Flag #3

I just finished the third of the flag series. It is experimental in that I wanted to use it to work out some design issues for the large ArtPrize flag that I plan to make this summer. I want to start moving in the direction of multi-level work with sections that are individually painted then assembled at the end. The technique can also be used to make work multi-directional as well.

Untitled Flag #3

shellac on curly maple, yellow birch, and bird's-eye maple
34" x 53" x 1"

CraftBoston Debrief

I just got back from the CraftBoston show over the weekend. I was very impressed with the quality of the show. The vast majority of artists also participated in the most competitive juried shows in the country, including the Smithsonian and Philadelphia Museum shows. Unfortunately, the majority of people I talked with (but certainly not all) were disappointed with sales. As a wall art artist I almost feel like the entertainment between jewelery and clothing booths (where the majority of sales occur). After two really poor show sales (Paradise City - Marlborough was only slightly better than the goose egg laid at this one) I have to wonder if these shows are the best venue for my work. The truth is that I really don't think it is, but I'm not sure what the alternative is either. The shows offer a massive amount of exposure that I can't get any other way and I can only hope that the exposure pays off at some point. With larger work on the higher end and nothing inexpensive for sale, one has to expect that people have to think about it and that sales will happen down the road. I don't really find the lack of sales depressing, rather, I find it confusing. I wonder if the Boston area isn't the right place for my work, are the people too conservative? (I seemed to get a better response at the Northampton shows that have much more of a NY audience). Is it the economy? (Some people are selling alright so I can't blame everything on the economy). Some artists talk about the changing demographics with an aging population that has enough stuff already. Whatever it is, I am sure wall art is a tougher sell right now, maybe for the indefinite future.

CraftBoston Booth Shot

Although it is extremely hard to be objective about your own work, I think I'm producing the best art I have ever made and I still get a good response from enough people to make me think that I'm not completely off-base (aside from one women who wanted to know if my work was flooring), so all I know to do is to keep on going (I was delighted to learn that a glass artist couple actually voted for my booth for the Artist Choice Award, given the quality of work at this show, just getting one vote is a huge accomplishment.) Maybe I'll get into the other top shows (I've already applied for the Philadelphia museum show for the fall) and get better exposure (and maybe, just maybe, sales). My hope is to eventually get out of the show circuit, either though gallery representation and/or a network of commissions and collectors but that kind of wish is the holy grail of the arts community, attained by only a select few though some mysterious alchemy that combines hard work, luck, talent, drive, marketing and more work. These shows are painfully expensive, exhausting, and stressful. It is a hard way to make a living even if you are making a living from it. My fear is that the show circuit is a never ending loop that you enter with a plan to leave but can't get out once it starts to work for you. Some jewelery artists I've talked with do more than twenty shows a year.

Besides the exposure, these shows are a great opportunity to meet other artists and see their great work. Of the wood artists, I was particularly drawn to the intriguing sculptures of Bruce Chapin. His work is mysterious, thought provoking, and very soulful; seemingly generated from the unimpeded subconscious. I suspect Carl Jung would have a field day with it but it is probably more interesting to just leave them for wonderment.

The Philosopher

Billy Day Tart

Scarifier

Several of his pieces had doors that open to some other object inside. This is the only one that I was able to get a decent image of. Some are more evocative of a human form on the outside or more evocative of a soulful form on the inside.

Moon Boy Dreaming

unknown title

Gripped Beyond

I also got to meet Bart Niswonger whose work I had seen at Gallery NAGA a few weeks earlier.

In addition to the cast urethane cabinet that I wrote about for that show, I really like what he did with this wavy ash cabinet. Unfigured ash can be a boring choice for fine furniture but by adding the waves he has essentially created figured lumber and by adding the color he has found a great way to highlight the grain.
Here is a close-up. It is a technique that is both spectacular and distinctive.
I also met Bonnie Birshoff of the J.M. Syron and Bishoff duo and was very impressed by their tamo and polymer clay veneered cabinet.
This was my first encounter with tamo. It is a Japanese ash that can have spectacular figure similar to the highest quality quilted maple. Of course, I immediately wondered how I could get a hold of some of this as solid lumber, rather than veneer, but a quick Internet search indicates that money would have to be no object. Veneer like this could cost more than $7/sq foot so a board, 1 inch thick, if you could find it in the US (and I really doubt it) would likely cost more than $50/board ft. To get it I'm sure you would have to go to a Japanese mill and outbid the veneer buyers. I might as well stick with my local hardwoods, still, this is amazing stuff.

tamo close-up

In talking with other artists at shows, I find it amazing that anybody ever figures out how to make a living doing this. A lot of very talented people with top quality work are struggling. Still, I think there must be a way to make it work. Unfortunately, beyond winning ArtPrize, I'm at a bit of a loss for ideas.

Flag Proposal #3

I've started the third of my flag series in order to work out some construction issues with what I am planning for my State of the Union flag. The curly yellow birch I've used for this one is the left over lumber after rough cutting what I needed.

