Donald Fortescue with one of two identical parts of his latest sculpture, ‘Nio’. Donald Fortescue was preparing to join the last of the coopered sections of his latest sculpture yesterday afternoon when I dropped by his home-based studio in West Oakland for a chat. I arrived just in time to help him and his talented […]
Category Archives: studio process
Polished
polishing the Dining Commons tables at MLK Jr Middle School in Berkeley You might be surprised to find well-polished, handmade wooden furniture in a public middle school dining commons, let alone any lunch to serve upon it. You might be equally surprised that the tables, benches and stools of Martin Luther King Jr Middle School […]
Expedition Cabinet
sketch/proposal for the Expedition Cabinet I have nothing against Fine Furniture, except that I typically favor the opposite. Give me a scavenged roadside pie safe over a Biedermeier sideboard any day. It’s not that I’m into ‘outsider art’ per se, or even collecting antiques, or that I find comfort in reverse snobbery. It’s just that […]
Introducing Pappy
Pappy likes to repair things, preferably without spending money, using things diligently saved and gleaned, collected in coffee cans and baby food jars. Pappy is a uniquely American archetype, a perennially frugal character forged by hardship, perseverance and optimism. We all hopefully still have a little bit of Pappy in us. ????? ????? Between projects […]
The Art of Becoming Independent
painting by William Eley of Becoming Independent Communicating by making pictures must be among the oldest, most primal human instincts. For people born with severe developmental disabilities, the realm of art-making sometimes provides the only tangible outlet for the depths of thought and emotion. ???????? ?? ???????? I studied at RISD and the Art Institute […]
Craftitude
Just as clothes suggest a particular attitude or posture, tools lend themselves to a certain stance and reinforce a way of moving. The appropriate outfit complements the set of tools required for a sequence of moves, and ‘craft’ becomes a performance tailored to the task at hand. ????? ?????? ??? ???? I find myself creating […]
Apricots and Ponderosa
Looking south over the gorge towards the Seven Devils and the Wallowa Mountains from the tinder dry, high prairie of northeastern Oregon, you’d hardly expect to find apricots and blackberries growing along the banks of the Imnaha as you descend over rocky terrain, past tall stands of Ponderosa pine. Dense pine forests still rim the […]