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We now have 140 members and are growing steadily. Our new brochure is hot off the press, and we hope to have the membership directory and a web site by the middle of the year. Within the last year, three major galleries who specialized in glass have had successful wood shows. There are several others that we hope to interest in wood art when they realize the exciting work being done currently in wood. We are making progress in our attempt to promote education about wood artists and their work. If you are already a member and want to become involved in any aspect of the organization, let us know. If you are not yet a member, join us in what I promise will be an exciting adventure.
“Collectors’ Choice” will be a beautiful show at SOFA this November with one entry each from Christian Burchard, Virginia Dotson, David Ellsworth, Ron Fleming, Clay Foster, Giles Gilson, Michelle Holzapfel, Robyn Horn, Michael Hosaluk, Todd Hoyer, William Hunter, John Jordan, Ron Kent, Stoney Lamar, Bud Latven, Michael Lee, William Moore, Michael Peterson, Norm Sartorius, David Sengel, Mark Sfirri, Jack Slentz, Alan Stirt & Hans Weissflog.
To select these outstanding wood artists, seventy ballots had been sent out to voting members. We were the lucky ones who opened the envelopes. We received 37 ballots by mail, each with a list of up to 25 wood artists. Over 150 different artists had at least one vote. Every vote counted. Several artists were within one or two points of being included. Those artists written on the most ballots were Ellsworth, Horn, Hoyer, Hunter, and Lamar.
We programmed Excel, a ledger-like spreadsheet program, to add up each artist’s votes at the right end of his row. Knowing how important being chosen as a Collectors’ Choice is, we checked our figures many times and in several ways.
Now, we congratulate all those chosen, and remind those who were not chosen, how very close the voting was.
Jane Mason, Vice President, CWA
As collectors we get tremendous satisfaction from acquiring work, going to shows, meeting artists and each other. The wood arts have done a lot for each of us. To paraphrase President Kennedy, what have we done for the wood arts beyond acquiring work?
We must do what we can to increase public awareness of the field and recruit a bigger following for wood artists.
We can help curate and organize shows in our community. This is particularly important unless we want professional curators, with tastes developed academically and in other media, to preempt the field and unduly influence its direction.
We should encourage new galleries to enter the field and then patronize them when they do. We have been particularly successful in the recent years as Barry Friedman, Heller, Stones and R. Duane Reed galleries have joined the club. The gallery is the partner of the artist and the collector.
Working with museums through lending and giving of work is particularly exciting and helpful when not only the major craft museums but also the famous fine arts museums begin to show our work. We, the collectors, don’t need these museums to validate the work of our artists, but they validate wood art for the rest of the world.
We should work to develop secondary market outlets including trading among ourselves to provide a more stable economic base for collectors and artists. This will become particularly important in the years to come when major auction houses begin to sell our work and larger audiences are attracted.
Finally, we should give work to colleges, schools, museums, municipal buildings and other public institutions where they will have a wider audience. These works are our children and when they grow up we must let them go out on their own into real world where we can bask in their reflected glory.
The CWA can be a leader in all these activities. The prospects are very exciting.
Arthur Mason, Board Member, CWA
As many of you know, I was seriously injured in an accident in Canada on August 4 of last year after participating in the celebration of collaboration at Emma Lake in Saskatchewan. With a nasty head trauma, two fractured vertebrae, and ensuing spinal fusion surgery, my condition was touch and go for a while. As requested, I am offering an update on my recovery and adventures since that time.
Thinking back to early in my recuperation, though I still have no memory of the first ten days, one of the dominant feelings I have nurtured and am left with from this experience is that here is a chance for something fresh. In the past few months, I have approached life post-injury, with some different perspectives and attitudes. A resolution to make the work more fun has been more challenging than I imagined it would be, but I continue to make strides in that direction. With deadlines being mostly self imposed, that absence of external pressure seems to have allowed me to choose the projects I want to do rather than working towards an imagined market, something I have given in to at times in the past. The first two pieces I have finished since August were done in January and relate directly to my recent experience. When I first got out of a hospital bed, wearing a metal “halo” bolted to my skull to keep the spine immobilized, I was told I needed to “go like a turtle.” An avid turtle fan since childhood, I used to get up with my brother and father at 5:00 a.m. to drive the roads of rural Missouri looking for them. I made a small box that is modeled after a turtle I kept for a while at the age of seven. It was a baby snapper who had one leg run over but was still the fastest one in the outdoor pen made of four old doors. We named him Speedy. The piece shows no outer evidence of turning, but is in fact a turned box with the bottom shell being removable. I have already learned much that I didn’t know about the mythology, lore and symbolism of the turtle by way of feedback on this one. The second piece I call the “Ritual Shedding of Thorns” and on the lid of a small sandblasted container, there are porcelain hands rubbing the thorns off a small bird. Is the bird me? Only time will tell. It is sometimes difficult to escape a recognizable style, but possibly the time has come.
