1. View Giselle - The Wilis Waiting for Albrecht
  2. View Giselle Act II, Waiting for Albrecht 9"x9"x4"
  3. View La Bayadere, the Entrance of the Shades, 15"x3.5"x3.5"
  4. View Spirit box, Wood, Manta del cielo, buttons, dolls, acrylic 9"x9"X4"
  5. View The Pallbearers, wood, acrylic, 9"x9"x4"
  6. View Do You Ever Get The Feeling We're Not Alone?
  7. View Ladies in Red Make Their Living in Bed
  8. View Blue Aliens, wood, fiber, acrylic, African earrings, 12"x12"x4"
  9. View Persephone in Hades, 6'x1'x1'
  10. View Two Eyes, (Second eye is in the needle) 12"x7"x2.5"
  11. View Mystery Boxes, Wood, fiber, paper clay, acrylic
  12. View Mummies of Sacred Insects, wood, buttons, manta del cielo
  13. View Mummies of Sacred Insects, buttons, wood, manta del cielo
  14. View box7
  15. View "We Have Seen Better Days" - Timon of Athens IV, iii
  16. View A Convention of Mummies of Sacred Insects
  17. View Detail of Insect Mummies
  18. View Detail of Insect Mummies
  19. View The Last Supper of the Mummies of Guanajuato
  20. View Detail of one my the Mummy Boxes
  21. View The Lady in Red Makes Her Living in Bed
  22. View I Am a Rainforest

Boxes

I began making boxes many years ago in Taos, New Mexico. I used to go to the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos. Over a period of 25 years I enjoyed 16 residencies at the foundation. Henry Sauerwein, the Director, became a good friend of mine. Most of the time I was there on a literary grant. I was working on one of my several novels. During one of my visits I started constructing nichos, the small wood structures made to contain statues of the saints. Today I'm still making them, although I do not fill them with saints.

People always ask me if I make all the boxes myself. Yes, I certainly do. I don't measure the boards I use. I just start cutting. Each box is a little different and each has the touch of my hand and wandering eye. Some turn out to be quite lopsided and I have to scrap them. I never know what I'll put into the boxes when I make them but I'm very found of making mummy-like figures with cheese cloth and buttons from mens long-john underwear. The buttons are about 75 years old and hard to find. I recently bought 900 of them from Arlena the Button Lady of San Miguel. The two details show the buttons off at close range. The wood "blades" on the heads of some of the mummies are discarded parts from the manta looms here at Fábrica la Aurora.

The first three photographs are "ballet boxes." I worked at American Ballet Theatre for about 10 years. First I was a volunteer. I sold autograph pointe shoes on the Grand Tier of the Metropolitan Opera House. Later on I worked backstage with the stage managers. My primary responsibility was to present bouquets of flowers to the ballerinas during curtain calls. It was a glamorous job for which I received a good deal of attention, more than my novels ever received, but not as much as the visual art which continues to be a very popular area of my creativity. I lived 40 years in New York. Now that I live in Mexico people ask me all the time: What do you miss about New York. The answer: "Working at ABT."

These photographs were taken by Marshall Dackert. He lives in San Miguel de Allende and shows his paintings in the Zoho Gallery in Fábrica la Aurora


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Edward Swift's Gallery

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