Snow globes capture our imagination because they¹re like tiny magic worlds,
swirling with sparkling snow that seems to make everything pure and
closed-off from the evils of reality. But artist Thomas Doyle has created
snow globes of sorts that do the exact opposite unsettle us, with detailed
diminutive scenes under glass that horrify and disturb.In a series called ODistillations¹, Doyle created miniatures that seem to
freeze a moment in time but not any ordinary moment. Rather, each
meticulously crafted sculpture captures some kind of darkly transformative
experience, like a family discovering that their home has sunken into the
ground or a man preparing a burial site for two nearby corpses.
Doyle began making models as a child and went on to study art at Humboldt
State University, but it wasn¹t until he took a sabbatical to New York City
that he found his true passion. Working as a freelance writer to support his
visual arts habit, Doyle began experimenting with 3-dimensional media. Soon,
he had volumes of sketches and written ideas that planted the seeds for his
sculptural works.
The use of glass to encapsulate each work helps give the sculptures a sense
of life and foreboding that they may not have otherwise. Doyle told Art
Nouveau Magazine, ³e glass helps to contain the work, and as it does, it
seems to stop time and freeze the action within. With the glass removed, the
works feel dead and plastic; under glass they feel loaded, as if they as if
they are ready to come alive.²
³Like most people, I¹m interested in figuring out what it means to be human,
and the work I¹m making is the best way I¹ve found to do that. If it shines
a little light for other people, then all the better.
