GOOD WOOD STUDIO
Artist's Statement
r
weld savary - woodworker
Hi, I'm Rick Savary. I've been a Craft Artist, in this latest incarnation, since about mid-2005, working in wood, building furniture and turning bowls. Although I've been working wood for just a few years, I have a long history in craftsmanship. It began some time ago now, when my parents took me into a craft gallery in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. I was only 2 or 3 years old, but I have vivid images of the contents of that shop, and I knew even then that those things were special, and that they interested me.
Later, while in college, I worked for several years as a docent at a large outdoor history museum. There I demonstrated at least 7 different traditional crafts, including blacksmithing. Following close on that experience, I worked as a traditional Yankee blacksmith in Massachusetts, at first in other people's shops, and then on my own, an occupation I pursued for 15 years. I specialized in what was called "housework," i.e. hand wrought iron and brass building hardware for the restoration of antique houses. I also restored antique hardware and fireplace furniture, etc.
After a long hiatus attending college (again) and working "a regular job" for too many years, I'm finally working my way back into craft.
Among several college degrees I've earned, the first was a B.F.A. in Painting. I already knew then what REALLY interested me, although I didn't necessarily know how to make it into a successful professional career. I started college, and finished in fact, as a painting major. However, it was not long during the course of that program, before my preference for the sculptural became clear. I found myself undertaking much more sculptural than painting oriented course work, and my painting rapidly became more three dimensional. Before long it gave way completely to sculpture, in which color was a tertiary element. At the same time, my work turned sharply away from illusional media such as charcoal and paint, etc., toward the more concrete, especially blown glass, ceramics and welded steel. My interest in, and I might say love of the Fundamental materials and crafts continued to develop, leading at first to my becoming a blacksmith, and now finally to my working with wood.
My choice of Wood this time around stems from a number of practical as well as aesthetic and philosophical considerations. For one thing, I now live in a suburban neighborhood in Pasadena, CA, an area where inexpensive industrial space is scarce, such that I'm pretty much forced to work out of my garage. This is not a great hardship, nor is it unusual, since craftsmen have traditionally worked out of their homes. Blacksmithing makes considerable noise, smoke and dirt, which I doubt would go over well with my neighbors, and blown glass requires running furnaces continuously, at considerable expense. Both present a real potential fire hazard, which is not exactly welcome here, either. Which brings me back to Wood...
Which is VERY easy to Love! Of all Fundamental materials, few have the warmth, variety, tactility, utility, strength, durability, workability AND rich, colorful beauty of Wood. And it is pleasant, and at the same time challenging to work, largely due to its difficult-but-not-impossible to control tendencies to swell, shrink, warp, dent, mark, stain, fuzz, rot, crack, split and splinter. It is also relatively soft, cuts easily with either hand or machine tools, and takes a very fine, smooth finish. And as in most creative work, where destruction necessarily precedes creation, the full beauty of Wood is Usually revealed Suddenly, at the very end of the Working Process, in a Great Burst of Pleasure!
Artistic Work needs to Communicate, and Craft has always been Trade. I believe that to be completely legitimate, any Art, and especially any Craft, should be involved in Commerce, as a means of Communicating Crafted Objects to the World. This is how it has been Historically, and as such may at least provide a subsistence Iincome to the artist. In order to satisfy this requirement, it is helpful if the material selected has high intrinsic Beauty, accessible to many people. Wood HAS that very great beauty, indeed, and enjoys more of the practical advantages than any other Fundamental material.
It is worth noting that much of the wood I use is obtained through my own practice of "urban forestry." Trees in my older neighborhood die naturally, or otherwise become diseased or unsound, and so are removed. By watching carefully, and acting quickly, I have so far obtained, and in reality rescued from the landfill, sufficient local timber for most of my work. I will undoubtably expand the range of my wood resources (you see I have a couple of rosewood bowls for sale), though I'll probably continue to turn local woods as much as possible, as I believe that use of local wood adds authenticity to the work.
Of course, in this part of the country, local trees are MOSTLY exotic.
It occurs to me that...
Above almost everything else, I worship Purity of Line and Form, and always try to incorporate that into my work. I appreciate Beauty for its own sake, as an expression of color, line, form, texture, heft, balance, light and shadow, and vehicle for the Joy that those qualities can inspire. I also believe in Utility and Simplicity. I try to apply Occam's Razor to my work, as much as to my life (oh, actually, much more!).
I'm very concerned that so much of our lives today is automated. I'm a firm believer in doing most things manually, and in the pleasure that comes from that. For example, for a number of years I had a brand new dishwasher in my kitchen, which I never used, preferring to wash my dishes by hand. And this is why I insist on a manual transmission in my car. Why throw out what was arguably one of the most enjoyable aspects associated with driving, just to make what was already pretty easy, even easier? And at added cost? Hah! NEVER. Although I certainly do use machines, they are virtually always operated and guided manually. In that sense most of the machines I use are really powered hand tools.
I guess I believe in despecialization. Life was richer in many ways (poorer in others, no doubt) when we actually did most of the jobs needed to sustain life, personally. I believe every person could and should, if possible, build his (or her) own house, do her own electrical work and plumbing, repair one's own car, make one's own clothes and grow one's own food. Our social structure doesn't support these goals very well, and I confess I haven't achieved most of them very well, but that would be my ideal.
Though I very much appreciate Beauty for Beauty's own sake, I also admire Beauty in the service of Thought. I believe in Utility, which is why I Make Functional Objects, but not necessarily only to serve salad and popcorn, though that's fine too. In fact, the ordinary, e.g. the "bowl-ness" of the bowl, is so far the primary theme of most of my work. I love bowls! But I love the fact that ideas, symbols and metaphor can underlie physical, visual objects. I like to think "what is the meaning of this object? What does it suggest? What do I feel upon experiencing it? If I can express some ideas, conciously or perhaps even unconciously, using the most minimal of means, e.g. through turned wood and furniture, I'll be a happy man.
It is a lifelong process...
Recently I've been focusing my attention on learning all I can, especially about woodturning, developing my technical skills as well as my aesthetic judgment regarding these particular materials and forms, and hopefully turning and/or constructing a few beautiful (or at least highly useful!) and interesting objects.
I'm currently (Jan. 2008) turning a number of green logs (live oak, white ash, sweet magnolia, camphorwood, and a mystery wood or two) I scrounged recently into rough bowls. These will dry for 3-6 months before being completed. I'm experimenting with the use of wax to control the drying rate, to reduce cracking. I'm also turning some fairly large natural edge bowls, directly in green wood, which are dried after completion.
Rick Savary (1.2008)
"'Tis the Gift to be Simple..." (from an old Shaker song)
and
"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne" (from Chaucer, via Gustav Stickley)
"Me and a Bark-edge Bowl"
Sanding the inside of a Bowl, on the Lathe
Rough Turned Bowls on a bench for inspection