Anything but Square

Annelies van Dommelen crafts practical, wearable and one-of-a-kind boxes for the Covered Bridge Artisans Studio Tour.

By: Ilene Dube

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TIMEOFF PHOTOS/MARK CZAJKOWSKI
Annelies van Dommelen’s diorama can be worn as a pin or hung on a wall.


   Looking around the Lambertville home of artist Annelies van Dommelen, it is apparent you are in the presence of a passionate collector. Wall-to-wall artwork is from every period and region of the world, and there are all manner of bibelots, from elephant heads to feathers, plastic fingers on a windowsill, mounted dragon flies on the walls, a bronze praying mantis.
   There are decorative objects made practical and practical objects made decorative. What guides her sense of collecting is just the right combination of existentialism and wit.

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Annelies van Dommelen spends November and December making boxes.


   On one wall, a curio cabinet that came from Holland with her parents more than half a century ago is filled with surreal creatures reminiscent of the figures in her oil paintings: a winged poodle pig, an orange lobster man whose mouth is made from the claw, a round Humpty Dumpty ball, a piece of coral with a little tree growing out of it.
   "I have a fondness for the menagerie and make stories out of them," she says.
   How to keep it all from exploding? "When you have a small house, you have to figure out to hide things and stay organized," she says. "Gloves, beads, moleskins for shoes that will never fit — everything has to have a box."
   A frequent flea marketer, Ms. van Dommelen salvaged the inside compartment of an old writing desk and made boxes to fit the slots. Brushes, postcards and little charms for making dioramas now have a place to call home. "You can’t have mass chaos," she says.

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Ms. van Dommelen puts the finishing touches on a storage box.


   Several years ago, Ms. van Dommelen began making custom boxes. She will be selling boxes, as well as her monotypes, watercolors, etching and prints, at the 10th annual Covered Bridge Artisans Holiday Studio Tour Nov. 26 to 28. The tour will be held in five studios on restored farms near Sergeantsville, a studio in Lambertville, and in the historic Locktown Stone Church in Locktown. Ms. van Dommelen, one of five guest artists, will display her work in the church.
   The boxes, which can be used to store anything from photos, stationery, jewelry, wine bottles, wedding dresses and other keepsakes, are made to be heirlooms and last more than a lifetime, says Ms. van Dommelen. They are constructed from archival bookmaking board and may be covered with bookbinding cloth, silk, handmade papers, etchings, monotypes, lithographs, watercolors, or a combination of these. Some may be decorated with illustrations from old children’s books.

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Annelies van Dommelen works on a painting in her studio at Old English Pine across the street.


   They have ribbons and the fasteners can be made from glass, bone, ivory, Bakelite, celluloid, mother of pearl or accordion keys. Some open as clamshells, others are lidded boxes or portfolios.
   Ms. van Dommelen also makes dioramas, which combine her artistic vision with the technique of box making. Many of these dioramas have been fashioned to be worn as pins, but they can also be used as wall art. They contain little scenes made from the tchotchkes Ms. van Dommelen has spent her lifetime collecting, organizing and storing, such as beads, monkeys, little clowns, old buttons, tiny ravens and animals, castings, delft from the Netherlands. Each has a theme, and Ms. van Dommelen compares them to American sculptor Joseph Cornell’s assemblages in boxes.

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Ms. van Dommelan works on a box in her Lambertville studio.


   "I live in the minutiae as long as I do it, thinking in small terms," she says. "I have a great collection of beads. My little world explodes and I go crazy with my inventory from the flea market. When I start digging I find things I’ve forgotten I have."
   She pulls out her drawers to show her inventory. One is filled with projects in progress, another contains pyramids made from recycled monotypes, yet another has rolls of book cloth. One drawer is filled with handmade papers left over from larger constructions.
   It’s only in November and December that Ms. van Dommelen, who has studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, makes boxes; the rest of the year she is at work on her paintings and prints. "The elegant boxes are a need to create something fine and finished and visually luscious," she says. "They probably come from ‘the fine things’ attitude taught to me as the child of my extremely tasteful and knowledgeable Dutch mother who created Old Master still lives around the house."
   There are two aphorisms she lives by: "I don’t paint to sell but I have to sell to paint" and "Very rich people talk about art and artists talk about money."
   She works in studio space at Old English Pine, just across the street from her house. It is a big airy space, though on this particular day it is not heated. Ms. van Dommelen says she often dresses warmly when working in the studio this time of year.
   Dali-esque oil paintings hang everywhere and many more paintings are stacked. If she focuses on the minutiae when making dioramas, this space is more about manifest destiny. Surely she could fill several museums with all the work that is here.
   A "vanitas painting" done on an ornate Victorian three-paneled mirror is a self-portrait of sorts. In the center panel, a woman looks into a hand mirror to see how she has aged. There is a skull behind her, and ruins outside a window behind her represent things passed, says Ms. van Dommelen. A rotten lemon represents the transition of life, and a stork represents birth. At the bottom is a branch with pods from a tree she planted in her father’s memory.
   By contrast, she also paints what she describes as "bright happy watercolors" that she works on while watching TV at home.
   "I am always interested in the bizarre, the scent of mystery, what is behind the door, out the window and in the distance," she writes in her artist’s statement. "The paintings and prints are a mystery, even to myself… I don’t like to explain my work… the work is personal but relates to humans having the same sensibilities.
   "Some pieces mark a period in your life," she continues. "I can’t explain it but it felt good to paint them." Such were the Carnival paintings for the restored carousel in Lahaska and "Kandinsky’s Last Ride Home" for the Miles of Mules program around Bucks County.
   Ms. van Dommelen describes herself as a spontaneous worker. "What I do is paint and what comes out comes out," she says. "As I go along the story comes out and I put more into it. It’s a subconscious depth… one becomes an artist by sublimating feelings." She recalls Princeton-based artist James Colavita, who died in 1996, as a strong inspiration, but says she has learned from every artist she has ever seen, from Francis Bacon to Joan Miro.
   Ms. van Dommelen’s work is on permanent display at the Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville and the Newtown Gallery of Fine Art in Newtown, Pa., and at Bell’s Tavern in Lambertville through November, and will be on view at Prallsville Mill in Stockton Dec. 4-5.
   Recently, she has begun teaching in her studio. "I realized I’m a good teacher," she says. "It all starts coming out and you’re surprised at how much you’ve retained."
The 10th anniversary Covered Bridge Artisans Holiday Studio Tour will be held Nov. 26-28, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., at various locations in Sergeantsville, Lambertville and Locktown. A map of the self-guided tour is available at The General Store in Sergeantsville, routes 523 and 604, or by calling (609) 397-1535. On the Web: www.coveredbridgeartisans.com. There is no charge for the tour. Other venues on the tour include: Sunflower Glass Studio (Karen and Geoff Caldwell), Long Lane Farm Studio Pottery (Phoebe Wiley), Castlegate Farm (Nancy Kingwood), Swan Street Studio (Katherine Hackl), Hairy Hound Studio (Tim Reece) and Whiskey Run Flower and Herb Farm (Mary Schenck). Guest artists include Annelies van Dommelen, Mark Zdepski (hand-turned wooden bowls), Ann Thomas (jeweler), Anthony Cordasco (silversmith) and Shelia Watson Coutin (potter). To contact Ms. van Dommelen about custom-made boxes or to see her work by appointment, call (609) 397-9479.