With this piece, and future ones, I am trying to add more levels so that they are more sculptural. There is about a 1/4" difference between the stripes and another 1/8" inch added to the blue sections.

The bird's-eye maple was made up of a lot of heartwood so I had to bleach it in order to get a better blue on it.
After bleaching it a couple of times I still wasn't happy with the results so I did another search on how to bleach wood with lye and hydrogen peroxide and was able to find this excellent article by Jeff Jewitt. The mistake I was making was waiting too long to add the hydrogen peroxide after applying the lye. It needs to be done at the same time or very soon after.
It is still a long way from being finished but I needed to put it together in order to see how it is going. I'm trying to get each of the blue pieces to be a different color.
I think this is going to be the preferred orientation.

North Bennet Street Benefit Show Full of Surprises

I stopped by Gallery NAGA last week after setting up for the Paradise City - Marlborough show in order to see For North Bennet Street, a benefit exhibition of studio furniture makers in which 50% of the sale price goes to the North Bennet Street School, Boston's 125 year old traditional craft school with prestigious programs in furniture making, bookbinding, violin making, among others.

One would think that it would be hard to attract top quality talent for a show in which the artist only gets 25% of the sale price but this show is really a great mix of high quality work from both superstars in the studio furniture world and up-and-comers. Although Gallery NAGA selected the artists and pulled together the show, a good portion of the credit for the quality has to go to the schools executive director, Miguel Gómez-Ibáñez, whose personal relationships with with many of the artists surely influenced their decisions to participate. Here is a list of participating artists:

Garry Knox Bennett
Dale Broholm
Jon Brooks
John Eric Byers
Mark Del Guidice
John Dunnigan
Ben Fleis
Hank Gilpin
Miguel Gomez-Ibanez
Thomas Hucker
Silas Kopf
John Marcoux
Judy Kensley McKie
Bart Niswonger
Jere Osgood
Todd Partridge
Timothy Philbrick
Mitch Ryerson
James Schriber
Tommy Simpson
Rosanne Somerson
Jay Stranger
J.M. Syron and Bonnie Bishoff
Tim Wells
Steve Whittlesey
Lothar Windels
Rick Wrigley

Of all the pieces in the show, my favorite is Bart Niswonger's Green Cabinet made with ash, cast urethane, and paint. It shouldn't be surprising to see original work in a show of such talented artists, but this piece is really something different. Although I really liked it when I first saw it, it left me a little confused. I didn't realize that the ash he had carved for the panels was just used as a mold for the urethane. When the gallery director, Meg White, showed me that the panels were pure urethane, I liked it even more. On the doors and top he used the flat side of the cast on the outside, on the side panels the carved side is facing out. Ash was an excellent choice for making the mold because the grain pores are so open that it leaves a very visible grain pattern in the cast, thus the confusion on whether the doors are made of wood.

Beyond the originality of using wood as a panel mold, the patterns he carved play with the grain pattern but are not tied to it. The piece is an interesting contrast between the natural and synthetic that I felt worked really well.

Another pleasant surprise of the show is this Back of the Big House Table by Dale Broholm. I was absolutely fascinated by the simple beauty of the vertical grain fir he used for the table top.

It is hard to capture with a camera, but trust me, it is amazing.
Here is a close-up. I initially thought the top was quarter sawn ash but I checked with Dale and he corrected me. Still, this top inspires me to look for or mill myself some quarter sawn ash as well as vertical grain fir.

Another surprise of the show was seeing this table by Rosanne Somerson. From the image that the gallery used for their publicity (below) I thought it was typical coffee table size, but on entering the gallery and seeing the real thing, I found that the title, Small Table With Leaves, was really meant to emphasize the word small.

The real thing was much more unusual and powerful than I realized. In the way that a whisper demands quite to be heard, the small scale of this piece demands your attention.

17" x 15" x 15" (keys added for scale)

white oak and limestone

I also loved this table by Jon Brooks.
The curl on this table top is amazingly tight. It looks more like a wood grain print over textile than wood.
And the most fascinating thing about it is the underside. How often do you see a table that is at least as interesting to look at from underneath as from above? This piece, Citron Altar, was on loan from the collection of Mark and Juliana Phillips because Jon's entire studio, much of his personal collection of his work (including the piece he had made for this show), all his equipment, and a 40 year collection of special lumber, were tragically lost in a fire a couple of months ago. For more information, and any donations you would like to make to help him rebuild, check his site here.

Another surprise is this Scotch and a Cigar - Drink Cabinet by Ben Fleis which just gives a hint of its contents through the partial screen cabinet door.

Made with Swiss pear but also including 18 year old Glenlivet Scotch, two sipping glasses, and two Cuban cigars, the $2400 price seems more than reasonable.