At first a little shy of the lathe and the potential stress on my neck, I have taken some time to work on my carving skills with some encouraging results. I have also always been attracted to working multimedia, including the use of found objects, and have some plans in that direction. The metals area at Emma Lake was a place I spent much of my time at that unique gathering. I came away resolving to pursue working with those materials and have begun setting up a place for that in an outbuilding near my studio.
The bottom line is that I am making a good comeback physically and I believe that the lessons learned and bonds formed from going through a life threatening injury will help not only in my work but in virtually every other aspect of my life. A huge part of why I am doing as well as I am and have the attitude I do, is the broadbased and humbling support of our unique community of people who like objects made of wood. The large file of cards, letters and e-mails has a permanent place in my little office not only as a remembrance but as a resource. I hope that such support will be forthcoming for others of us who may face serious problems, and that is a cause I will support wherever I am able.
Little did I know when I purchased my first wooden vessel at the Atlanta Arts Festival in 1983 where it would lead. It has been a fascinating journey. Along the way I have met artists, collectors, critics, curators, writers, gallery owners, all who have had one thing in common, “A passion for hand made objects.” On this road there have been major stops, museum shows, workshops and seminars and organizations such as the Wood Turning Center and Collectors of Wood Art.
As with any journey our routes sometimes are parallel, at other times they cross or they could even be the same road. With that picture in mind I would like to express some thoughts concerning the future development of the Wood Turning Center and Collectors of Wood Art. I repeat these are thoughts that should be discussed, debated, revised and mulled over.
I would suggest a way for the Collectors of Wood Art and the Wood Turning Center to work together would be to have a member from each organization be designated as a liaison to the other organization. Whether this be as an observer, non-voting member, voting member is an idea to be fine tuned. Representing the Wood Turning Center I would be in favor of some type of Collectors of Wood Art representation on our Board of Trustees.
I do not know where the road will lead, but I am sure our field will be stronger if we take our journey down the same road. I hope I have started a dialogue. This is only a beginning, let us keep it going.
Fleur Bresler, President Elect - WTC
Plans for the 1999 Forum in Chicago during SOFA are well under way. The hotel we will be using and where our banquet will be held is the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers at 1-800-233-4100. (Our rooms are seperate from SOFA’s, so specify CWA when reserving a room.) The Collectors’ Choice show is in place (see article on page 1) with 24 enthusiastic artists promising some new and exciting work. There will also be pieces included from museum shows that are having wood exhibitions in the year 2000. Curators from these shows will speak about their exhibits at the lecture series at SOFA, and we have a commitment from Michelle and David Holzapfel who will be speaking and showing slides of their work. We are expecting a great turnout for the Forum this year, and are in the process of notifying the participating galleries of our interest in wood, encouraging them to bring more wood than they have in previous years.
The annual American Association of Woodturners Symposium will be held June 18 - 20 in Tacoma, Washington. Several members of CWA will give presentations on Saturday afternoon. They will show slides or photos of the objects they collect, not just wood, and discuss what interests them about what they collect and why. Also on Saturday there will be an Instant Gallery and an Auction on Saturday evening. For further information contact: Butch & Pat Titus.
Board Member Gary Smith and his wife, Jamie Studley will be moving their wood art collection to a new home. Beginning in June, Jamie will become President of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Jamie, Gary and their art will reside in Scribner House, the home of the founder of Skidmore, and Gary will telecommute to his law firm, Beveridge & Diamond.
Skidmore is a 2100 student liberal arts college with a special focus on studio and performing arts and preprofessional programs. Saratoga Springs, the home of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and an historic thoroughbred race track, is located between Albany, NY and the Adirondack Preserve.
President
Robyn Horn
Vice President
Jane Mason
Co-Treasurers
Dave & Ruth Waterbury
Secretary
Joe Seltzer
Board (1 year Term)
Elizabeth Mai
Arthur Mason
Doris Wolin
Ron Wornick
Board (2 year Term)
Gary Smith
Skip Shaw
Allan Nachman
Publisher
Editor