“In tragedy, man is great but is destroyed nevertheless. In comedy, man is weak and small and inconsistent, but is redeemed by reminders of his greatness." — Bernard Schilling
I create work in search of human connection, self-discovery, and joy. I am a humanist, but society can often feel overwhelming. When confronted with the horrors and absurdities of life, it is our shared humanity that helps us support one another and laugh instead of cry.
Squishy Hard Stuff
In 2005, I set out to make an upholstered chair that cracked like an egg when sat upon. Through experimentation, I invented a technique to create hard/soft surfaces by slathering wet cement over foam. Once dried and cracked, the thin pieces of cement moved independently from one another.
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Users didn’t realize the chair had a cushion until the last moment– they reacted with an instant of fear and astonishment, followed by relief and joy. I became captivated by the material and the experience that it provided. Using cement allowed me to make work with limited tools and space.
In 2011, I received a Windgate residency at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and had woodshop access for the first time in many years. By combining traditional upholstery button tufting techniques with my cement process, I could create squishy wood. This piece has hundreds of cut and sanded holly sticks that are “button tufted” to the upholstery.
Meander
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Walnut, maple, sapele
19" X 32" X 19"
Bucher Benches
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Sapele and porcelain tiles
34" X 24" X 48"
Collaboration with Shae Bishop
2018photos by Scott Cartwright
Floe
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Collaboration with Ian Henderson
Sapele and white cement
47" X 34 X 19"
2015photos by Mercedes Jelinek
Squishy Sticks
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Featured on the cover of American Craft Magazine
Laquered poplar and holly sticks
19" X 32 " X 19"photos by Chad Whitaker
Ash Scotty
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Featured in 2015 Ikea trend report
Collaboration with Scotty Albrecht
Ash
19" X 32" X 19"photo by Cian O'Donague
Reticulatus
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Collaboration with ceramic artist Shae Bishop
Sapele and porcelain tiles
Wall panel 44” X 44" X 1 1/2"
Bench 44" X 18" X 19"
2017photos by Scott Cartwright
Hexagon Arm Chairs
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Sapele and foam
34" X 24" X 20"photos by Mercedes Jelinek
Snake Trails
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Sapele and foam
32” X 18" X 18"photos by Jenny Wolff-Harrison
Platinum and Diamonds
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Cast pewter crystals, Swarovski crystals, graphite finished ash, and foam.
18" X 32" X 18"photo by Mercedes Jelinek
Ellie’s Chair
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Collaboration with artist Ellie Richards
Sapele, foam, and milk paint
Diamond Quilted Aluminum
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Black walnut, pressed aluminum sheet, and foam
18" X 32" X 18"photo by Mercedes Jelinek
The Aluminum Scotty
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Made in collaboration with Scotty Albrecht
Blue powder coat and raw finish aluminum
19"X32"X19"photo by Mercedes Jelinek
Diamond Tufted Chair
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Cast cement upholstery
Sapele, cement
Chair suitable for indoor/outdoor
19" X 32" X 19"photos by Mercedes Jelinek
Cracked
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Soft, giving cracked cement, cement, ebonized oak
19" X 32" X 19"
Watch the video belowphotos by Mercedes Jelinek
Soft Rocks
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Sapele, river rocks, poplar bark, and foam
18" X 32" X 19"photo by Mercedes Jelinek
Protolith
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Steel and cement
Collaboration with artist Ian Henderson
19" X 32" X 19"
Watch the video belowphotos by Mercedes Jelinek
Graphite Scotty
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Collaboration with Scotty Albrecht
Ebonized oak, graphite finished ash, and foam
18" X 32" X 18"photo by Mercedes Jelinek
Reclaimed and Cracked
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Reclaimed cypress and cement
18" X 18" X 32"
Adorned Furniture
The technique used in pieces like Squishy Sticks and Scotty requires that the moving pieces be embedded in flat panels. I wanted to develop an alternative upholstery technique that would allow me to work with more sculptural forms. I had taken several small metals classes in my quest to learn new processes and began experimenting with the technique of dapping sheet metal.