I was also drawn to this off-the-wall small table, Trien, by John Marcoux, made with bass wood rulers, wing-nuts, and paint. It is a pleasant and jarring contrast to the fine furniture in the rest of the show, a little wake-up call to relax and just enjoy.
And finally, I found myself oddly drawn to these chairs by Lothar Windels. They are very austere and simple yet still well crafted. Very utilitarian but still unique. They simultaneously look like they were caringly constructed but could also be made a million more times. The contrasts make them hard to overlook.
With so many great artists in a show like this it is hard to do it justice and cover a fair percentage of it but these are the pieces that stood out the most for me. It is great to see studio furniture makers getting the attention they deserve and see the community supporting each other in making such a significant contribution to North Bennet Street School.

New Work, New Directions

In getting ready for three shows in the next couple of months I've been busy creating more new work to bring with me. Here are the images and discussion:

This first one is the second of my wedge series, the first one is here, and pre-painted earlier version of this one is here.

Fear Not, Fall Not
shellac on curly maple and cherry
28" x 32" x 4"

side view

In looking at the images, I'm real satisfied with how it came out. I find it hard to look at a piece after working on it for months and seeing it with fresh eyes. Somehow images give me the distance to be able to evaluate the work. For instance, I knew that the sections were book-matched but I couldn't remember or see which were the matching sections. Now, looking at the image, I can see not only the match, but that the off-set lines them up perfectly. I don't remember ever thinking of lining them up -- it might have been an accident -- but I'm happy with the results.

The piece isn't that large but it is substantial. I don't have a scale but I'm guessing that it weighs 45 to 50 pounds (judging by my feeling that it weighs less than my 62 lb air compressor). I'm a little worried about it taking down my plywood walls at a show but I think if I place it on the back wall on the left or right side I'll avoid that disaster.

The over-lay piece I have been struggling with for a while (discussed here and here) is also finished. The title, No Apology Necessary, is a reference to my earlier discussion of being influenced by George Nakashima and being able to keep the live-edge on the final piece.

No Apology Necessary
shellac on curly maple, cherry, and walnut
48" x 26" x 1"

This next piece also went through a major change. Earlier images are here and here. I decided I didn't like the clear epoxy in the middle so I cut it in half and glued it together side by side. I think this version is much better than the original idea and, thankfully, I don't have to worry about the back-lighting issue any more.

Time Float
shellac on bird's-eye maple, cherry, and epoxy
29" x 24" x 1"

And I finally finished the second of my flag series after many iterations on the blue section. Just before finishing it I was ready to completely start over but, as I removed a little of the shellac I thought it suddenly came together and made sense, so I stopped and just polished it. I like how, from the time I started, the movement in the wood caused the bird's-eyes to protrude slightly so that when I removed some of the color they suddenly came out as white stars on a blue night-like background. It made me think of Van Gogh's famous painting, hence the title.

Starry Night Flag
shellac on bird's-eye maple, curly maple, and cherry
26.5" x 26.5" x 1"

In the quest to explore work in a completely different direction, I started a series of shellac paintings that are just about shellac, and aren't sculptural or have anything to do with wood. Having recently acquired a large stash of 3/4" baltic birch plywood, I decided it was time to experiment. With this first piece, I treated the plywood as I had solid wood, building clear shellac on the surface before adding color, but then realized that I didn't like the grain pattern coming through.

Untitled First Shellac Painting
shellac on board
18" x 24"

So, for the second painting, to get ride of the wood altogether, I gesso'ed the plywood before painting it. I know it is more than a little ironic that someone who is so focused on wood would try to get rid of the look but I don't see any reason to be dogmatic about art. I think shellac can create some real interesting effects, different than one can get with any other type of paint, so I feel it is important to explore what can be done with it.

Three Blue Stripes (2010)
shellac on board
12" x 26"

Because I have an earlier piece with the same title, I added the date.

With the third one the design got a little more complicated. I struggled with it for a while but felt it came together when I added the black.

Six Red Squares
shellac on board
19" x 25"

One of my hopes with doing these paintings was that it would be easier and faster than the sculptural paintings on wood I've been doing. Unfortunately for me, it didn't seem to be any faster, rather, I seemed to be exchanging one set of challenges for another. Still, I think the effect is interesting and worth exploring. It opens up a lot of possibilities that I don't have with the wood work.

In another direction, I started another series of ribbon sculptures. Since selling a couple of them at the last show in the fall, I had wanted to make some more, so, figuring the I could now justify the expense of buying a big hunk of cherry, I bought an 8' x 8" x 3" board on my last visit to the lumber mill. I was looking for a 4" board but the guy at the mill said he hadn't seen anything that thick in more than a decade and even getting 3" thick boards is getting tough to find. I could probably find a 4" board if I go to a lot of effort but luckily my neighbor cut down a butternut tree over the summer that I was able to buy and mill myself (after using Inca-like ingenuity to move and lift it into my truck, solo). Now I have several big hunks up to 8" thick that I'm air drying. In four to eight years it should be ready to work.

Cherry Ribbon (2010)

42" x 8" x 3"

Lastly, in making these ribbon sculptures, I'm left with a negative half that I like to make vases with, good for dried flowers. Because I feel it is more craft than fine art, I don't plan on adding it to my portfolio and just photographed it myself. It can hang on a wall or sit on a table/credenza/shelf.

Cherry Vase

8" x 37" x 2.5"