Crossings Gallery

In "Heads", I reimagine Folk Art and Americana through the lens of Old Master techniques—a process I call “Re-Rembrandtification.” This idea comes from Georgia artist Howard Finster, who once likened his work to that of Rembrandt. Inspired by that comparison, I use the fine Italian technique of wood veneer marquetry—often called “painting with wood”—to create primitivist portraits in Finster’s spirit. The portraits push against the paint-by-numbers look often associated with marquetry by allowing the natural wood grain to define form more than photorealism would. My first piece in this series, Elvis at Three, depicts a life-size portrait of toddler Elvis Presley on the back of a Bretstuhl chair—an Appalachian form with Germanic roots—a tongue-in-cheek comment on a trend in the woodworking world to remake these primitivist forms as finely carved and joined pieces of craftsmanship.

My latest Heads works are small artist books made in the Coptic tradition—an Ethiopian/Egyptian Christian form dating to the 4th century. Known for its chain-stitched headband, flat-opening structure, and intimate scale (~3.5 x 5”), this format allows for a more linear, zine-like narrative. These books reference the original Coptic books’ devotional function, designed to be kept hidden and close to the body during times of religious and cultural persecution.

Throughout my career as a furniture maker, Ming furniture has served as an aspiration and a metric to push my work further. My interest stems from my time in period furniture school, where I came to admire the clarity of its lines and structure. Compared to Western traditions like Queen Anne (itself influenced by Ming design), Ming furniture has a striking lightness and contemporary feel. Its puzzle-like joinery results in construction that is difficult to lay out and executer but rewards the maker with strength and elegant lightness. With few existing resources on its construction, Ming furniture today mostly remains the domain of a small group of specialists devoted to solving difficult—and sometimes overbuilt—problems. But as a professor, I want my students to engage with traditions outside the Western canon, and I see in Ming furniture an incredible resource: not just for woodworking, but as a design approach that could inform everything from glueless flat-pack furniture to packaging systems.  

As someone who works primarily on commission, I rarely have the time to develop more experimental or personal work. Familiar Faces | Living Spaces is an ambitious expansion of both of these distinct series—bringing them into spatial dialogue for the first time. While their juxtaposition may seem stark, they are unified in my mind by craft, historical period, and a shared sense of staging.