'State of Craft' Show ... The Bennington Museum

'State of Craft' ... Exploring the Studio Craft Movement in Vermont: 1960-2010. Runs from May 22nd to October 31st at The Bennington Museum, Bennington, Vermont . Curated by Jamie Franklin and Anne Majusiak, it displays the work of 85 craftspersons, (is that how we call us?) 125 objects, oral histories, studio interviews .... I don't generally look for shows to be in, but this one found me and I'm glad it did .... Click the pictures to enlarge them ....
"Bridges", our piece, is a collaboration between Dan (b. 1947) , Sam (b. 1982) and Will (b. 1984) Inspired partly by my grandfather, Irvin Seeders, a bridge riveter for Bethlehem Steel for 52 years (b. 1902), BS from 1916 to 1968. For the show, I thought it would be good if his generation, my generation and the next generation were represented. You know, a 100 years of craft or something .... just a thought ...Our piece started as a couple of different ideas, based on other designs we had created, but took on a life of its own. For a while it was going to be gold leaf and bubinga, then high finish walnut and blued steel, but in the end, it came to be made of recycled oak (heritage and tradition) and painted steel, with the rivet connection to my grandfather the coup de grace. Sam did the steel work and the green paint; Will did the burning and finishing, and I did a little roughing out of the wood and assembly and helped with the conceptual stuff. On the whole, a lot of fun. The show opens next Saturday and I am really looking forward to it ... Should be a good party ...
Early on .. after we decided on the recycled oak, but before the rivets ... The burnings seemed unrelated ...
The initial paint job, which was later toned down by sanding through to the red primer and glazing ...
The rivets ... I forget exactly whose brainstorm that was, but it was a good one ...
Will, burning the oak prior to staining and glazing ....
After the burning and stain, before the sanding and glazing ...
It's a bridge ...
A rusty one in Shelburne, MA
A soaring and inspirational one in New York, the GW, which I'm pretty sure my grandfather worked on ...
Some of the other pieces in the show .... this is the underside of the 'quarter bench' below
There was no label and I don't know the artist, but he's from Brattleboro.
Other objects ready to go ..

Show Time

There's a show called "Out Of The Woods" opening Saturday at The Southern Vermont Art Center in Manchester, Vermont. It will feature the works of 11 New England furniture makers included myself and fellow locals Bill Laberge and Steve Holman. The show has been a long time in the making and for a change we were one of the first to drop off our pieces so I'll be seeing all but one or two pieces for the first time myself on Saturday. There's a 'meet the artists' reception from 4 to 6 and their openings are always fine events. Happening at the same time will also be the opening celebration for the 81st Annual Members Exhibition, a sure to be interesting display of the members's fine art and sculpture work. Come by if you can ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

We'll be showing one of our Bethlehem Steel series pieces, a walnut and steel table and six complementary walnut chairs.
A close up of the plates Sam made to cover hardware 'wounds' in the 20" wide walnut boards.
A few photos from the SVAC website showing some of the other artists's work.
Steve Holman's sideboard ...
Close up of one of the bronze wood burl sculptures from the photo at the top ... Mother Nature is a pretty good sculptor too ...
There is also a very cool building on the site designed by the award wining architect, Hugh Newell Jacobson.