Going With The Grain

Janet Reynolds — Mon, 22 May 2017 15:48:01 +0000

In a new Craft in America episode, Vermont woodworker Michelle Holzapfel talks about her impulse to carve her way to fine art.

Michelle Holzapfel acknowledges that she has some talent for whittling wood, but she credits as much of her artistic success to sheer chance. “You go along almost following your nose, following some feeling that you can’t even put words to,” she says in the latest episode of the PBS series Craft in America. “And that aspect of things cannot be overlooked. It’s very important to take your chances.”

The new “Nature” episode of the series, which celebrates handcrafted creativity across the country, included Holzapfel among five artists who pull their inspiration, materials, and medium from the natural world. Holzapfel embraces every knot in the pine, every twist of burlwood, every fissure that she works into a design.

Her work is technically astute yet thematically whimsical. Her trompe l’oeil pieces include a remarkable rendition of a knitting basket, detailed down to every wrap of yarn, and book ends that themselves look like stacks of books, one with a Raggedy Ann doll seated atop. Some of her vases and bowls hold intricate carvings of leaves, faces, coiled snakes, and even a “knitted” wooden sweater. In other sculptures, such as an apple with its stem still attached to a branch with leaves, the wood appears as sleek and impenetrable as marble.

Michelle Holzapfel, Vermont Spoons

Holzapfel grew up in rural North Smithfield, Rhode Island, learning to make things by hand—from a fort of branches in the woods to clothing stitched with needle and thread. Her mother made dresses. Her father was a machinist who did carpentry and metal work. “As a kid, as long as I can remember being alive, I loved to manipulate my world,” Holzapfel says. “I just grew up sort of immersed in a culture of fixing things, making things.”

In high school, she tried printmaking, using tools to cut wood for block prints. “I discovered that I really liked the carving part better than the printing part.” For her first commissioned work, she whittled name plaques for neighbors to hang at their front doors.

Her family took regular trips to the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence to see shows and the museum. Today, the RISD museum collection includes her work, as does the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; and the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Michelle Holzapfel, Rage Correctly

Holzapfel came to Vermont to attend Marlboro College, where she met her husband, fellow woodworker David Holzapfel. They started selling their creations at craft shows and to travelers passing on Route 9 in the summer.

After their two sons were born, the Holzapfels realized that sending them to college and providing them health insurance required the financial anchor of a full-time job. David set aside woodworking and became an elementary school art teacher in Marlboro.

By the 1990s, galleries in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia had picked up Michelle’s work, fetching her prices upwards of $12,000 for a piece. After 30 years of relentless paring, her pace has slowed now, but she still sells to patrons and picks up commissions.

Yale University recently asked her to create the mace—a ceremonial staff representing each of its colleges—for a new residential college named for civil and women’s rights activist Pauli Murray. And this month, a show of Holzapfel’s work opens at The Gallery at Rhodes Arts Center at Northfield Mount Hermon prep school in Massachusetts.

Michelle Holzaphel–woodworker
Applewood Studio and Gallery
Marlboro, Vermont
Website
Craft in America “Nature” episode featuring Michelle Holzapfel

The post Going With The Grain appeared first on Take Magazine.

A Season of Change for Currier Museum

Jennifer Hayes — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 21:04:41 +0000

New England’s internationally renowned art museum located in Manchvegas has an enthusiastic fresh leader.

The internationally renowned Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH recently appointed a new Director and CEO, Dr. Alan Chong. Dr. Chong will be the Museum’s ninth director in 87 years; he succeeds Susan Strickler, who retired in June after 20 years in the position.

“I am truly honored to have been chosen as the Director and CEO of the Currier Museum of Art. This excellent museum has accomplished a great deal, not the least a beautiful building which ties its historic components together,” said Dr. Chong.

The Museum, which features European and American paintings; decorative arts; photographs and sculpture, includes work by Picasso; Monet; O’Keeffe, Wyeth and LeWitt. From October 1, 2016 through January 16, 2017 the Museum will showcase an exhibit Mount Washington: The Crown of New England, the first-ever museum exhibition devoted entirely to art featuring the Mount Washington region, and the first exhibit Dr. Chong will oversee in his new role.

“[The Currier Museum] is a small museum with impact – and with great potential,” said Dr. Chong. “There is a great advantage in being a nimble and creative institution that can adjust to its environment. I hope that I can help imagine a new path for the Currier Museum.”

Dr Alan Chong | Image courtesy Currier Museum

2017 is set to be a banner year for the Museum, aside from this recent change in leadership, the Museum was also awarded a $60,000 grant from Jane’s Trust, which will be used to expand its popular arts education programs. In the coming year, the Museum aims to increase access to artistic expression and arts education for underserved populations.

Dr. Chong in particular believes strongly in this mission: “We should bring the museum closer to its audience by bringing a depth of engagement with more first-time visitors and stronger support.”

Though Dr. Chong is new to the Manchester area, having relocated from Singapore where he served as the Director of the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum, he is not new to the New England area. From 1999 through 2010, Dr. Chong held the position of Lia and William Poorvu Curator of the Collection at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

“Manchester is an up and coming town in a beautiful part of the world. I couldn’t be happier to be settling here: it’s cooler than Singapore and the traffic is better than Boston!” said Dr. Chong.

Dr. Chong officially began his position at the Museum on Thursday September 8th.

He concluded, “It’s my hope that the Currier Museum will be treasured by all of New England.”

Top Image Entrance to Currier Museum | ‘Origins’ sculpture by Mark di Suvero 2001-2004 | Image courtesy Currier Museum

The post A Season of Change for Currier Museum appeared first on Take Magazine.

Currier Museum – Take Magazine

Going With The Grain

Michelle Holzaphel–woodworker Applewood Studio and Gallery Marlboro, Vermont Website Craft in America “Nature” episode featuring Michelle Holzapfel

A Season of Change for Currier Museum

Top Image Entrance to Currier Museum | ‘Origins’ sculpture by Mark di Suvero 2001-2004 | Image courtesy Currier Museum

Michelle Holzaphel–woodworker
Applewood Studio and Gallery
Marlboro, Vermont
Website
Craft in America “Nature” episode featuring Michelle Holzapfel