Exhibits › Painted Boxes

The box is a seminal human invention — right up there with the wheel.

It is impossible to imagine a human culture without them; all our stuff would literally be strewn all over the place.

The decorated box has been with us since antiquity as containers for jewelry, religious scrolls and relics, spices, fabrics, and caskets for the burial of the dead.

You name it.

I started making decorated boxes in the spring of 2014 inspired by the sun and earth.

Why? It is a mystery to me. But I hope that you enjoy looking at them!

Cordially,
Bob

Technical Notes:

The boxes are made of birch plywood glued together with Titebond wood glue.

They are painted with a black semi-gloss latex paint.

Some of the lids are recycled bamboo flooring with black palm wood handles; other lids are painted panels and have fabric tabs that permit easy access. Paste wax is applied to the lids to prevent adhesion between surfaces.

The mixed-media paintings are created on archival Ampersand brand museum panels.

The finished panels receive at least two coats of acrylic varnish.

The museum panels are 4x4 inches, 5x5 inches, 6x6 inches, or 5x7 inches (vertical).

The boxes have four soft plastic “feet” to prevent the bottom panel from scratching tabletops or pedestals.

All the boxes seen here were fabricated by Mark Noll expressly for Bob Barancik.