running

Dwayne! Potato salad for Dwayne! — Harvard Sq. Clover employee sometime summer of 2016 (I wrote it down)Dwayne! Potato salad for Dwayne! — Harvard Sq. Clover employee sometime summer of 2016 (I wrote it down)

Car shrouded in fancy expensive tarpolian (I knew a truckdriver pronounced it “tarpolian”) to keep soots of no-soot Malibu from falling on new simonize job as owner who is a two-dollar-an-hour carpenter snoozes in house with wife and TV, all under palm trees for nothing in the cemeterial California night, ag, ack — In Idaho three crosses where the cars crashes, where that long thin Cowboy just barely made it to Madison Square Garden as he was about a mile down the road then — “I told you to wait in the car” say people in America so Robert sneaks around and photographs little kids waiting in the car, whether three little boys in a motorama limousine, ompious & opiful, or poor little kids can’t keep their eyes open on route 90 Texas at 4 A.M. as dad goes to the bushes and stretches
— The Americans introduction, Jack Kerouac (I was eating grapes when I made this)

Unintentional bad manners was something Peter just couldn’t stand to be accused of, and I knew it. It put him in the class of people in the deodorant ads. — The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood, page 78

“Yes, said Mrs. Bogue, “it’s so upsetting.” She wrung her hands together in feminine despair. She was evidently not at all upset. “He seems to have shifted his field of operations to the suburbs, to Etobicoke as a matter of fact. I’ve had two ladies from Etobicoke on the phone this afternoon complaining. Of course he’s probably some nice ordinary man, perfectly harmless, but it’s so nasty for the company’s image.” — The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood, page 109
(Orange peel, hot glue strands)

The operative concept is simply that things need to stay in place.
— Philip Sawyer, professional tailor, mid-demo

Arugula
Cucumber
Whipping cream
Confectioner sugar
Vanilla
Corn
-phone note November 22nd 6:07 pm @_________leon us??

Although from very different walks of life, they shared a love of danger..
— “People in Rooms,” Lucian Freud Portraits, Sarah Howgate page 30

My mother changed the station when it came on in the car, shaking her head and saying “Girls, I’m sorry, but as a feminist, I object.” —The Burning Girl, Claire Messud, page 20 (Photographed this one upside down)

I put my nails on while running full blast to Ken’s house.
- Unlovable vol. 2, Ester Pearl Watson

Let us now turn to a structure of our own, one which from its nature and uses commands us to reject authority, and we shall find the result of the manly use of plain good sense so like that of taste and genius too, as scarce to require a distinctive title. Observe a ship at sea!
— The Law of Adaption, Horatio Greenough, ship enthusiast, 1852

She usually says only one word — “Thirsty?” — with a question mark, and that word is the bridge from there to here, and I either say “Yep” or “Nope” and she either pours me water from the jug in the fridge or she doesn’t. — The Burning Girl, Claire Messud page 13

Archimedes Screw 287 B.C. moves water from low —> high elevation
Modern sewage treatment plants use the archimedes screw — notes, History of Industrial Design, Feb. 19

It goes without saying that the game of baseball is vastly overused as a metaphor— but what the hell, why should I let a little thing like that stop me? —Readings About the Social Animal, Eliot Aronson, page 12

Shakers— beauty stems from utility; if you divorce the work from it’s function it just seems weird, oval boxes, omg hanging chairs WOW
—notes, History of Industrial Design, Feb. 28

“In your study of the beautiful, do not be led away by the false judgment of ignorant persons who may consider themselves possessed of good taste.. some women seem to consider themselves the possessors of even authoritative taste from which there can be no appeal. They may be right, only we must be pardoned for not accepting such authority, for should there be any over-estimation of the accuracy of this good taste, serious loss of progress in art-judgment might result.”
— Christopher Dresser, “Principles of Decorative Design” 1873 (The Industrial Design Reader, Carma Gorman, page 30. SOOOOO quotable, every other sentence is outrageous, big recommendation)

It will not burn, it will not melt.
— Dr. Leo Baekeland, 1924

Grandma can i take like a pound or two of these pistachios
-me

Me, by maria, spring 2016 (yellow sweatshirt on backwards)

Therbligs, 1927, elements of motion. Lilian Gilbreth (a psychologist of work management) and her husband Frank (a brick-layer) coined the term.. its gilbreth backwards (ish) — notes, H.O.I.D., April 2nd

She grasped me firmly by the arm. “We Hoosiers got to stick together.”
“Right.”
“You call me ‘Mom.’”
“What?”
“Whenever I meet a young Hoosier, I tell them, ‘You call me Mom.’”
“Uh huh.”
“Let me hear you say it,” she urged.
“Mom?”
She smiled and let go of my arm. Some piece of clockwork had completed its cycle. My calling Hazel “Mom” had shut if off, and now Hazel was rewinding it for the next Hoosier to come along. — Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut page 91

There is something about a sweet potato that cheers you up when you are low and celebrates with you when you are happy. Sweet potatoes baked in their jackets have a very large comfort factor built into them. — The Power of One, Bryce Courtenay page 13

In this structure there was a man, there always is, so there was and he was very fine. He belonged to the place the way the place belonged to him. Everyone there was very fond of him and looked up to him. He accepted this because apart from being civilized he was kind. There was a definite well organized, successful and ambitiously satisfied feeling about the place.
— Louise Boureois, the puritan, 1990

The crowd, having been promised nothing, felt cheated, having received nothing.
— The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut, page 38

Hindenberg, huuuge German airship built in 1936. Hydrogen-filled (shoulda been helium), lighter-than-air. Carried passengers across the Atlantic for one year before it caught fire in 1937
—notes, history of I.D., March 19th

Mama! I am so sorry I scared you last night! I was freaking out because I didnt know if you were awake and my logic went like this:
A) If you are awake, then it would be terrifying to hear someone in the house, so i should be totally silent so that you don't become terrified
B) if you are asleep, then i should also be silent so you dont wake up to a scary sound and get freaked out
I was on the staircase and it was making creaking sounds and i was scared!!! Because i didnt want you to panic and shoot me!! (I was genuinely concerned that maybe you secretly had a gun for break-ins and you were going to kill me)
And then i was scared that you were mad at me and couldnt sleep!! ANYWAY
.... (etc etc)
—text draft phone note, last March

She never said no and never said yes, but pulled, slackened, pulled her strings of control.
— Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer, p. 80

What he saw looked solid as hell: two round towers with an arch between them and across that arch was an iron gate that looked like it hadn’t been moved in three hundred years or maybe ever.
— The Keep, Jennifer Egan, p. 3 (first page is good)

The universe IS magic it makes Harry Potter look like dog shit
— elderly man in Burlington, Vermont, introduced as Philip the Philosopher

“Im in John’s group."
"Oh I didnt know you were in John’s group."
"Yeah it’s just the two of us."
— overheard at a party

I’ll get one of those things you can unravel.
— Woman at Cafe Choklad describing a cinnamon role, spring 2017

Her learning to sew (from a book Yankel brought back from Lvov) coincided with her refusal to wear any clothes that she did not make herself, and when he bought her a book about animal psychology, she held the pictures to his face and said, Don’t you think it’s strange, Yankel, how we eat them?
— Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer, p. 76

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-trying-to-remember-chiara’s-number-to-call-her-from-a-stranger’s-phone, notebook, june 8th

The older women — Maureen’s friends — present various food items in plastic, dishwasher-safe containers they will later ask to be returned.
— Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, p.119

... a certain amount of self-doubt is a good tool for correcting, understanding, listening, and progressing — though too much is paralyzing and total self-confidence produces arrogant idiots.
— Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit p. 5