Looking through an artist’s wooden art box is like looking through treasured gifts. The next in my series of paper sculpture designs on art supplies, the inspiration for this artist’s box came from my memories of when I received my first wooden art box as a kid.

When I was 10 or 11 years old, my mom signed me up for art class. I started taking art classes from a local artist who also taught lessons on Saturday mornings to kids in her converted studio space in her basement. In the first couple of classes we started out drawing with charcoal, which I thought was so messy.

Then, we moved on to pastels and within a few weeks we started painting in oils. I was really excited the day my art teacher told me I could start working in oils. I couldn’t wait to be working in oils because that is what my oldest sister painted in.

It wasn’t too long after that when I received my very own wooden art box for a present. I was so thrilled! A wood art box — just like my sister had! Just like a REAL artist. It even had some new tubes of paint and a couple of brushes, a canvas and a pallet knife. My sister gave me a couple of her old used brushes as well.

I was so excited to have my very own art box, and it stayed with me for a long time as I started my professional art career. My original wood art box even went along with me to college. I still have my wooden art box, although I no longer use it for oil paints.

When I decided to create a paper sculpture of a wooden artist box I decided I wanted to fill the box with lots of art supplies. A wooden art box to an artist is like a treasure chest. You can’t wait to dive right in and check out all those cool new supplies just waiting there to be used.

Hopefully when you peer closely into the resulting piece, “Let the Fun Begin!,” it captures that beginner’s mind spirit — you can hardly wait to start having fun with all those new colorful art supplies stored in your wooden art box. In my paper-sculpted art box, even the “wood” box is made out of paper.