Monday, November 8, 2010
This is a sculptural piece that began as a spoon, cut from a piece of wind fall Red Alder. After a miscommunication with the wood there was an egg sized opening where I had not envisioned an opening at all. Thus the birth of a "design opportunity" resulting in a "re-imagined" work.
Yes, it turns out it was a very happy miscommunication after all.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Upcoming Events
The first weekend of November I will be participating in the Port Townsend Woodworkers Show, the dates are November 6 and 7, Saturday 11:00am-8:00pm, Sunday 11:00am-3:00pm. The show is sponsored by The Splinter Group, info and directions to the show are at their website, www.splintergroup.org.
It has been almost 20 years since I have done a show, so I am getting excited about all of the last minute panic and the mad dash. But also looking forward to being around very talented artisans, and their beautiful work.
It will be a bit of a challenge getting everything there as some of the work is here on the island and some of it is at Speakeasy gallery in Tacoma.
Speaking of the month of November is Art at Work in Tacoma, and we will be creating live art, every Saturday in the gallery for the month. Their will be painting, jewelry making, carving, henna art and an assortment of music. The gallery is open every Thursday thru Sunday 11am-6pm, and as it is a co-op, it is staffed by the artists, I will work my next shift Thursday the 21 of October so please feel free to come on by and visit.
I am currently working on the podium that accompanies the chair pictured above, it is almost finished, I am currently carving the top, I was real excited about the design, as I was drawing, transferring and inking it in. At the beginning of the carving stage of course there is the"what the hell was I thinking" moment. OK it actually stretches into quite a few moments, sometimes becoming entire days. But, all I have to do is tell my self how glad I will be when it is over, or how nice it will look, or what is time to a pig anyway.
I am also working on some salt cellars and small spoons, at the suggestion of Nicole King of Renegade Wearable art, half of a jewelry making team at Speakeasy. I think they are kind of cool and might actually serve a purpose, the salt cellars I mean. Nicole definitely is cool and has both focus and purpose.
Just to keep from being bored I am also working on a bit of wonderment bordering on amusing, made of gathered bits from broken jewelry, sea glass collected on the island, and a wooden frame from a wind sheared fir tree near the house.
At some point I will be adding photos of all of the aforementioned items.
If you happen to wander in to Speakeasy in the next couple of weeks, 746 Broadway St. in Tacoma, or are in Port Townsend for the wood workers show I look forward to seeing you.
Until then, enjoy the beauty contained in each day.
It has been almost 20 years since I have done a show, so I am getting excited about all of the last minute panic and the mad dash. But also looking forward to being around very talented artisans, and their beautiful work.
It will be a bit of a challenge getting everything there as some of the work is here on the island and some of it is at Speakeasy gallery in Tacoma.
Speaking of the month of November is Art at Work in Tacoma, and we will be creating live art, every Saturday in the gallery for the month. Their will be painting, jewelry making, carving, henna art and an assortment of music. The gallery is open every Thursday thru Sunday 11am-6pm, and as it is a co-op, it is staffed by the artists, I will work my next shift Thursday the 21 of October so please feel free to come on by and visit.
I am currently working on the podium that accompanies the chair pictured above, it is almost finished, I am currently carving the top, I was real excited about the design, as I was drawing, transferring and inking it in. At the beginning of the carving stage of course there is the"what the hell was I thinking" moment. OK it actually stretches into quite a few moments, sometimes becoming entire days. But, all I have to do is tell my self how glad I will be when it is over, or how nice it will look, or what is time to a pig anyway.
I am also working on some salt cellars and small spoons, at the suggestion of Nicole King of Renegade Wearable art, half of a jewelry making team at Speakeasy. I think they are kind of cool and might actually serve a purpose, the salt cellars I mean. Nicole definitely is cool and has both focus and purpose.
Just to keep from being bored I am also working on a bit of wonderment bordering on amusing, made of gathered bits from broken jewelry, sea glass collected on the island, and a wooden frame from a wind sheared fir tree near the house.
At some point I will be adding photos of all of the aforementioned items.
If you happen to wander in to Speakeasy in the next couple of weeks, 746 Broadway St. in Tacoma, or are in Port Townsend for the wood workers show I look forward to seeing you.
