Tom Sawyer shadowbox depicts “Tom had to whitewash the fence. It was not at all what he planned. Suddenly, he had an inspiration. As one of his friends came by, Tom swept his brush back and forth as an artist… They came to jeer but remained to whitewash.”

Carol Kern, Library Director for the Western Pocono Community Library uses a Q-tip to apply touch-up rouge to the cheek of Christopher Robin in Phoebe Conrad’s Winnie the Pooh shadowbox. The scene depicts Winnie helping Eeyore the donkey look for his missing tale.

Phoebe Conrad, who will be 91 at Christmas, spent a lifetime creating shadowboxes. She is shown in 1950, sitting in her rocking chair and working on the body of a figurine for a shadowbox.

A shadowbox like this Snow White scene contains eight figurines and could take up to three months to complete. The heads, hands and feet are hand carved from a special wax. Last time she cleaned the figurines, library director Carol Kern noticed a teardrop in a dwarf’s eye.

Wax figurines can have incredibly lifelike features. Phoebe Conrad’ carves figures from a wax formula developed to model prosthetic hands. Details are painted on the carve wax face using rouge, lipstick and textile paints.

Shadowboxes recreating childhood tales encourage children to read at
the Western Pocono Community Library

Brodheadsville

At the Western Pocono Community Library, childhood tales nearly come alive within a series of 34 shadowbox scenes from classics such as Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island and Mary Poppins. This collection, which is displayed in a room designed as part of this new library, represents a lifetime of work by Brodheadsville area artist Phoebe Conrad.

 Area schools regularly reserve the room for reading and art classes. Youngsters hear the story and can view the three-dimensional shadowbox to help visualize and reinforce the reading. Art students learn by studying this collection of wax sculpture, doll construction and miniature set design.

 Conrad sculpts the figurines head, hands and feet from a flesh tinted blend of waxes based upon a formula she borrowed from a prosthetics designer. Every detail of the wax was hand carved by Conrad, typically using a kitchen paring knife as she relaxed in her rocking chair.

 The Western Pocono Community Library has had the Conrad shadowbox collection since 1991—at that time they were in their former library building that was a mere 3,000 square feet as compared to their current 30,000 square foot building that they moved into in August of 2000. Due of limited space, the shadowboxes were place wherever a nook or cranny allowed one to be exhibited.

 In the new library building, in a room designed to permanently exhibit the shadowboxes, they line the walls and the center of the room in made-to-order oak and glass cabinets. The glass is double layered with the outside layer of safety glass to minimize injuries should a child fall against the glass.

 “The shadowboxes are an important part of the library because they inspire children to read,” explained Carol Kern - Director of the Western Pocono Community Library. “Even adults say, ‘Oh, I don’t remember that story,’ so they go to the library shelf to get that book off the shelf.”

 “Every one represents in great detail the stories that they share the title with,” Kern continued. “There are children’s stories like Peter Rabbit and Mother Goose Nursery rhymes like the Old Woman Tossed Up In a Basket. The detail is magnificent. You can’t find it anywhere else.”

 Probably so. Phoebe Conrad’s work is unique, yet many people feel that they have seen it before. Perhaps it was it was at the Memorytown wax collection—where Phoebe’s Little Wax Works was displayed for many years.

 As a child, Phoebe Conrad loved dolls and art. She began a career in art during the Depression but was having difficulty finding work. After WWII began, she began to study nursing. Her nursing studies took her one day to the studio of a medical artist who was designing a wax model for a prosthetic hand. Conrad asked questions about the process and received a copy of the formula for the wax.

 Since that chance meeting, Conrad has been using that wax formula to make miniature lifelike characters for her storybook shadowboxes.

 Kern opens the display cases periodically to clean and touch-up the figurines. She uses a wide brush to remove dust from the clothing of the doll-like figures and dabs a rouged Q-tip to perk up their cheeks. Light tends to fade the painted details on the figures.

 “When I work on the figures, I see things that I didn’t see last time,” said Kern. “I recently noticed a teardrop in the eye of one of the seven dwarfs in the Snow White shadowbox.”