Sculpture and Shrines

I have about 10 of these empty boxes and each time I complete one I look back and try to figure out what influenced me to use this type of imagery.  I remembered. It was the missal we got at our First Communion. It had a small Grotto inside the cover that was decorated with mother of pearl and gold.  The cover was about 1/2” thick to make room for the grotto.  I never thought of that until I completed the piece and looked back to see what influenced me.  My long term memory is still working, thank God.  
“Dancers in the Keep” is a piece I completed after reading “The Keep”, a book written by Jennifer Egan who is the daughter of my cousin.  Oh by the way, I just found out that she won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her book “ A Visit from the Goon Squad”.  She was also voted one of the 100 most influential people in the world.  Not bad.   
Well back to little old me.  
I added photos of sculptures that have been sitting in my studio for years and I just never photographed them.  A little Institute of Design influence.