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In the small metals world, people often use the term “tiny shinies.” Though I don't wear jewelry myself, I think the particular giddiness we feel when we behold precious sparklies is universal. With these new pieces, I wanted to emulate that with large furniture pieces. I built chairs that looked like bean bags but have internal structures of wood and foam. Scale Lounge and Nest were both fully upholstered and then had thousands of metal scales sewn on.
After completing Scale Lounge and Nest, I felt that, though I had accomplished my goal of creating “precious” adorned furniture, their lack of engagement with the human body made me feel hollow. They were just chairs; people sat in them and that was it.
Oshibana (a term for the art of pressed flowers) is upholstered with handmade and hand-dyed paper flowers. When the user sits, the delicate paper flowers are crushed, leaving an imprint of the human body. Most people have an ingrained aversion to crushing flowers, so this piece also has a psychological component– forcing your body to do what your mind tells you not to. This piece was a major turning point and marked the beginning of overtly “feminine” qualities in my work.
Oshibana
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Handmade paper flowers, silk flowers, foam, wood
36" X 36" X 32"
2017photo by Mercedes Jelinek
Scale Lounge
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Foam, fabric, and nickel scales
46" X 46" X 28"photo by Scott Cartwright
Nest
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Painted steel vintage jewelry findings, leather, and foam
32" X 36" X 36"Photos By Mercedes Jelinek
Gingko Chair
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Sapele, steel, leather, and foam
32" X 18" X 19"
2017photos by Scott Cartwright
Static Adornment
Dressing up, wearing a costume, or wearing a wig can transform your persona by giving you a sense of power and anonymity. The Static Adornment series aims to channel that power.
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Oshibana brought back the human form and inspired the Static Adornment series, which addresses the areas around and between the body when we sit. As a chairmaker, my work involves interaction with the human body. Though I consider comfort in my furniture, I often design for the absence of the body. In this series, I flip that by making objects that adorn the user- treating the chair as fashion or jewelry and focusing on the spaces around the body.
In the first studies, I essentially removed the object qualities of furniture by making them part of the wall and only focused on areas seen when engaging. There is much humor to be found in the parts of our bodies that interact with chairs- butts, crotches, and armpits. Jewels Coming Out of Her Wherever is a play on the Trump/Megan Kelly quote about menstruation. In another study, I explored using fresh flowers coming out of crotches and underarms. And I made a Virgin Mary study that has continued to be a theme in my work.
What is Real?
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What is Real?
2022
Materials: Plywood, poplar, silk, and foam
Dimensions: 8’ X 4’ X 12”photos by LOAM
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I have been working on Static Adornment since 2018. The first pieces I made were not “real” furniture. I thought of them more as studies. So for the last few years, I have been making “real” furniture.This includes the Red Diamonds train, a “real” furniture version of the Catherdral Train Chair. In ‘What is real?’ I am examining why I needed to make the “real” version of essentially the same chair. I am a furniture maker. I am an artist. They are not always harmonious bedfellows.
Red Diamonds
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Red diamonds, walnut, silk, foam
2021
photos by LoamModeling by Sara Beth Post-Eskuche
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By combining that with an oversized train and dark, rich walnut, I wanted to imbue the sitter with power and glamour. This piece was a “fine furniture” remake of the Cathedral Train Chair.
Windsor Flower Chairs
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Windsor Flower Chairs
40” X 28" X 26"
Ash, glass vials, fresh cut flowers
2021 photos by Rhoda Baer
2018 photos by L GnadingerModeling by L Gnadinger and Danae
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It was a second marriage so no one cared too much if I screwed it up. Afterward, I couldn't believe how good it made me feel to work with such amazing material. I was enamored with the softness, scent, and delicacy of fresh flowers. In the Windsor Flower chair, I bring these flowers to the sitter. I want them to be framed in a field of flowers and feel the soft petals against their face and breathe in the aromas.
I chose the Windsor-style chair as the canvas for this piece because they are simple, iconic chairs that often utilize the technique of steam bending, which I used to create the stems.
Golden Windsor Flower Chair
Faux gold leaf, ash, glass vials, fresh cut flowers
2019 photos by Mark Serr
Cathedral Train Chair
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Dupioni silk, foam, walnut veneered bent plywood
62” X 28" X 96"
2018photo by Jim Escalante
Sit Like a Grrl
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Plywood, fabric, paint
18” X 24” X 18”
Modeled by Shae Bishop and Annie Evelynphotos by Loam
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Third-wave feminism embraced individualism and promoted that there is no right way to be a woman. The two chairs explore the way that women and men are often taught to sit. The girly fabric forces your legs apart in one chair and pushes them together in the other.
