soap bubble set

This is Soap Bubble Set; it's an homage to Joseph Cornell (obvious from the title, maybe not so much from the image). Cornell was a little sick, his personal life was not one to be admired although he wasn't a monster either. What I do admire is his unabashed romanticism, perseverance and ingenuity; he was the art monk. Lived an isolated and lonely life caring for his mother and invalid brother, had no training, and made things up as he went. The results were ingenious and breathtaking. He baked wall-mounted, surreal installations in his mother's oven to achieve the perfect finish. Early on, he liked clay pipes.

The fun of creating this shot was hunting down suitable clay pipes (which were at one time a ubiquitous feature of American life)--setting up the shot, and thinking about my daughter and me as a kind of set. When she was younger we looked so much alike that I teasingly called her "mini me." (She hated that, I had to stop. I don't blame her one bit. My bad.) Yet we have a profound bond despite our now significant ideological differences. (Me--lapsed Episcopalian and budding atheist; she is a budding evangelical.)

On the shoot we blew bubbles through the clay pipes, and for one moment the bubbles merged. In traditions of European painting, bubbles are a symbol of the fragility of life and the passing of youth. When Joseph Cornell made his soap bubble sets I have no idea what he meant, but that does not matter. I'll follow up with a Cornell image post for comparison.