IsabeauxStudio

Thanks to my grandfather teaching me the joys of power tools and their possibilities, I took old pieces of wood from the wood pile, and experimented on the band saw, making cuts and shapes.  The  wood  was  non-descript and had termite holes and made lovely textures.  These two pieces, both titled "Ethnic Bench"  were created from this  first experimentation in wood.

I immediately was hooked.  Problem was, I could only travel to see my grandparents and work in the shop once or twice a month.  I started to buy my own tools;  A mini table jigsaw, a mini lathe, a belt sander,  a small router.  I worked in my apartment, and the sawdust went everywhere.  Not the optimal situation but I endured it for a time.

 Frustrated by my lack of space, and the mess I kept having to clean up, I was on the brink of giving up working in wood.  But often times, life has a way of presenting opportunities.  At that time I had also been volunteering for a friend's newly created project, Pop Sustainability (see reference section) and was  helping her to organize a fundraising party.  The party was on a ferry boat, The Yankee (see reference section), docked near the World Trade Center.   The Yankee had woodshop complete with band saw, table saw, worktables, and tools. Long story short I ended up bartering my labor in order to use the shop on the weekends.  I did computer work, made curtains, varnished, and cleaned the shop.  All in order to be able to use the open air workshop in the dead of winter.  Often times my hands were so cold that I had to warm them under the "armpits" of the ship's dog Jack.  This lasted about four months.  Though I was really cold, I was in heaven, because finally I had plenty of space to work.

Like my metal sculptures, my wood sculptures were similar in the fact that I used scraps, recycled pieces and odds and ends.  By no means was I a master carpenter, far from it.  A lot of what I created started from simple sketches and patterns which eventually evolved into a final pieces. 

 This piece at left, titled "Gazelle" was made from scrap cedar that my grandfather gave me.  It mostly a study for a larger work that was never created.  My joinery on this item definitely needs improvement!