Bandbox c. 1953

Editor: Here we have Selma Sandler's "Bandbox," created around 1953. It's a mixed-media piece, largely watercolor. It gives me a feeling of both tranquility and a touch of old-world seafaring adventure... but also some impending doom with that listing ship. What's your initial take on this piece? Curator: "Impending doom," you say? That’s interesting! It strikes me as whimsical, almost theatrical. Like a backdrop from a play about a perilous journey. Notice how the pinks and blues are almost childlike, the stylized waves more decorative than realistic. "Sandy Hook" is clearly inscribed and visible on top in the artwork; that might be the key to unlocking it for us. It's like Sandler's conjuring up memories, maybe childhood trips or imagined tales of the sea. What feeling does the "Bandbox" title bring to your mind? Editor: A container, a treasure chest almost. But I wonder, a treasure chest for what? And what treasures does Sandler include within it? Is it just Sandy Hook as she remembers it? Curator: Precisely! I wonder if we’re looking at a personal cartography. The piece itself appears almost map-like. This wasn't created en plein air, right? It feels carefully constructed from memory, where emotions and imagination blur the edges of reality. Is it accurate? Who cares! Editor: So it’s less about what's actually there, and more about Sandler's relationship to a place, real or imagined. Like building a personal souvenir. Curator: You got it! That’s it, exactly. The lighthouses are standing strong. A symbolic bookend to whatever this journey is for Sandler. Every stroke feels like an emotional note jotted down on this mental map, or almost an "x" to show where the real treasures lie. It really resonates with my last seaside excursion! Editor: That’s made me see this work in a completely new light, almost as Sandler sharing a fragment of her internal world. What an interesting trip! Curator: I agree! And what's more magical than seeing a landscape in an artist's inner eye? The truth of a place lives and breathes when painted that way.