Observations from the Woodshop

A New Direction

From time to time, over the past few years, I have been messing around with some small sculptural pieces. The first ones I did were a combination of wood and stained glass and as much as anything I would say they are an exploration of form, which as a designer, is something that I have a fascination with. As  matter of fact, the first sculptural piece I did, “Blue Highway”, ended up being the inspiration for my “Meander” line of  furniture. My latest pieces are exercises in form as well, but they are also incorporating experiments in color and texture. What I am doing is, creating a form, dyeing the wood, and then carving the dyed areas so that the original wood color underneath is revealed. This creates the contrast in color as well as the texture. The last part of the equation is the musical influence. When I get to the carving portion of the work, I put on my headphones, and put on some music that I can lose myself in and hopefully find myself inspired by.

Lately, I have been listening to a number of artists from West Africa. There are times when this works amazingly well  and I find that I don’t really have a sense of the carving that has been done until I stand back and study it.  It’s the same thing that I have learned from improvising music. Sometimes you just have to let yourself go, and open yourself to the influences around you.  I’m having alot of fun with this. The images are of some of the pieces I’ve done so far.