New Start

I have been quite busy of late. A recent trip into Toronto to see a friend’s show in December sparked my imagination. I drove home with a plan. It was time to 2 jump start my career, what I needed to do was get a shop and work with likeminded people. The second thing that was needed was to find locations in Guelph and the surrounding area to show my work. I also needed to get working my portfolio it was looking a little dated.

One day I was chatting with my neighbour asking her about shop space. She told me that her son was moving out of her Garage shop and that I could move in my tools and set up the shop as I saw fit, in return I would sharpen tools and help her with her woodworking questions, she is a very accomplished wood turner.

It did not take long for me to get my tools moved and set up. I was pretty happy given that I cannot get into my garage if you can call it that. In the winter the door which is already cut on a rakish angle jambs on the pavement when it opens 6 inches. I am quite a bit wider in the mid section than that. Think you can fill in the rest.

As you have probably all ready gathered, I enjoy working with recycled/repurposed material. I think that my father’s experience of livening through the depression taught me in a roundabout way that all materials are precious, and that working with ones hands is a very rewarding experience in its self.

Armed with a new idea, I pulled out all my recycled material and made two new pieces. One is called stacked (for now anyways) the other is well I do not have a name for it, let’s call it vertical. I milled all my material to a uniform thickness and stacked it together to form a cube 14X 14 X 16 tall end grain, painted material, recycled doors whatever wood I had on hand got stacked to make the piece. I am pretty happy with the outcome it speaks to me on many levels ,but it mostly says that furnishings need not be precious and made from the most exotic and rare woods to be worthy to be called fine craft.

For the other piece, I employed the same premise but arranged the material vertically. They are both born of the same idea but to me speak a slightly different language.

While I was working on these new ideas I joined an art collective called the White Stone Gallery. There is one other furniture make there but the majority of the 18 members are painters. This suits me fine because I can hang work and show floor pieces as well. It’s been good to paint and draw again as well. I have made new friends and feel that this direction is a good fit.