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Artist makes creations using cigar boxes

Decorative cigar boxes containing unique items are on display this month and in September in the lower level of the the Peter White Public Library. Christine Saari of Marquette is the artist. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

MARQUETTE — Some things you just hate to throw away after you’ve used them — National Geographic magazines, Mason jars and worn-out, but still beloved stuffed animals spring to mind.

For Marquette artist Christine Saari, she’s made good use of cigar boxes.

Using old boxes and recycled materials, Saari has created “Small Worlds in Boxes,” the name of her exhibit on display this month and September in the lower level of the Peter White Public Library.

Saari greeted visitors to Thursday’s opening reception where a short biography was displayed.

Saari grew up on an Austrian mountain farm, coming to the United States in 1964. An Upper Peninsula resident since 1971, she learned photography at Northern Michigan University and workshops elsewhere.

She embarked on a 20-year-long mixed media project, but for the last few years, has been working on her cigar box series.

“Somebody gave me a cigar box, and it was really pretty,” said Saari, noting their different shapes. In fact, her box artwork come in various dimensions.

“I had just decided that I had too much stuff in my studio and I need to use up some of my materials, and so I decided to put them in a cigar box,” she said. “So, that’s how it started.”

Over time, people gave her more cigar boxes.

Eventually, her cigar box artwork took shape, and in different sizes and decorative patterns.

“I never have a plan,” Saari said. “It just happens. It depends on what material I have and how to find the right box and what else goes with it, and they evolve.”

Saari ended up creating about 135 boxes, although only a portion of them are on display.

What can be seen at the PWPL is unusual, with boxes coming from such companies as Butera Vintage Cigars, Tabaca de Garcia Cigars and Arturo Fuente Cigars.

Inside these and other boxes are objects ranging from fishing lures to a bird skeleton to dolls.

They have names too. One box containing three bottles for what presumably are herbal extractions is called “Woodland Essence: Beware of Ticks.” Another box with a statue of a famous cartoon character is titled “American Icon: Mickey Mouse.”

As the name of the exhibit says, each is its own miniature world that leaves it open to the imagination.

What are three dolls “thinking” as they are shown looking down in the “Children know no Prejudice” box, which has three fishing bobbers hanging from the bottom? How are the two giant pandas “cavorting” in the box labeled “Sichuan Memories”?

Some of the boxes are for sale at $95; ones that aren’t available are labeled NFS for “not for sale.” Anyone wishing to buy a box is asked to leave a note at the main library desk and mark it for PWPL Director Andrea Ingmire, who will pass it on to Saari. Saari then will get in touch with the would-be buyer. People also can email her at singerl39@gmx.at.

Saari is active in many organizations, including the Women of Washington, the Marquette Artist Collective, the Marquette Poets Circle and the Lake Superior Art Association. Her work is exhibited regularly and in private and public collections in Austria and the United States.

Not everyone will become a notable artist, but Saari’s work with cigar boxes might encourage people to try that kind of creativity, or at least something similar.

Mary O’Donnell of Ishpeming Township attended Thursday’s opening reception, calling Saari’s work “inspiring.”

“If you’re not an artist, it gives you an idea,” O’Donnell said. “It gives kids ideas.”

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.

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