Kreneck grew up in the 1940s, when a pencil might have no eraser. Instead, there would be a message which read “Rubber and metal have gone to war.” Rubber and metal were strategic materials, but cardboard was still available for printing and toy making. “Winter Comes to Cardboard Kitchen” reminisces about a time when many toys were printed flat on cardboard. Kids punched them out, then bent and tabbed them together.

Added to the mix of inspiration for this series is the illusionary nature of the sometimes “cardboard” world we create for ourselves – or which can be created for us by TV, the movies, and other forms of pop culture. In that broader context, anything surrounding us can become cardboard subject matter. In Kreneck’s work, radios, dishes, fruit, and even humans are depicted as cardboard characters populating a fabricated world.