Meet the Makers – Margie Criner
Tell us about yourself.
I am a Chicago artist making sculpture within sculpture. I use a variety of textiles in my work such as wood, wool, vintage toys, and found objects. Exteriors of my work are abstract but are informed by real objects. I like to mix science with design and play.
What are you presenting at Maker Faire Milwaukee?
Sculpture within sculpture. I build abstract exteriors that house miniature narrative interiors. The secondary sculptures are lit with LEDs and can be seen through a viewing portal.
Why is making important to you?
I am a serial expressionist. I have always made art, whether 2D, 3D, or music. I am a serial expressionist. I make things because I have to.
What was the first thing you remember making?
I remember making a walkie talkie out of a block of pine and a nail when I was about five or six years old. That was the first object I made in my dad’s wood shop.
What have you made that you are most proud of?
I guess I am most proud of whatever I just completed. I just finished what, from the outside, looks like a box camera made out of a variety of woods (zebra, walnut, oak, poplar, and cherry). The exterior has a magnifying lens. The interior has a scene about climate change. You can only see the interior if you lean in close to the lens portal.
Given an unlimited budget, what would you make?
I would make a series of combination kinetic zoetrope+mutoscope, where the viewer turns a crank, looks through the viewing portal that has a reducing lens, to viewing a ‘movie.’