Until then, enjoy the beauty contained in each day.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Gotta Start Somewhere
I have been delaying the start of this for a while, you know trying to come up with just the right thing. Clever, witty, inspiring and all of that. But I am continuing to age, so I am just going to start.
I am doing this as much for my own growth as I am for you. For me it will be an exercise in social networking, and self promotion. I shudder at that last term. For you, hopefully an opportunity to take a safe look into the mind of an artist, to observe the process by which a thing of beauty becomes a thing of beauty. You are at a safe distance, so relax.
There is a very definite philosophy that is the atmosphere in which my creative process breathes. Our home, this Earth, is alive,all of it is, there is a connectedness. We have worked hard at creating an artificial environment here where we control everything, from temperature and light to sound. Insulating ourselves from the real world, removing that which inconveniences us. We have removed the "harmonics" of the world around us, and replaced them with canned sound.
Oops, I will on occasion get carried away. So, having admitted that, back to why we are here. As an artisan, whose primary medium is wood, I have been endeavoring to return to an honest relationship with my work, to dream with my eyes open and my hands in motion. We are part of an instant society, but we are not part of an instant world, everything natural, grows into what we see, it is a process that involves joy and pain, movement and stillness. The ability to imagine that which is not yet seen. To dream, with eyes open and hands in motion.
When I am out with the big trees and hear them sing with the wind, see them feed and shelter so many other lives, I know that respect must be shown, honor given. How can my hands help to release the dreams held within that which was once a tree and is now what we call wood?
The ancients of most cultures had a basic respect for the life around them, regardless of the form that it took, many had a custom of propitiation, being thankful, and expressing that thanks, for the life given for our need, knowing that at some point we would also fulfill our part in the circle. An understanding of balance, we cannot take without returning, and yet we do, and have for generations now.
In my work I attempt to give honor where it is long over due, to salvage and reuse as much as possible, and use ethically harvested wood. To work with the wood, not forcing it to unnatural shapes and purposes. My pace is steady, I try to keep frustration and stress from speaking in my work, and know how something "feels" when it is done.
I am not a hobbyist, but hope to always be an amateur, doing what I do for love of it, never merely working for the paycheck.
If you made it all the way to this point, thank you, I will be including photos and in process bits as we go along, so it won't always be monologues and diatribes.
I am doing this as much for my own growth as I am for you. For me it will be an exercise in social networking, and self promotion. I shudder at that last term. For you, hopefully an opportunity to take a safe look into the mind of an artist, to observe the process by which a thing of beauty becomes a thing of beauty. You are at a safe distance, so relax.
There is a very definite philosophy that is the atmosphere in which my creative process breathes. Our home, this Earth, is alive,all of it is, there is a connectedness. We have worked hard at creating an artificial environment here where we control everything, from temperature and light to sound. Insulating ourselves from the real world, removing that which inconveniences us. We have removed the "harmonics" of the world around us, and replaced them with canned sound.
Oops, I will on occasion get carried away. So, having admitted that, back to why we are here. As an artisan, whose primary medium is wood, I have been endeavoring to return to an honest relationship with my work, to dream with my eyes open and my hands in motion. We are part of an instant society, but we are not part of an instant world, everything natural, grows into what we see, it is a process that involves joy and pain, movement and stillness. The ability to imagine that which is not yet seen. To dream, with eyes open and hands in motion.
When I am out with the big trees and hear them sing with the wind, see them feed and shelter so many other lives, I know that respect must be shown, honor given. How can my hands help to release the dreams held within that which was once a tree and is now what we call wood?
The ancients of most cultures had a basic respect for the life around them, regardless of the form that it took, many had a custom of propitiation, being thankful, and expressing that thanks, for the life given for our need, knowing that at some point we would also fulfill our part in the circle. An understanding of balance, we cannot take without returning, and yet we do, and have for generations now.
In my work I attempt to give honor where it is long over due, to salvage and reuse as much as possible, and use ethically harvested wood. To work with the wood, not forcing it to unnatural shapes and purposes. My pace is steady, I try to keep frustration and stress from speaking in my work, and know how something "feels" when it is done.
I am not a hobbyist, but hope to always be an amateur, doing what I do for love of it, never merely working for the paycheck.
If you made it all the way to this point, thank you, I will be including photos and in process bits as we go along, so it won't always be monologues and diatribes.
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