Yesterday, after an hour at the Dontist (no, that's not a misspelling
of "dEntist" - "dOntists" are the Formula One drivers of dentistry),
and in a Vicodin induced state, I spent several hours exploring the
Association of American Woodturners (AAW) site - specifically the
Galleries dating back to 1987. It was astounding how this area of
woodworking has evolved in just 20 years. From familiar plates
and bowls, it's gone in so many different directions, many of which
seem impossible, if not flat out crazy. And since turning seems
to be a pretty crazy thing to do to begin with - "take this sharp
piece of steel and poke it into that spinning chunk of wood", you
have to do something really insane to meet my "crazy" criteria.

If "thinking outside the box" means not being constrained by
"convention", there are turners thinking "out of this world"
Now I'm not talking about Star Trek's "Going where no one's
gone before" - but going to a "there" where you couldn't even
imagine a "there" there.

So my (rhetorical) question is:

In the turning world / solar system / galaxy / universe
how the hell can I "think outside the box"
when
there doesn't seem to be a "box"?

Check out where the links on this page take you
and poke around for a while - say two or three
HOURS. If you're looking for a Muse - I'm betting
she's hiding in there somewhere.

http://www.woodturner.org/gallery/

Fun this woodworking thing - and turning is
The Funnest (sp?).

charlie b

Hi Charlie, It's not only the "Turning - Thinking Outside The Box" that
overwhelms us. It's also the exaggerated hyperbole from outer space and
beyond that some wood artists use to describe themselves, their sacred
missions and their venerated art. Issued from an atelier-studium
somewhere in a new universe on the other side of a black hole, these
turnings leave us amazed and confused, hopeless in our futile attempts
to understand their meaning. For all we crafters know, the message may
as well have been sent in a string of mathematical symbols in Morse
code.

Forget those hackneyed rallying calls about the eye of the beholder and
all that. "If you crafters understand it, it's not art". That's the
condescension of some elite and enlightened wood artists of today. I
realize of course, that we all must try to advance the craft and make it
art, but is it an advance when a pedantic artist advances so far out
that he becomes in our guarded murmurings, just another laughing stock?


Rhetorically speaking and musing in my own hyperbole, whatever goes
around comes around and whatever's turned outside the box turns around.
Good looking bowls and handsome candle sticks are gonna rise again. Just
you wait and see, Mr. B.


Forget my hyperbole, Charlie. I Hope that toothache is long gone.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Charlie,
I reviewed Andi Wolfe's AAW 2007 Instant Gallery pictures on her blog. Just
blew me away. The creativity is awesome. Considering Arch's comments, I'd
say there's fantastic beauty, not just exercise in distinction or hyperbole.

I can recognize what I like after I've seen it. The challenge to me is to
envision it from scratch and then get it done in that way. Also, I think
your post about wasting 95% of the wood was right on as it just bothers me
no end to see so much on the floor.

I've just been working some with 3D Design and it amazes me how little
adjustment makes such a difference in how eye-pleasing the object is. Quite
an exercise with the advantage of instant results without catches and the
ability to put "wood" back on when you eliminated too much.

I tried duplicating in the program one of Cindy Drozda's finials. It took me
longer, I swear, than it did to watch her do it in a demo. My excuse is that
I've just started learning the program. Probably applies to my lathe work,
as well. I've some Dogwood that is very tight grained that I hope will work
for trying to simulate some of her fragile designs. Looks like a perfect use
for a skew:-)

Simply, like you, I look at these works and shake my head at how they can
come up with such neat ideas. They just seem so far ahead of any thinking I
can manage. While humbled, I still enjoy the exercise though.

TomNie

"charlieb" wrote in message
...
Yesterday, after an hour at the Dontist (no, that's not a misspelling
of "dEntist" - "dOntists" are the Formula One drivers of dentistry),
and in a Vicodin induced state, I spent several hours exploring the
Association of American Woodturners (AAW) site - specifically the
Galleries dating back to 1987. It was astounding how this area of
woodworking has evolved in just 20 years. From familiar plates
and bowls, it's gone in so many different directions, many of which
seem impossible, if not flat out crazy. And since turning seems
to be a pretty crazy thing to do to begin with - "take this sharp
piece of steel and poke it into that spinning chunk of wood", you
have to do something really insane to meet my "crazy" criteria.

If "thinking outside the box" means not being constrained by
"convention", there are turners thinking "out of this world"
Now I'm not talking about Star Trek's "Going where no one's
gone before" - but going to a "there" where you couldn't even
imagine a "there" there.

So my (rhetorical) question is:

In the turning world / solar system / galaxy / universe
how the hell can I "think outside the box"
when
there doesn't seem to be a "box"?

Check out where the links on this page take you
and poke around for a while - say two or three
HOURS. If you're looking for a Muse - I'm betting
she's hiding in there somewhere.

http://www.woodturner.org/gallery/

Fun this woodworking thing - and turning is
The Funnest (sp?).

charlie b

Hi Tom, No argument with you here and no attempt to demean the legions
of fine woodturner-craftsmen/artists whose egocentricity is contained
within reasonable bounds and in accord with their accomplishments.


At my level of craft/art expertise, to criticize the _work of my
superiors would be reaching beyond my grasp. I can however, recognize
conceit. The woodturnings that I see and like change with what I hope is
a modest growth in my ability to appreciate fine work. I believe that a
certain level of capability is required to discern and appreciate good
woodturning, whether considered as art or craft or both and regardless
of its relation to what we used to call "the box". I don't believe that
because someone likes a piece of turned art makes it defacto good art.


I am proud that the archives will include me with those who recognized
Andi's talent early on when she often posted here. Her work has only
gotten better and her self image is always pleasing and restrained.


I'm sure everyone here recognized that I was trying to use excessively
flamboyant tongue in cheek hyperbole to deflate _some (perhaps only to
me) overblown descriptives. It was not to make fun of anyone's work.
Maybe I should take a beginner's course in art speak and one in benign
'curmudgeny'.


I think that wood left inappropriately on a turning in order not to
waste it is far more wasteful than that left on the floor. Like the
long gone burlesque shows of my salad days, in turning wood what is
taken off counts for as much as what is left on.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings