Angled Boxes

Much of my personal work since the early 1970s can be described in a single word: "Boxes". Or, to be even more descriptive: "Angled Boxes".

Perhaps I should face reality and just admit, maybe, I have a "problem" with boxes.

Or, to paraphrase a quote attributed to J.B.S. Haldane, "I have an inordinate fondness for boxes".

Why do I continue to repetitively draw, animate, and build boxes?

Is my obsession with boxes an OCD-related symptom?

I never stopped to seriously consider "why" until 2004, when several of my prints were selected for the "2004 SIGGRAPH Art Gallery: Synaesthesia" exhibition, to be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

As part of the entry process I had to submit an "Artist's Statement". Here are some excerpts from what I wrote...

So, was my obsession with boxes initiated by those high-rise concrete apartment buildings sprouting up in Vancouver's West End beginning in the 1950's?

Can't say for sure, but it's plausible, and I like the sound of it.

However, I think there has always been another force compelling me to disappear into my work, and a world of boxes...

Escape.

Escape from the sense of a lack of control, from the fear of failure, from feeling stupid, from poor social skills, from low self-esteem, from being exposed as a fraud, and from who knows what else.

Or, more recently, escape from America's descent into mass insanity, Brexit, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, North Korean missiles, etc.

Of course, there are less dramatic reasons for escape, things like stress, deadlines, money worries, relationship issues, and so on.

The point is, when I really get into my work, everything else falls away, time no longer exists, and I'm in a world where everything is under control, in its right place (yeah, I know that sounds like a song lyric), clean, precise, peaceful, and immutable.

I like it there.

Could there have been another influence on my work and obsession with "Angled Boxes"?

Possibly.

In 2005, while browsing the internet, I came across images of the Centro del Espacio Escultórico located in the University Cultural Center (CCU), in Ciudad Universitaria, south of Mexico City.

(click here for more info)

This massive sculpture installation was constructed between 1977 and 1979.

I was shocked when I saw the pictures.

From certain angles, the installation looked almost exactly like some of the drawings and prints I'd been making for decades.

Did I come across images of this sculpture installation sometime in the '70s or '80s?

I'm not conscious of it, but the unsettling thing is, it's a possibility.

To view more (a lot more) examples of "boxes" in my work, visit the "Series Prints", "Miscellaneous CG", "Sculpture Models", and "One Zero Base Two" pages.

UPDATE: July 30, 2026

Well, this is embarrassing. After all these years, I've arrived at yet another possible influence that may have contributed to my obsession with "boxes"...

This movie made a huge impression on me when I first saw it back in 1968, (at The Bay theatre on Denman Street).

I was only 12 years old at the time, and It was the first (and last) movie I can recall ever going to see with my mother. (Surely she took me and my siblings to see Bambi or Dumbo or Pinocchio or something else like that when we were younger, but I can’t remember).

I do clearly remember being the only “kid” in the theatre during that evening screening. Just after the movie ended, the lights came up and an usher walked down the aisle and informed my mother that the “Coming Soon” movie previews were “restricted”, and I was too young to see them.

So, without a fuss, (but slightly embarrassed), the two of us got up from our seats, walked up the aisle, and exited the theatre, just as the lights were dimmed again to show the previews.

(Strange, did they show previews after movies in those days?)

Anyway, I’ve viewed this movie dozens of times over the years and it still holds up beautifully. (Well, except for that boring 12 minute “Stargate” slit-scan and dye-transfer effects sequence near the end.)

I have to acknowledge that the “Monolith” was likely another piece in my “boxes” puzzle, and a probable influence on my personal and commercial work to come.