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There is a new documentary coming out about Calder Greenwood, a Los Angeles artist who fills the city with whimsical cardboard art. The Cardboard Artist is a short film from The Rolodex and Two-Ninety Film about Greenwood. You've probably seen Greenwood's work around L.A.: perhaps surfers in the L.A. River, or a giant, dangling spider?
Greenford, who often works with street artists Wild Life, says in the video he enjoys using cardboard as a medium for his art because it's easy to work with. He finds L.A. to be a supportive place for him to make his art, and moved from other parts of the city to downtown L.A. to have more room to build his pieces.
The film moves us through his methods and work, including a replica for a train he made for a music video. His work is often life-sized, or, at times, larger than life, but made inexpensively with the materials he chooses. We also see some of Greenwood's earlier pieces in the form of a papier-mâché Godzilla he constructed for an independent film. While shooting that film, Greenwood said one surprised man's reaction to his work inspired his future endeavors.
Greenwood also takes inspiration from ordinary places as he moves around the city, allowing ideas to pop into his head as to what he could possibly place there. Sometimes it's characters from the dungeon crawler Gauntlet on a patch of grass, other times a rubber duckie in the river.
Due to the fact that Greenwood's work is made from cardboard, it doesn't stick around forever, the way a bronze statue might. However, Greenwood is okay with that.
"If you embrace the idea that nothing lasts forever, the time that it does you appreciate more fully," he said.
The Cardboard Artist was directed by Matthew Kaundart, who produced the film along with Luka Fisher.
