MIND OF A BLACK WOODWORKER IN ARIZONA

Wood: Turning to Art April 26 – November 9, 2014  Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport,  Terminal 3, Levels 1 and 2, three display cases  Maple Burl Woodturning is a method of shaping wood using stationary tools and a spinning lathe. Wood is highly prized as an artistic medium because of its many unique colors, grain patterns, and textures. Artists play upon the vast variety of wood qualities to create one-of-a-kind works of art. This summer, the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) will be holding their 28th Annual International Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona. The symposium is the largest international gathering of woodturners and will feature numerous workshops, exhibitions, auctions, and presentations for both artisans and the general public. In celebration of the symposium, this exhibition presents the work of 18 Arizona artists that showcase a variety of techniques and methods of this art form. They employ techniques such as joinery, inlay and hand –...

                         ARTIST STATEMENT  Gerard Merchant (°1959, Lynchburg, United States) is an artist who mainly works in wood sculpture, allowing natural form to be reborn. By examining the ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, Gerard considers creating works of art a gift which is executed using unclear and less formal rules and which should always refer to working with objects delivered via Mother Nature. His sculptures never show the complete structure. This results in the fact that the artist can easily imagine his own interpretation without being hindered by the historical reality of what Mother Nature starts with. By choosing mainly formal solutions, he tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations. His works are notable for their museum finis...

The theory of 10,000 hours of work as a measure of genius. I do not wish to scare you with the amount of work that is needed to achieve genius, but would like to offer the following theory as a guideline as to how much the “Masters of Art” generally worked before achieving their status. In 2008 Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called Outliers in which he postulated the theory that geniuses almost always worked harder, and longer at what they did as compared to others. And generally an expert level status was achieved when that artist had worked for 10,000 hours in their discipline “ “The curious thing about Ericsson’s study is that he and his colleagues couldn’t find any “naturals” – musicians who could float effortlessly to the top while practising a fraction of the time that their peers did. Nor could they find “grinds”, people who worked harder than everyone else and yet just didn’t have what it takes to break into the top ranks. Their research suggested that once you have enough ...

Gallery-du-Maurier dream a little dream with be. Artist Statement Gerard Merchant Gerard Merchant (°1959, Lynchburg, United States) is an artist who mainly works in wood sculpture, allowing natural form to be reborn. By examining the ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, Gerard considers creating works of art a gift which is executed using unclear and less formal rules and which should always refer to working with objects delivered via Mother Nature. His sculptures never shows the complete structure. This results in the fact that the artist can easily imagine his own interpretation without being hindered by the historical reality of what Mother Nature starts with. By choosing mainly formal solutions, he tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations. His works are notable for their museum finish and tactile nature. This ...

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Here is the finished walnut vessel. Wall thickness is good for this piece. I really didn't have any problems. This piece is 6" tall and 3.5, with a ring, perforated wall thickness of 1/16, stained with dye, black. Olive wood inlay, with turquoise inlay on the inlay ;)... This piece matches, similar to an earlier piece, my first successful attempt at perforation. Oh what fun it is.

 Figured walnut. This is second piece, and I am going to attempt to create a match to the first one. The first is an open vessel. This one I am attempting to top it off with a lid and an inlay of olive wood. I added a coat of shellac, just to seal it, and protect it in the next phase. when I add a perforated ring dyed black. Sanding Fitting the lid. Gluing olive inlay to lid. Hot melted to turning block. cut out on band saw. cut out to except inlay Reverse lid, to create inlay mortise. Olive glue up Add tape to stop glue, and to line up grain

Pistachio Burl vessel Inlays; Pewter, Turquoise, Oxidized Iron ore, & minerals.  The base is Burmese Blackwood Can be turned over and use as an open bowl. Just because...