I am shown in this photo with my partner, Shae Bishop. He and I are often on opposite sides of where our genders are “supposed” to be. I am older, am the primary income earner, and dress pragmatically. He is a ceramic and fiber artist, dresses like a dandy, sews me dresses, and makes my dinner almost every night. So, who gets which chair?
The Audrey
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White oak, vintage jewelry findings
19” X 19” X 34”
2022Photos by Loam
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The static Adornment Series aims to channel that power.
As a chairmaker, my work involves interaction with the human body. And yet, though I consider comfort in my furniture, I often design for the absence of the body. In this series, I flip that by making objects that adorn the user- treating the chair as fashion or jewelry and focusing on the spaces around the body. The Audrey is an ode to the fashion icon Audrey Hepburn, whose style impacted my perceptions of fashion as a child.
Jewels coming out of her everywhere
Flowers Everywhere
The Virgin
Tail Feathers
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Painted poplar, foam, fabric.
20" X 30" X 30"
2020Available for purchase at Reeves Art and Design
The Sack Back
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photos by Loam
Flower Box Chair
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Ash, glass vials, and upholstery
34” X 20” X 20”photos by LOAM
Tangible Objects in the Digital World
The internet has changed the way most people interact with my work from physical to digital. And I, unknowingly at first, have changed too.
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The Static Adornment Series caused me to make design decisions based on how a person will look in the photo. This led to thoughts of vanity and waste. When I lived in New York, I worked on commercial photo shoots and was disgusted at the cost, extravagance, and time spent on one image for a magazine. Was I now doing the same in my work? For Instagram??
I set out to explore this question with a piece for OBJECTS: REDUX, an exhibition at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. I was poking fun at myself, my work, and my worries that I had begun “living for the likes.” The piece is an ornate, throne-like chair titled The Hideous Beautiful New Reality and is “pretty” and “selfie-worthy” on the front and intentionally ugly and poorly constructed in the back. It was exhibited with a selfie-stick and its own hashtag for users to post their photos.
Let Them Eat Cake
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Installation at The Center for Craft in Asheville, NC
funded by Dash Studiophotos by LOAM
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We scan Zillow, imagining what we would put in that extra closet space. We walk past storefronts, longing for tantalizing baubles displayed in the windows. Whatever the temptation, we find ourselves wanting more than we have. But with each goal achieved and each milestone met, our desires still don’t seem to abate.
“Let Them Eat Cake” gives you access to only the simple utilitarian chair outside. But you can take a picture and imagine yourself amidst gaudy excess just out of reach behind the glass, like so much else in our lives.
The chair's backrest is hand-carved and upholstered. The silk fabric is diamond-tufted with crystal buttons and lit by LEDs, and the wood frame is gilded with gold leaf.
The Hideous Beautiful New Reality
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Wood, found chair, foam, fabric, metal scales, faux gold and copper leaf, artificial flowers, and ribbon.
2019 -
and I, unknowingly at first, have begun changing too.
‘The Hideous Beautiful New Reality’ examines physical objects in the digital world by by poking fun at social media personas.
It is “pretty” and “selfie-worthy” on the front and intentionally ugly and poorly constructed in the back.
The Virgin Windsor
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Year: 2022
Materials: Ash, gold leaf, milk paint
Dimensions: 42” X 24” X 52”photos by LOAM
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The Virgin Mary keeps coming to mind as an unattainable ideal. The virgin mother.
The Virgin Windsor is an homage to all of us who constantly feel like nothing we do is ever good enough. But you can sit here and instantly be ideal.
SRSLY RU OK IRL?
Srsly ruok irl? (Seriously, are you okay in real life?) is a project designed to foster human connection through making and experiencing art, craft, and design. The collaborative effort will raise awareness about the impacts of reduced face-to-face human interaction resulting from increased digital communication and the decline in socializing skills, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Since 2018, I've been examining the intersection of social media and craft through my ongoing series, "Tangible Objects in the Digital World." The three-dimensional furniture pieces I crafted for real life were increasingly experienced only through smartphone screens. This raised questions about whether my work was being physically influenced by its "social media audience" and if I was unintentionally designing for the photo. I have continued this work and expanded the scope to look more closely at social media's emotional effects.
