Aha Moment: Jonathan Safran Foer on Joseph Cornell

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, just arrived in theaters. It’s an adaptation of the September 11-themed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

But before Foer became a novelist, he was an aspiring sculptor. As a college freshman, he was introduced to the work of Joseph Cornell, the assemblage artist best known for his fantastical collaged boxes. “I felt like this work was meant for me,” Foer told Studio 360 in 2006. “The effect those boxes had on me was a feeling that I wanted to perpetuate.”

Although he ultimately settled on writing fiction, Foer remembers, “feeling that way about art, it’s like a muscle and once you know how to use it, you can use it more and it gets stronger. I didn’t know what it was like to love a work of art until Joseph Cornell came along.”

Listen to the full story here:

Is there a work of art that changed your life? Tell us in a comment below — or by e-mail.

Slideshow: Joseph Cornell’s boxes