Jenifer Renzel

Little sideshow oddities, dark dreams, and mystical beings. Broken dolls, old toys, antique hardware, collaged images, and imagination are the ingredients for these shadow boxes. “The broken down treasure at the bottom of a moldy box can be the cornerstone of a new creation. In fact, that’s often how the idea for a piece starts — with one broken doll, toy, or image that sparks the imagination. The rest is a continual trial and error process of finding which pieces fit together, then figuring out how to connect them, which can be challenging when working with oftentimes crumbling, frail and damaged materials and parts. Something tells me when a piece is finished. Some pieces come together quickly, and some take forever and are a struggle. In either case, I can lose hours and hours in the workshop, and the results sometimes surprise even me.”