In 2018, I taught a course titled "The Art of Throwing A Good Party And Making the Furniture To Go With It" at the California College of the Arts. Students were challenged to create furniture pieces that encouraged social interaction and collaborated to organize events where guests could engage with their work, fostering connections and celebrating art. This series and class predate the COVID-19 pandemic, drastically shifting our experiences toward virtual-only experiences.
Fast forward five years, and I now find myself instructing students who have grown up in times of lockdowns and virtual communication. I'm reintroducing the project to create objects that facilitate social engagement this semester. In today's world, it's more crucial than ever for people to connect and learn how to enable connections for others.
Historically, society has struggled to assign value to activities like laughing, partying, socializing, and making art, even though these activities may be essential to our collective well-being. Over the past 15 years, I've collaborated on arts-based events, such as a speakeasy in Brooklyn, Fake Wedding in New Orleans, and Table Fights in Manhattan. These experiences have taught me the art of creating events that foster human connection. In 2019, I co-founded Crafting the Future (CTF), an organization dedicated to providing equitable opportunities in the arts. CTF's grew exponentially in the wake of the country's reckoning with racial inequality in 2020. Today, we partner with institutions across the country to increase access to creative enrichment for BIPOC artists.
I've always explored themes of joy, human connection, and self-discovery throughout my career, but now I sense an urgent societal need to actively engage people in these practices. Studies have shown a concerning rise in loneliness, particularly among younger adults and underrepresented racial groups. Social relationships play a vital role in physical and mental health, and we need to address this issue.
Craft can be part of the solution. In 2020, I had the privilege of being selected as a Craft for the Greater Good Fellow in Asheville, North Carolina. This fellowship, in collaboration with Beloved Village, focused on building tiny homes for those struggling with housing security. Just as a house becomes a home through personal objects and shared moments, craft can help people connect. It can create openings, places of entry, and invitations to foster connection.
Table Fights
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Collaboration with artist Shaun Bullens
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A diverse group of artists around the country build fully automated, remote controlled, fighting tables that compete for ultimate supremacy in a splinter thirsty showdown of furniture mayhem.
Competitions have been held at:
Magnan Metz Gallery (2008-2012) New York, NY
Furniture Society Conference - MIT (2010) Boston, Ma
Yellow Peril Gallery (2012) Providence, RI
Rhode Island School Of Design, RISD - Tap Room (2009) Shaun Bullens, Caleb Larson, and Annie Evelyn taught Table Fights as a course at Rhode Island School Of Design
Fake Wedding
Rotgut
Always for Pleasure
SRSLY RUOK?
Furniture that promotes social engagement
CCA
Haystack
VCU
Weird Shit
Spineless Lamps
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Published in Independent Design Guide by Laura Houseley, Crystalized Magazine, and highlighted on Wallpaper, Design Sponge, Elle, and others.
Made in collaboration with Swarovski crystal
Stainless steel, crystal glaze (a Swarovski elements product), and lamp parts.
5" X 4" X 18" -
To promote new exciting uses of their products. These structures were created by making and elaborate set of patterns and edge gluing the silicone crystal embedded material with a silicone glue. The ghostly frame lamps hang from hand made hangers on the coat rack. One has fallen off it's hanger. These lamps can either be part of this set or one can just lay on your side table floppy with no hanger. Or they can hang from their hangers individually.
Spineless Lamps were featured in Laura Housely's new book The Independent Design Guide: Innovative Products from the New Generation published in 2009.
Magic Eight Ball Chaise-Ottoman
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This piece is too hideous to be photographed, so it is shown here as an illustration.
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asking yes or no design questions to the magic eight ball.
As you can see one of the questions was, does it leak.
Tampops
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A fake advertisement for Momma Tried Magazine
Art directed by Kate Bryantphotos by Azikiwe Mohammed
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top left - Azikiwe Mohammed
top right - Annie Evelyn (with heavy Photoshop)
bottom left - Kate Bryant
bottom right- Jonathan Schipper
