My work embraces the turn of the last century’s Arts and Crafts movement except I don’t much care for what is typically defined as “Mission Furniture” which often takes the form of painfully boxy looking casework and seating pieces looking like second cousins to an electric chair. What I’ve done in my own work is soften the harshness of the typical hard edge of traditional Mission style furniture and dispense with the notion that the style be executed in quarter sawn white oak and/or mahogany. My color pallet for my work is naturally finished Pennsylvania black walnut, figured black cherry, and sometimes figured maple. All of this material, if selected carefully, can be among the richest and deepest figured woods in the world. I spend an inordinate amount of time tracking down the best of these domestic species and I think it definitely shows in my work.
The first comment from most folks that see my furniture is how breathtakingly beautiful they find the wood. I’ll always give Mother Nature the credit for this, but it is no accident that the wood itself is the tour de force in my work. In fact if you check out my Live Edge Free Form Furniture Pages on this web site you will see I’m moving much more into natural forms that pay much heavier homage to the living tree from which all wood comes. This new work marries in part, the unique arts and crafts flavor of which I am widely known but is considerably more contemporary and I feel exciting in presentation. www.
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