boxes july 30 midnight

The box is the primary element in three dimensional space.

I bailed out on geometry or I would Know the catch phrase .

[bear with me as I am inventing the wheel for me

as well as anyone who might read this]

(apologies to strunk and white)

The box when put alone on the floor becomes

a place to put or transport stuff.

When you turn the box over opening down

it becomes a seat or a step.

As a kid of the 50's the era of the wooden box

was being eclipsed by heavy duty paper and cardboard.

The rush to change up was well taken.The cardboard box

was perfect for cheaper transport and disposal was the

new attraction. The old days wood crate ,box,lug,bin.bushel,

became a standard measure in agricultural jargon.

The appropriate transport for oranges was different

for apples, potatoes,asparagus,peaches,tomatoes,

everything generated it's own special box demands.

A dump box was crude. Select fruits were layered

and graded to size. Peaches and stone fruit like plums

and nectarines were all in the same size boxes.

The identity clarified by how they were arranged

in the box 5x7 was a smaller peach than a 5x5.

Yes I digress from my point.

the point is we are deprived of wood boxes.

The wood that is thrown away in daily life

is criminal and a headache for contemporary

culture.I built my home in the late eighties.

I am still working on it. Every time I cut

the end off an expensive piece of clear lumber

I could not in clear conscience throw it away.

Sure I save some to burn but these beautiful

clear cutoffs were becoming a storage concern.

Enter the affection for the box.

I have an old asparagus box that I have had

for more than twenty years I keep picture hanging

supplies in it.I can see it from across the room.

My mother had an orange crate in the spare room

up on one end it was a great night stand.I saved

a box that brazil nut tins came in from the 70's

till today. I cut that in half to make two

wall shelves in my work space,and I have moved it

many times as my work space has changed.

Some boxes from far flung locales turn out

to be made from exotic wood,common there

but quite rare else where.

So back in 2010 I started clearing out

all this wood from my shed and making

the boxes I intended to make for twenty years.

A humble box is such high utility.A box nailed together

will last for some time . Made of pine it assembles

quickly with out pre-drilling .Harder wood splits with a nail

and hammer. The sophisticated box built by a competent

carpenter has design appointments like dovetails and such

that make it a concern and of pride.The cherished sophisticated

jewelry box is pricey and not filled with junk from daily pockets.

so where is THE BOX? No where to be found is a good box.

No cigar boxes for marbles , or postage stamps.

Plastic boxes are everywhere.Broken unrepairable fodder

for the land fill.Plastic milk crates wash up on all shores.

Dont get me wrong,plastic boxes are sometimes well made

and high utility quotient. But the disconect between scrap wood

and the utility is indeed criminal and only breached by

taking the time and making a cool box. So ... in march 2010

I made a series of like twenty seven boxes it took a month or so.

The amount of time on each box was,well too much time

for a humble box. I sanded and shaped the corners

smooth and round then I coated them with an epoxy

that is so durable wow.

Now these are not throw away boxes.

A cardboard papaya box to the farmer is bought in

flat stacks on a pallet, {we could make ten boxes

out of one pallet} boxes are cheap at two or three

dollars apiece. I have a dream that the boxes I have made

should last through the better part of this century.

By signing and dating these boxes they become special.

Redwood ,pine , hau ,milo,kiawe,luan mahogany, camphor,

all these woods mixed up and out came 33 boxes for 2011.

these boxes have been priced for appreciation.

a 3 dollar box get left out in the rain and goes

to the dump soggy filled with decomposing trash

to be buried under tons of plastic packaging and so it is.

These boxes I make go on a table by the door,

or on the floor filled with shoes ,maybe on the counter in the kitchen,

on a shelf between old books filled with pocket treasure

from the beach... shells rocks an odd piece of polished glass

turn it on the side as a diorama frame. Thirty three almost done.

the grain in the piece of barn built by Pacifico Lemon in the 1940s

that I took down in 1979 has visually captivating grain,three knot holes

like three hurricanes spinning in deep wood red...

...ambrose...

sunday july 31 2011