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FAMILY/TRAVEL FEIN WOODS THIS N' THAT
FAMILY/TRAVEL FEIN WOODS THIS N' THAT
 

05-11 In my previous post I spoke briefly about the pain and loss associated with my daughter Beth's death. On April 27th my kid brother, Arnold, the second of four boys, I am the oldest, died of cancer. It is interesting how you take certain things for granted. You never realize how much you love someone until they are gone. I will miss him terribly. On May 4th Beth would have been 50 years old. We had a birthday party for her.

03-11 My life can be broken down into three areas: Personal, occupation and avocation. On July 12, 2009 my daughter Beth died, she was 48 years old. The feeling of pain and loss is still a daily occurrence. Writing about it is torture, so I will leave it at that. My granddaughter Stacen has graduated college and is living in Boston with her boyfriend, Evan Goldman. They are both pursuing MAs. And I have been traveling. Rome in October of 2008, Germany, Saskatchewan and Santa Fe in July 2010 and a 3 week trip to New Zealand in October 2010. There are 3 or 4 new folders on NZ. This in addition to our usual trip to St John, VI and to Chicago for the SOFA Show.

As for my professional life, I hope to feel completely retired from DFB Sales by this summer. I have been working on disengaging for the past two years. After 50 years of involvement, the separation has been difficult. My son, Chip, has become General Manager, and his son, Kael, works at the business when he’s not in college. Fortunately I have a plan for my retirement. I have named the kind of woodturning I do “incising.” I have designed a tool, that I will be selling, that will permit anyone with a lathe to do work similar to that which I have done in the past. When this gets going it is my intention to have two things happen. First is to create a web site for all those that are doing incising, and have it be a place where ideas can be exchanged. The second, a little further off, is to do demonstrations at the different AAW clubs. As for my art work there has been what I would call a “see” change. I entered a contest back in March of 2009 and as part of that contest I wove copper into some old pieces. I thought the copper added a new dimension to the pieces and I liked doing it. You can look at the new folders to see the difference. The other idea I had enables me to make non-round forms on my lathe. This has been a 16 month slugfest. My completion percentage has just recently surpassed 75%. It was hovering around 25% for months. A fuller description plus photos of this processes can also be seen in the "Bowls 09-10" folder. The combination of non-round objects and the copper has been very gratifying.  I was also included in a new book called “Wood Art Today II."

And as always Fiona has been my greatest supporter and a joy.

 

09/08- It has been 4 years since my last posting so there is a lot of new and good stuff to report. I have taken some space in the same building my brothers and I have our business and built a second studio, along with an office and display area. I intend to spend more time turning in the city as I gradually retire from my day job. As for ideas, I have enough to keep me occupied for at least 2 years. I modified my lathe, yet again, so that I now have more freedom to create. If you check out the “Three Stories” folder it becomes obvious. In addition to round pieces that are sections of a sphere, I can now also make multi-faceted and elliptical forms. When I open up the wood, I decide what to do. I have pretty much mastered the technical aspects of the new configuration, so now I can concentrate on the aesthetic.
The gallery that represents my work, delMano, gave me a solo exhibition in 06. (See the folder.) I am honored to have been included in a book published this year; “New Masters of Woodturning,” by Terry Martin and Kevin Wallace. It contains really interesting profiles on 31 artists from around the world. I am now in the permanent collections of 3 museums, MAD in NY, Figgie Art Museum in Davenport, IA. and Carnegie Art Museum in Pittsburgh. I have agreed to teach a class in woodturning in May, 09 at the Peter’s Valley Craft Center, in NJ. My first experience as a teacher!
Fiona and I will be doing more traveling in the coming years so there will be more travel folders. And as always she has been my greatest supporter and a joy.