I was commissioned create a two-sided sculpture representing how a person suffering from debilitating headaches felt before pharmaceutical help and then how her life changed once on a prescribed drug for her pain. Her life in the "before" was described as the "end of the world" in which she felt the walls were caving in on her and she just wanted to remain in bed in dark isolation. The "before" side of the vignette represents her desperation within her home in Europe. The facade, the roof, and the walls that are disintegrating.  A dark bedroom  sits above a library with bookshelves collapsing. Once she found relief, she described life as "a breathe of fresh air". This side of the sculpture depicts the same house but now intact with a balcony overlooking a farmers market with the curtains fluttering in the breeze and flowers blooming on her railing.  

My original plan was to represent the scene where one of the main angel characters, Damiel, is overlooking the shoulder of a young man reading while other angels sit on the balcony ledge. I came across a 41 second scene where Homer, an elderly man, climbs the library steps and sits down amongst these huge glowing globes. As he stares at a spinning solar system model, an orrery, he daydreams: “The old man wonders why we cannot just have peace but always war. If he gives up, mankind won't have a storyteller, and humans will forget their childhood.” There is a lack of lines, man-made boundaries, on the globes.  Similarly, library, although, enclosed physical spaces, they provide endless places to travel and concepts to learn.

This is the second in a six part series of libraries represented in film, television and literature. This vignette is a combination of scales in which the Victorian parlor is depicted in Ray Bradbury's book and Francois Truffaut's 70's movie version. A three tier bookcase becomes the various levels of a Victorian parlor and a woman's forbidden library in the attic. Again, a play on scales with classic books on the upper and lower shelves, while a miniature bookcase is revealed on the upper "attic" level. This is the forbidden library in a not too distant future when it is illegal to read or own a book. Reminiscent of Stasi led Germany and the current assault on education and culture as we know it. Libraries are losing their significance. The middle tier is the miniature vignette after the "firemen" have discovered the library in the attic and have thrown the books over the railing  - this is just before the house is set afire. A powerful scene turns the power around when the woman takes out her own match, taking control from the "firemen" awaiting to make an example of her. 
The scene is a one inch to one foot scaled miniature made of steel, copper mesh, paper books, a marble, vintage keys from Nuremberg and a child's silver spoon. 

This miniature vignette is based on Twilight Zone episode 8 of season 1 was released on November 20, 1959.  The same set, located at MGM in California, was used for the 1960 movie version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. I recreated the ruins in steel. The original loosely resembles the New York Public Library evidenced by the overturned arch. The grand stair represents a stack of books realigned to clearly emphasize the page edges. The spines of the books, listed on the side of the vignette, are titles referenced in the episode, other Twilight Zone episodes, or favorites of Rod Serling. Stainless steel mesh is used to represent the fabric covering of hardback books. I combined the scene of the vault with the library steps. The vault represents four books without covers making up the thick walls. The exposed pages are made of vintage printer plates and wire. The vault door locks and gears are clock and watch parts. 

A miniature vignette set within a full scale book. All handmade and all the old adages, don’t judge a book by it’s cover and then these kids in detention! The Princess, The Athlete, The Brain, The Criminal, and The Basket Case each become open books with each other even though they are worlds apart at the beginning of the classic (albeit a few too trite moments and a disturbing #metoo scene) 80's movie. 
The full scale book is made of vintage newspaper printer plates, metal straps, and heavily rusted steel plates evoking a leather bound book. The scene is set within a high school library and is part of my six miniature vignettes based on library scenes in film, literature and television series. 

The vignette is based on the movie interpretation of The Time Machine the novel by H.G. Wells from 1895. The scene of the Eloi in the original movie, filmed in 1960 at MGM in California even though it was set in London. The modern remake from 2002 has a scene when George is walking in front of the New York Public Library’s steps and the lions. The story has many levels (literally) – the haves/the have-nots – the above ground people are delicate and lounge around with not a care in the world (except at night) and eventually he learns about the below ground workers make the world operate. George invites friends and colleagues over for dinner but he isn’t there when they gather at his home. He is in the year 802,701 and meets the Eloi. He asked if they have books so he can learn about them. A small woman guides him into the large building that they all lounge around outside – it was a library. Hoping to learn about these people of the far future, he reaches for a book on the shelf. It disintegrates in his hands which reveals so much. After going back and forth into time, including a time 30 million years ahead, he returns to his dinner party to tell them about his adventures. They don’t really believe him. He wants to rebuild that future by overlapping the worlds. The housekeeper shows his friend the library – 3 books are missing. That is the end of the The Time Machine story. Not as eerie as Twilight Zone but…

The final of the series of six vignettes based on library scenes in film, literature and television. The opening scenes within the dome of the Library of Congress, starts zoomed in on Bob Woodward (played by Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (played by Dustin Hoffman) pouring over checkout slips for every White House request since 1971. Piles of checkout requests, the size of card catalog slips, spill out on the desk in front of the two reporters from the Washington Post about to break Nixon's Watergate. the scene slowly pans out and up into the dome. The view of the concentric desks of the main reading room reminded me of the vast "roller coaster" of newspaper conveyor belts.