Some Newer things

Ah, fully wearable wood. Sort of. Like the below pieces, these are sort of studies for some future work I plan on doing. I'm fascinated with how people consume "folk" or "outsider art". It seems a little silly to me. I tend not to place values on art based on the background of the maker, and I see the marketing and consumption of this work as a fabrication. It seems like people overlook the inherent value as the work as a innocent, undeterred creativity, and instead focus on the supposed "otherness" of the work. The recent obsession with folk and outsider art seems to pre-suppose that every person who makes work for the sake of the work instead of for the purpose of installations or gallery exhibitions is some sort of back-woods idiot savant or tortured soul, a la Daniel Johnston or Henry Darger.

Thus, my purpose with these pieces and others forthcoming is to attempt to turn this idea on its head - to make work that looks simply, roughly made in the folk tradition, but reflects the values and accoutrements of a supposed higher class. Photo by Kevin Andrew Jones.

This little has been pretty important in terms of testing out some new design techniques. It's also a last gasp effort to use bloodwood/exotics as something more than just an accent.  Again, picture quality is kind of shitty, but hopefully you can tell the bottoms of the triangular drawers are a heavy watercolor paper than has been sewn to the sides.

 I've since used this technique twice more. One of my current projects is exploring paper as a structural material, so it should be fun to chart the evolution of the process. Oh, and pay no mind to that conspicuously placed copy of Bruce Springsteen's "The River" in the background.

Some older things

So this is my first wood creation. Pretty good, huh? Well, I had loads of help from my dad. This is from about 2002. I drew the basic design, which he took a look at and basically said was impossible to make, in sort of the M.C. Escher drawing way. This is one of the few non-chair items I still have. I'll never sell! - Walnut, Cherry, Glass, with glass dividers in the middle and backless drawers, which didn't really work how I envisioned in retrospect. Photo by Kevin Andrew Jones.

I took a commission from my friends Chris and Christine to transform a sort of shelf/display table they'd found at Von Maur or some other department store into a display case. I refinished the piece, added a bunch of inlay and the display case for Chris' super-cool antique beer bottle collection. I also made the wine rack, pictured below, which fits on a shelf or counter. The design is a little big for mass appeal, but a nice blend of maple and blood wood. This was a couple years ago when I was still fascinated by colored wood while I was making this and some other things. It took forever to finish, mostly because I'd never stripped and refinished anything before. That was a hard lesson. Photo by Kevin Andrew Jones.

I'm taking the time to transfer most of my art photos from Facebook/my Mac to here. I'll continue to post a few pictures of work here and there. You can also check out my "Share Your Chair" blog, which is just about all the chairs I'm making in a project that explores, ritual, sharing, exchange and networks.

This is a sort of older piece - obviously a table - that I made around 2004 or 2005. I had it in my house for quite a while. The shelf underneath, besides being perfect for large art books, somehow happened to be the perfect height and depth for about 50 vinyl records. This is a pretty good representation of what I was trying to do at the time - use lots of contrasting woods, utilizing all available space for function, etc. Ironically, I haven't made anything with those sort of elegantly curved legs since. That should change soon. Walnut, Redheart, Mahogany & a few bits of Cocobolo for inlay. Photo by Kevin Andrew Jones.