Coconuts
The Coconut Sculptures came from the notion to use a seed as a container and a starting point. The first one, Mark in a Nutshell, was a portfolio holding images of the art I made in Miami, kind of a Boîte en Coconut. Fun, but it was quarantined in German customs for so long that I missed the application deadline for Grad School in Europe. I found the "tourist artifact" quality of coconuts humorously appealing and made more, though cutting them in half by hand was a good trick. Happily I later found someone who would do it with a band saw. I think the twin sides of these early sculptures gave rise to the split image monkey paintings and a predilection for diptychs.

All works © Mark DeMuro.