Thoughts on my furniture:
Designed out of a belief that the goal of the work is to immediately compel closer inspection. They should demonstrate more clearly than words the power of simplicity and the rich design possibilities of patterns abstracted from nature. Closer examination reveals complexity, history and infinite character. A metaphor of the life cycle of the wood. The goal of the woodworker is to get out of the way and let the wood have the stage.
“ I am influenced by an active inner monologue that skips from one stream of thought to the next sometimes in seamless progression, sometimes with complete randomness. I have learned to live with and accept distraction, trusting that important points, steps or vision will eventually return and be reworked until there is clarity of purpose. Thoughts on furniture design can move from dimension to joint construction, to wood choice, seemingly in a single moment. The cycling backwards and forwards in a way is my own method of rendering a drawing. Once these building blocks come together it is frozen in a rough sketch on anything handy. Typically, something I can’t quite put my finger on stops me from taking plans to a more formal stage than this. I have already moved on and need to make the first cut. Like the thought process, one cut leads to the next. Sometimes working in an ordered progression, sometimes moving from drawer, to leg, to top as the monologue continues in a more “intuitive” than planned sequence. To an outsider, my shop is chaos, to me; each piece in progress represents a free flowing incarnation of the design process. Like distractions, I have learned to put aside work when I have reached an impasse, trusting that at another time a solution or alternative will present itself. I typically refer to my methods as “freestyling”.
The right and left sides of the brain collide in woodworking. Wood species, grain pattern, figure or “disfigure” are combined with experimental and traditional styles and dimensions. But the work must be grounded in the truths of joint strength, natural wood movement , tensile ability and tool capabilities or availability. The technical aspects of working in wood seem, from my current vantage point, poised to provide more than a lifetime of challenge. The joys of a moment of accomplishment always balanced by more than a moment of humility as the limitations of technique or ability are revealed. Wood is truly alive and provides me an unending fascination in working with its varying physical and visual qualities.
Thoughts on Bowls:
These bowls are created as a bridge between art and artifact. The wood is found washed up along the Northwest coast. A great part of the interest lies in not knowing their origin or history. Their weathered features and lines of decay cause wonder over the things they have seen and the places they have been. For some, the earthenware shapes make it easy to be drawn into parallels of human and natural history.
Designed out of a belief that the goal of the work is to immediately compel closer inspection. They should demonstrate more clearly than words the power of simplicity and the rich design possibilities of patterns abstracted from nature. Closer examination reveals complexity, history and infinite character. A metaphor of the life cycle of the wood. The goal of the woodworker is to get out of the way and let the wood have the stage.
“ I am influenced by an active inner monologue that skips from one stream of thought to the next sometimes in seamless progression, sometimes with complete randomness. I have learned to live with and accept distraction, trusting that important points, steps or vision will eventually return and be reworked until there is clarity of purpose. Thoughts on furniture design can move from dimension to joint construction, to wood choice, seemingly in a single moment. The cycling backwards and forwards in a way is my own method of rendering a drawing. Once these building blocks come together it is frozen in a rough sketch on anything handy. Typically, something I can’t quite put my finger on stops me from taking plans to a more formal stage than this. I have already moved on and need to make the first cut. Like the thought process, one cut leads to the next. Sometimes working in an ordered progression, sometimes moving from drawer, to leg, to top as the monologue continues in a more “intuitive” than planned sequence. To an outsider, my shop is chaos, to me; each piece in progress represents a free flowing incarnation of the design process. Like distractions, I have learned to put aside work when I have reached an impasse, trusting that at another time a solution or alternative will present itself. I typically refer to my methods as “freestyling”.
The right and left sides of the brain collide in woodworking. Wood species, grain pattern, figure or “disfigure” are combined with experimental and traditional styles and dimensions. But the work must be grounded in the truths of joint strength, natural wood movement , tensile ability and tool capabilities or availability. The technical aspects of working in wood seem, from my current vantage point, poised to provide more than a lifetime of challenge. The joys of a moment of accomplishment always balanced by more than a moment of humility as the limitations of technique or ability are revealed. Wood is truly alive and provides me an unending fascination in working with its varying physical and visual qualities.
Thoughts on Bowls:
These bowls are created as a bridge between art and artifact. The wood is found washed up along the Northwest coast. A great part of the interest lies in not knowing their origin or history. Their weathered features and lines of decay cause wonder over the things they have seen and the places they have been. For some, the earthenware shapes make it easy to be drawn into parallels of human and natural history.