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An Artist's Statement



Durant Point Durant Point   Owl in the Poplar   Jan. 2014 Durant Point

9 Drawer Dresser

Woods:
Butternut & Catawba Valley Cherry

Dimensions:   64" high, 35" wide, 24" deep

Drawer Sizes - bottom to top:
7", 7", 6.5", 6", 5.5", 5", 4.5", 4", 3"

$8400
A low backlit shadow shifting across my line

of sight, becomes my line of sight

as I watch the moving shadows share

the spaces with the light.

The many faceted edges bear out crisp,

clear contrasts with supple, enchanting

bearings in their travel.

Durant Point Hatteras Island




Durant Point Durant Point   Owl in the Poplar   Jan. 2014



Bewitched by the balance, with the passage of time,

I start seeing line & color in the wood,

Durant Point Hatteras Island

reminding me of those salty, vibrant contrasts that had moved

my eyes along their lines.



Durant Point Hatteras Island dunes - island's south end Design concepts to me do not feel

so much inspired by the designs of others,

but rather by the colors & shapes

sounds & smells

that guide how I see.

What I look at - what I notice.

Some time along the coast this past summer had a striking influence on this work.

More than I might have suspected - and not just on the dresser's appearance,

but on the long quiet days & nights of its construction.


I was drawn

to what became the dresser's

butternut/cherry mix

because of the colors

I was staring at

in my mind's eye.



Durant Point Hatteras Island




Durant Point Hatteras Island Remembering the butternut

shades in the sand and

the sharp-witted cherry light

of the sun bouncing off

the early morning ocean wash,

it was these sightings

that seeded this dresser in me.







Through the colored foreground

of the memory,

shapes appear . . .

. . . mixtures appear.



Durant Point Hatteras Island
Durant Point Hatteras Island

In my head, and in many ways hardly noticing, I begin putting them together - taking them apart.

Durant Point Hatteras Island




Unraveling, reraveling . . .

. . . the engineering begins,

tracking my way through

the natural shapes . . .



Durant Point Hatteras Island
Durant Point Durant Point   Owl in the Poplar   Jan. 2014 . . . watching for wooden lines

I don't like to start

drawing a detail for a piece

until I've got a

pretty good idea about

how to build it, but . . .



Durant Point Hatteras Island
Durant Point Durant Point   Owl in the Poplar   Jan. 2014 I do, sometimes,

build without drawings.

Durant Point is a case in point.

The point of beginning

for these case dimensions

is a long standing phi relationship

I stumbled across

some 15 years ago.

. . . 32, 52, 84 . . .

Durant Point Durant Point   Owl in the Poplar   Jan. 2014
Durant Point Durant Point   Owl in the Poplar   Jan. 2014 All consequent dimensioning

- posts, panels, rails, drawers -

all fell forward out of

the basic carcass dimension of

52" high, 32" wide


With all this said, I should add that,

my understanding of all this has become that,

what I see & how I react is between me & the work,

not between the work & the audience.


What others experience when they see the work

is unique to their own sightings - their own stories -

and is completely disconnected from what is

between me & the work.


But, I have noticed that, with a story of sightings being the well spring to the work,

the work can stir up stories in others, to which I listen & continue to be amazed at

how the work is affecting their memories & recollections - just the reverse of how I built the piece.

My stories guide the idea & the construction - the end work evokes, in others, stories of their own.

It has become a comforting array of connecting harmonics & symmetries.



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