My involvement with communities for Utopian Benches suggested I should try making work about my own community. I have lived in the town of Tusten for over twenty years, been an EMT with our volunteer ambulance service for eighteen, and chair of the Democratic Committee for a handful. Here was an attempt to make work about the community, the landscape and my place in it.
There is no history of furniture making here. Narrowsburg Bridge Coffee Table Model is the only successful of many attempts to generate furniture using other local design elements. Community Chairs Model took a different tack. The chairs each represents a historic demographic of our town, from the old timers to the latest influx of city escapees. Each chair is a specific historic model associated with each demographic.
There is little in the way of sculpture of landscape that is not also sculpture in the landscape. The rocks and river cabinets are my version. Our landscape here is a matter of rocks, water and wood. For an immigrant from the arable fields of southeast England the stumble of rocks jutting, resting, teetering everywhere on the land here is striking.
The carvings of soft objects, from the bag that holds my blood pressure cuff, to the lilac leaves memorializing family deaths in April (see the opening lines of The Waste Land) reflect on my life here.
For the installation at Marinaro around three dozen Trailer Boxes occupied a further gallery. They are mostly sourced from Tusten and neighboring towns.
Narrowsburg Bridge Coffee Table Model, 2020. Pine. 8 x 21 x 8 inches
Community Chairs Model. From right to left: Appalachian Craft Revival, Bavarian Kitchen Chair, Luxton Lake Clubhouse, Hans Wegner “Shaker” Dining Chair
Rock B, 2020. Pine. 3.5 x 12 x 11 inches
Rock E, 2020. Pine. 3.25 x 10.25 x 9.75 inches
Delaware River Cabinet Model, 2020. Pine, paint. 17 x 13 x 2
Blood Pressure Cuff Bag, 2018. Pine. 2.75 x 8 x 6 inches
April, 2020. Basswood. Each approx 1 x 3 x 2 inches
Napkin, 2018. Pine. 1 x 9.5 x 4.75 inches