A wonderland of boxes, with metal sculptures by Woods. The couple has works at different price points; you can buy a finished painting or its small study, like this one. Woods’ welding helmet. Susan Woods and Jeff Britton333 East St. GalleryNew HavenSaturdays and Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m . Moving is hard. But with a little creativity, it can be a work of art. At 333 East St., two artists are turning their unpacking into a new adventure every weekend. For the past several weeks, partners Susan Woods and Jeff Britton, who arrived in New Haven from Tucson, Arizona in the past year (and before that, spent 45 years in Brooklyn), have been opening boxes, meeting people, making art, and selling it. They’ve been doing all that at the same time at a gallery they’ve newly opened in the Mill River district, which has seen grassroots artistic venues pop up over decades of industrial and post-industrial re-evolution. Nestled among a strip of buildings that include a strip club and a methadone clinic, the working gallery adds new uses to the block. What time does it open? A cardboard box told me the answer. 11 a.m., I read on a makeshift sign walking home from Grand Avenue the weekend before last. Open house. Sale. One week later, I was able to see for my own eyes what the cardboard was talking about. As soon as I walked through the door at 333 East St., I was stunned by the sheer number of paintings in the room. Britton was in the middle of making one. Then I turned and saw series after series of sculptures in metal and wood, made by Woods. Around the corner was a table saw and welding equipment. And everywhere were cardboard boxes, many with their flaps open to reveal even more art. Woods greeted me and started walking me through the space. She offered one of the abundant boxes for me to leave my bag on. Both artists have worked in their fields for years, each with a long list of exhibitions and media appearances to their name. Before Brooklyn, in Philadelphia, Woods once had a bronze casting foundry. Now she has pieces in Lincoln Center and Newark International Airport. Britton’s longtime job as an art handler — including, most recently, at the Yale University Art Gallery — has taken him to Russia, China, Brazil, Germany, and beyond. He’s worked with Monets. “The best way to learn is by looking,” he said. “Putting your nose on the painting.” These days, the couple’s focus is simple. “We want to pay our rent. We want to pay our bills,” Woods said. And they want to have a good time doing it. They are interested in showing their work to people around town, using the very space they make the art in. That way, Woods explained, “people can just come and see what we’re doing.” If you’ve moved recently, you might remember scribbling “Kitchen” or “Books” on your boxes. Exploring Woods’ and Britton’s gallery, I saw labels with more specificity. One, for example, stated, “3 Bone Drawings.” In both artists’ work, I saw the influence of the places they’ve lived. Britton showed me a painting of a freeway in L.A., where he once lived. A desert scene was inspired by Tucson. As I admired a twisting hand-forged metal sculpture by Woods, she told me about the anthropomorphic appearance of mesquite trees in Arizona. It’s only a matter of time, I thought, before we start seeing scenes of New Haven in the couple’s work. When I asked Woods what it was like working with metal, she told me about what she called the feminine qualities of the metalworking process. “It’s very, very malleable,” she said of the metal once it is heated. “It’s like drawing. It’s a beautiful color.” Woods showed me a closet full of tall stacks of unopened cardboard boxes. It was the couple’s library, she said, containing a trove of art books. The open house weekends have been successful so far. “Every weekend, we make a certain amount of money, and we pay our rent,” Woods said. The dream is coming true. The studio/gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as by appointment. In the future, Woods and Britton plan to open up some weekdays, too. The couple is looking forward to hosting parties and events in the space. For now, they’re encouraging visitors to leave their information in a guest book propped on a cardboard box. “Right now, we’re just kind of experimenting,” Woods said. Woods: Maybe this piece could go in a kitchen. Woods’ personal copies of small art books by Britton, filled with pictures taken by phone and dedicated to Woods in handwritten messages on the first page. Woods on hand-forging: “You heat things up and bend them.” Scenes from lives past and current. Some of Woods’ pieces become furniture (benches, chandeliers, lamps), while others are from the elements of furniture; note the upholstery springs. Powder-coated metal sculpture by Woods, still to be unboxed. One of the cardboard box signs. The post East Street, Unboxed appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less