Creating furniture inspired by building a wooden canoe

Abstract

Creating Furniture Inspired by Building a Wooden Canoe. This is much more than what the title implies and quite different than what I, the artist, had originally set out to achieve. What it became was an exploration into what motivates me to create and a realization and understanding of my personal aesthetic. Through the process of building a traditional wooden canoe, I explore what it is that motivates me to design and build the objects I create. Through the successes and failures of the furniture I chose to create, I gained an understanding of the importance of our everyday experiences, and how these experiences big or small shape and mold our personal aesthetics. Everything we do, what we do, how we do it, is ultimately derived from our individual experiences. What motivates me to create is my personal interaction with the natural world, and my personal aesthetic is a culmination of all of my individual experiences. When I originally began this process, I intended to build a boat and figured that the technical processes involved in building the boat would inspire me to build furniture in a new way. I figured that the inherent characteristics of building, using these new techniques, would further develop my personal aesthetic. What I got from this experience turned out to be a whole lot more. I am an object maker and my inspiration for the objects I make, and the driving force behind my work, is my personal interaction with the natural world. Whether it is exploring waterways in a handmade wooden boat or hiking snow covered mountains with a snowboard on my back, the feeling is indescribable. The only way I can begin to explain it, is through the objects that I create.