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Artist Statement:
Taking up woodturning was not something I started ''out of the blue''. Having worked with woods for over forty years has given me a genuine appreciation for its beauty as well as the difficulty in producing a fine end result. One time at a friend's house I saw a small gnarly manzanita bowl that took my breath away and at the same time said to me 'you can do that'. Five years later, the enjoyment produced by taking a piece of burl, stump or just plain log continues to drive me to seek beauty through form.
When I am in my shop usually there is music in the background, a common attribute for many artists in whatever medium they work. It must be the rhythm. Music has been an important part of my entire life. I played the cello and bass for many years and learned the value of repetition from playing etudes and scales 'ad nauseum'. They looked so easy, but to do them well required endless hours of practice. This same repetitive process has transferred itself to my woodturning. Like that first manzanita bowl, the time required to produce a quality piece is earned over time from practice, practice and more practice.
When you view my work, either in person or on my website, you will see few pieces that are similar, as I primarily work with stumps and burls, which many times simply would have been added to a burn pile elsewhere. My challenge is to take these pieces and turn them into something esthetically pleasing. For within each new piece generally there resides real beauty if you study and follow the character of the wood to a logical end point. Not everyone will like all or perhaps any of my work, but I spend an appreciable amount of time studying the wood before and during the turning process in an attempt to produce something pleasing to the eye.
Bio:
My bio is different than many artists as I had no formal art classes until I took a painting class in my late 40's. Since my mother was an artist and people were always telling me I had an ''eye for artistic things'', my feeling was a medium existed that would allow me to express myself artistically in a way satisfying both to me and others. Painting was close, but woodturning is it!
My earliest interests had always been financially related. I started following the market at age 8, because my father had an interest in it. At the time Getty Oil sold for over $3000 per share and that somehow was very intriguing to me, as most others stocks sold for less than $100 per share.
So I ended up going to business school and could not wait to get to ''Wall Street''. At age 19 I started working part time at a brokerage firm while going to school. My fascination with the market took off from there. Over the course of my career I was a corporate finance and research analyst, institution stockbroker and founder of an investment advisory firm, which I sold before moving to Montana in 1999 and basically retiring.
In retirement I returned to my fascination in wood and began a series of different wood related activities ranging from furniture refinishing and repair to building rustic furniture to ultimately woodturning, which is the probably the last stop, as I enjoy it so much. Woodturning in the last 30 years has changed dramatically in its use. Once used primarily for making household and industrial products, woodturning has taken on nearly unlimited reaches of creativity. One has only to read current woodturning magazines to see the changes. Pieces are now done that are both concentric and eccentric in shape, painted or not. It never ceases to amaze me the lengths people will go to take creativity to the next level. For myself, turning basic forms and letting the wood express itself is enough.
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