Coraline boxes

In a highly inspired promotion, the creators of the stop-motion film Coraline sent unique handmade collaged boxes to 50 of their favorite blogs. The 1st image is a still from the movie showing Coraline with a box that figures in the plot. The 2nd image is the box that was sent to the subscription website Creativity. The 3rd image is the box sent to Boing Boing, which says, "Tell you what, if you want to see how to intelligently market creative work online, go and follow Neil Gaiman around for a month or two." Neil Gaiman is the acclaimed and bestselling British author of the children's book Coraline on which the film - directed by Henry Selick, who directed Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - is based. The Coraline website is also quite ingenious. You can check out a number of the boxes here, and watch one being opened at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. My Mom and I share a love of assemblage and collaged boxes (which I used to make in collage) and one of our mutual favorite artists is the self-taught American Joseph Cornell (1903-1972). The plot of Coraline also involves buttons, which the mother in her alternate universe wants to sew on her in place of eyes so that she can stay. I was reminded of a story told to me by my paternal grandmother about a neighbor who went crazy - they knew she had rounded the bend when they found she had sewn a button to the end of each of her fingers.