Traditionally Given to Clients as Real Estate Settlement Gifts, This Beautiful Art Form Comes to Light During the Holidays
From London:
Everyone loves memories of that extraordinary house in your life. Recently, in the Financial Times, an excellent article on a new wave of artists expanding the whole idea of “house portraits.” Artist Ele Grafton is profiled her creation of HOUSE LIGHT BOXES
In winter, when it’s dark by 4pm, the sight of windows lit up and glowing draws us home. Standing at the gate anticipating the warmth within is a feeling captured by Ele Grafton’s light boxes in the shape of houses crafted from paper. Grafton is one of a number of artists creating house portraits in new mediums and, in so doing, exploring the meaning of home. “There’s always tears,” she says, when she gives the finished artworks to their owners. Often commissioned as presents, the process will have begun long before the giving, with “wonderful conversations” about the house and its memories. https://www.ft.com/content/95005e4f-ee7f-408c-8c3d-dd70e1e2ed39
Thank you so much for the Cottage. It’s the most exquisite beautiful thing; I can see my whole family there, inside, having wonderful Christmases and birthdays and of course, just everyday life. It’s simply wonderful and unbelievably evocative. You are so clever.
— Mrs E Docherty, Somerset
From her website: Each piece is measured, cut and put together by hand at her home studio in Somerset. Ele chooses the pages she uses very carefully, ensuring the words that can be read on each piece resonate with the house and the people that have lived there. The location of a house can often be found on a map that has been used to make a piece, plus other places that have a special connection to her clients, such as where a couple met or had their wedding. Important phrases or references from favorite books and songs can be seen on the side or roof of a building, bringing a unique, sentimental quality to each piece.
