My wonderful cousin Ben is up in Maine for the summer taking classes at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. Peter Korn, Executive Director, started the school in 1993 out of a barn in his backyard; it has since grown to become a beautiful campus of studios and workshops where the best woodworkers in the world teach classes throughout the year. Ben invited me, my mom, and two of my friends to hear lectures by the artists Jacques Vesery and John Whalley, so we all piled into the car and drove out Route 90 to admire dovetails, sculptures, and beautiful studios (more after the jump).
Before we heard the talks and saw the artsits' stunning slideshows, Ben showed us his workbench and some of the dovetails he's been working on, along with examples of different techniques that live in the shop. Dovetails join two pieces of wood together; one makes them by cutting sections away from each piece and then putting them together like a puzzle. Below is one of my favorite examples that Ben showed us:
The tools one uses to make these beautiful objects are as important as the wood. Woodworking consists of two major schools of thought: Western and Japanese. Ben could tell you more about the differences between the two (such as in which direction to cut the wood, the specifications of the different chisels, and the smoothing techniques); while I don't know much about the craft itself, I did think the Japanese chisels Ben was working with were beautiful:
After we admired the piece Ben is working on, we went to the lectures. They're held in a beautiful barn that also serves as gallery space when Peter curates shows, and ice cream and cookies flowed in abundance before Jacques and John shared the secrets of their work. Peter served the dessert, and it's pretty wonderful to see the Exectuive Director of a school scooping out chocolate ice cream from behind a floral-cloth-covered table; there's nothing like seeing a leader willing to get his hands dirty (or sweet and sticky, as the case may be).
Both Jacques and John live in Damriscotta, Maine, and both do fine, detailed, exquisite work. Jacques shows his sculptures all over the world, and rather than try to explain them, I thought I'd show a few of my favorites:
I find it absolutely mind-blowing that he can transform wood into such glorious objects. Surprisingly, Jacques said he isn't married to the fact that the objects are wood; he chooses to work with the medium because he knows it well and finds it most effective for his forms.
John Walley does the most detailed and lifelike graphite drawings and oil paintings I have ever seen. They look like photographs. He can portray the light on an object with stunning accuracy, and pays such attention to the detail of these objects that they seem to pop off the page in three dimensions. Here are some of my favorite pieces he's done:
Isn't it hard to believe they're drawings?
I can't wait to go back at the end of two weeks and see what Ben has made; in the meantime, I'm going to continue to obsessively look at the joints of various pieces of furniture in my house to figure out how they're held together. And to slave away over my drawings that John and Jacques work inspired me to take up again!
