Little Boxes Series

"Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
And they all look just the same."

Most Baby Boomers will recognize this as the first stanza of Pete Seeger’s 1963 popular song “Little Boxes.” Written by Malvina Reynolds, this song is a social commentary mocking tract housing and conformist middle-class attitudes. The song humorously critiques the uniformity and lack of individuality in suburban developments, where houses and the lives within them are portrayed as standardized and lacking in diversity. Seeger’s rendition helped to amplify Reynolds' message, making it a memorable anthem of the 1960s counterculture movement.

Born in 1955, I grew up outside Cleveland, Ohio, in a small white bungalow, surrounded by a sea of similar small white bungalows. Our house was built with two bedrooms, but my dad and uncle finished off the second floor into a bedroom for my brother and me. We were a family of six, living with three bedrooms, with one bathroom, in around 1,200 square feet, in one of about 1,200 very similar houses spread across roughly 30 square blocks. To many, my neighborhood consisted of little boxes, all the same.

But to me, each house was wonderfully different. I had friends in almost every house on my block and even a few blocks away. I didn’t notice the structural similarities of the houses; I was fortunate enough to experience how each family lived, often very differently from mine. We played, laughed, fought, and cried until the streetlights came on, signaling it was time to go home. We explored the field and train tracks on the other side of the busy street, where we weren't supposed to be, and broke bones playing crack the whip or falling from trees. We shared in various ethnic celebrations and social events, and due to the cultural diversity, we learned many games and participated in activities we would not have experienced otherwise. Pete Seeger was wrong; these houses were not all the same.

Reflecting on this, I wanted to build a series of boxes that were all around the same size (about 8” x 5” x 3” tall) and appeared similar from a distance, but revealed their unique differences upon closer examination. I will achieve this using a variety of woods and techniques, where each box tells a different story, much like the houses in my neighborhood, which were filled with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Each box in the Little Boxes Series will represent the individuality and diversity that I experienced growing up, showcasing the beauty of uniqueness within apparent uniformity.