I have started work on two new versions of my Mirror With Drawers series. I thought I would take a moment to examine where I have been as part of my process of determining how to evolve the series. The exploration was born while I was co-teaching the fall concentration at the Penland craft school in North Carolina with sculptor Joël Urruty. We brought furniture designer Peter Harrison down to give the students a different perspective on technique and creativity. Pete fabricated a small box out of Baltic Birch plywood during a demonstration to the class. The box was kicking around the shop until I took it and incorporated it into the first mirror with drawer.

I wrapped the box in Bubinga veneer after cutting the end of the box to give it an unusual angle more in keeping with my design sense. The rest of the piece is made of cherry and ash. the two woods highlight the shifting overlap that is characteristic of my work. The ends of the cherry boards end in decorative dovetails. This treatment of dovetails is quite unique and becomes a central part of the composition. Another version of unusual dovetails appear on the sculpted drawer front.

A few years ago I revisited the format with a slightly different approach. The first piece gained a lot of attention with the drawer being at the core of the experience. I have always liked to overlap parts so it seemed natural to introduce a second drawer. This time I used a single color of wood for the shifting frame. This field of dark, oxidized, sapele set up a perfect contrast with the yellow shimmer of the avodire veneer of the drawer boxes. The drawers became even more interactive as they open in radically different directions.

Mirror With Two Drawers
Sapele, Avodire and Mirror 72″H x 15″W x 15″D

View Piece. Mirror with Two Drawers

Leaning Dovetails
Cherry 36″H x 17″W x 20″D

I recently added the Leaning Dovetails to my website. I completed the piece a few years ago but it had not made its way onto this version of my website. The catalyst was it’s inclusion in a show at the Silas Marder Gallery. The Leaning Dovetails had a prime position and I was delighted to see this piece again with fresh eyes. Pat Rogers of the Hamptons Art Hub included the piece in her rundown of the Thanksgiving art events. View Story

The leaning Dovetails are based on a notion that has crept into a number of my pieces. That notion is the dovetail as more than a structural joint. My approach transforms them into a landscape within a larger composition. I think of them in terms of a painting: like an interior still life in which the artist introduces a window or a painting on the wall, thus adding a composition within the composition.

The Leaning Dovetails connect to the wall with a clip that is hidden within the thickness of the cherry wood. The mass of the piece comes off the wall in an unusual angle. This sets up the possibility for the piece to immediately become noticed by anyone in the room. The angled thrust pushed all the way down to the floor where the piece adopt a delicate, expressive, stance.

This bench marks an important step in my work. I had just completed the massive Bench #2 from Series #2 and i was looking to make a bench that was smaller. Bench #3 still needed to have a major presence or i was not going to let it come out of the model making stage. The piece came to life for me when I came up with the complicated shape of the cast concrete legs. Lets just say that the forms were very complicated to build. I knew that they were going to be interesting so I felt confident that I could exit the model making phase.

The result is a bench that I am very proud of. Bench #3 often has a hard time being noticed in my chronology because it is sandwiched between to 10′ long benches that have both been features at the LongHouse Reserve in East hampton NY. I thought I would take a moment to revisit the bench.

Bench #3 from my portfolio

Bench #3 Series #2
Mahogany and Cast Concrete 17″H x 84″W x 22″D

The bench features an asymmetrical top that has a pleasing angle towards the middle. All of the benches in this series are designed to be capable of outdoor use. The angle of the seat serves double duty, comfort and the ability to shed water. The connection to the concrete represents one of those structural moments that becomes an essential part of the design. Structural decoration as I call it. The legs are bolted to a piece of mahogany that adds to the visual thickness and rhythm of the top.

Below is another example of Bench #3. This platform is very flexible and I am able to offer custom combinations of woods, color of concrete and size. My work is all one-of-a-kind so this sort of client involvement is part of the experience.

Finally Bench #3 from Series #2 is a very capable outdoor bench. Here are some pictures from an installation at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens. Please note that benches are made as either indoor or outdoor benches. The outdoor version can always go indoors but the indoor version can not make the reverse journey.