Thread #1 - My Search for Acceptance

My search for Acceptance

- or -

when did the world's idea of art cease being about beautiful works.

INTRODUCTION

Post #1

A little background:

My goal when I retired was to light a new fire under my ass by blending my expertise in both design and woodworking into a newish form of marquetry (wood veneer inlay) I like to refer to as
"In Celebration of Wood."

All of my efforts were aimed at making use of some 5,000 square feet of veneer I had collected during my years as a cabinetmaker by further perfecting my abilities in this craft cum art.

I resolved that I had zero interest in making "pictures" by cutting out little pieces of wood and assembling those pieces more like paint by numbers than anything else. No, I wanted the wood colors and figure (grain) to do the great bulk of the work.

While capable of great beauty this rejected technique was not free enough for someone who retired from a tradecraft that required great precision and technical prowess.

This magnificent equine piece which I screen captured from a Bing Search is a fine example of excellent traditional marquetry


As a start I searched through my stash of beautiful veneers and together with my very clever wife, we discovered a piece that lent itself exactly to my new "Celebration."

This is "Half Light". It is a single piece of Carpathian Elm Burl veneer self-matted with Quarter Sawn Lacewood.


"Half Light" delivers its magic with the simple "call out" of tree-like features by inserting tree trunks and some shading drawn with oil pastels. Voila, trees at the beginning of a day.

It soon became evident that God was not benevolent enough to transform all of my veneer stash into this type of instant picture. Indeed, neither was I interested in doing nothing but this type of work anymore than I was interested in traditional marquetry.

Searching for our voice would take some time.

Bob & Suzanne

Robert Bruce Weston
robertbruceweston.com