![]() |
Pueblo Cabinet (1994) |
In 1994, I was living in the mountains of New Mexico and had been making furniture for about five years. I’d already introduced natural oils and earth pigments to the finishing process, and started to incorporate more curvature into the quite traditional lines of the work thus far. Pueblo Cabinet, designed by commission to be a "Southwest-style cabinet," gives a sense of the work at the time, although it was unusual for me to work in a given style.
Soon after completing this piece, a gallery owner from Aspen, Colorado, commissioned a set of five showpieces that would be available for sale, and potentially generate further commissions. This was an extraordinary opportunity for an evolutionary leap in design and creative engagement, besides jumpstarting a new portfolio that would support its unfolding.
![]() |
A Lean, Well-lighted Place |
Architecture remained a key aspect of design—these were structural, function-specific objects, after all—but beyond the pragmatics of function and dimension, the sculptural potential fueled the passion necessary for the intense (and solo) creative effort behind this work. Each piece was both a study of, and hands-on practice in, the creative melding of divine masculine and feminine forces.
A Lean, Well-lighted Place was one of that first set, all of which had bulbous, twine-wrapped segments on the legs, which had started to round on the outside surfaces. Overall, curvature is quite evident, yet there is still a sense of tautness and restraint. The feet had begun to evolve in a hoof-like direction.
The other key element energizing the work was a deep, abiding sense of these pieces as celebrations of the sacred within the mundanity of daily life. This was explicitly expressed in the horns framing an altar space, which is raised above the larger expanse.