What you’ll learn in this episode: Why Marc’s box art jewelry was inspired by his time working in the theater industry How Marc went from selling his work on the streets of New York City to selling them to Hollywood’s biggest celebrities Why artists have always borrowed from each other’s work Why box art is a conversation starter that breaks down barriers How every box tells a story Additional Resources: Instagram Photos: Museum of Israel Exhibition  Currently on view at SFO Airport  Marc Cohen and Lisa Berman (no relation)  About Marc Cohen: Marc Cohen is a highly regarded artist known for his wearable box art. As a former actor, stage manager and set designer, Cohen’s two-inch-square boxes resemble stage sets with three-dimensional figures and images. His one-of-a-kind pieces sit on the shelves of numerous celebrities and can be worn like a brooch or pin. The archive of Cohen’s work is housed at California art jewelry gallery Sculpture to Wear. Transcript: Inspired by his time in theater and created to resemble a stage, Marc Cohen’s box art pieces are well-known among rare jewelry lovers and Hollywood’s most famous artists, actors and producers. Part three-dimensional art, part jewelry, the two-by-two boxes feature images and tiny figures that reflect our world. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about his process for creating box art; what it was like to work with theater greats like Tom O’Horgan and Paula Wagner; and why his pieces are more than just shadow boxes. Read the episode transcript for part 2 below.  Sharon: You’ve arrived, it sounds like. Marc: It’s kind of an affirmation. Sharon: Absolutely. Do you think the boxes would be as effective if you hadn’t had this experience as a set designer or stage manager in the theater? If I sat down and made a box, I could just stick some figures in it. Do you think that really impacted your work? Marc: To answer you in an honest way, I think if I hadn’t done those things—all I did before was put little seashells in boxes. I’m skirting away from your answer, so excuse me. I think because I already was someone who had been traveling around the world and already had experiences that were theatrical, because I was meeting people and talking to people standing in the middle of the street in Paris, I was already getting the idea. It was being planted. When I got involved in theater—I also did film—I saw what that was about and how everything was in a frame. A stage in a theater on Broadway, it’s in a box. Sharon: That’s true. Marc: It all made a lot of sense to me. There are also ironies about it for me. For example, when I talked about when I was going to high school and people would look at me and think I’m an artist, what they were doing was putting me in a box. I like to think the boxes I create are about that, but they’re beyond. Once someone engages themselves in looking at it and then they end up talking to somebody, it opens up a whole other kind of thing. It breaks down that barrier that a lot of us have with each other. It came from working in theater with someone like Tom O’Horgan, who was way ahead of his time as a Broadway theater director. He did a lot of avant garde, off-off Broadway stuff. He’s no longer alive. He was my best friend in the entire world. There’s not a moment I don’t have gratitude about that friendship, but since then I’ve married. I have a beautiful wife.  My wife is a filmmaker, and she and I are developing another kind of box art. I know; we don’t make jewelry. I’m doing video with her. We have a series called Traveler’s Ball. It's on YouTube. People can watch it if they want. It’s very cutting edge. She was inspired by what I do, where I do images layered in a box. A lot of our videos have layered images. Along those lines, I have always wanted to create a box video on a small scale. A long time ago, when I first started making these things—I’m a man with a lot of information and ideas in my brain—the technology wasn’t there yet