Welcome to the Center for Art in Wood 2022 Windgate Artist Residency Blog!
My name is Katie Hudnall and I am the Visual Documentarian for this year’s group. I am so excited to be in Philadelphia and working with the Center for Art in Wood and the rest of these artists after a two-year hiatus due to Covid 19.
The group this year is smaller than usual (thanks, Covid!), but full of wonderful artists and makers with as diverse an interest in wood and woodworking as I have ever seen from a single cohort, and I can’t wait to see what comes from this summer together.
We all arrived last week, Monday, June 13, for orientation to our new work location, NextFab North, and an introduction to the Center for Art in Wood facilities and staff. Well, almost all of us – our Student Fellow, Kailee Bosch, has been delayed by a couple of weeks (thanks Covid!), and D Wood will join us for a week at the beginning of July.
I’ll get into what we’ve been up to in my next post, but thought I would use the first post just to introduce y’all to each of us. Here we are in our own words:
Kailee Bosch, Student Artist
Kailee Bosch is from Fort Collins, Colorado. She obtained a BFA in Sculpture and Pottery from Colorado State University in 2020. Her practice stems from a background in woodturning, growing up in her father’s shop making small objects on the lathe. Currently Kailee primarily works with wood and bronze, blending traditional craft practices with digital fabrication, making both functional objects and speculative designs.
Katie Hudnall, Visual Documentarian and Artist
Katie Hudnall builds other-worldly, interactive furnitural objects that behave in expected and unexpected ways. She received an MFA in woodworking/furniture design from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA in Sculpture from the Corcoran College of Art in Washington, DC. She lives and works in Madison, WI, where she runs the Wood & Furniture program at the University of Madison, Wisconsin. Hudnall joined the residency program as an artist in 2016 and is looking forward to returning this summer as the group’s Visual Documentarian. She is looking forward to sharing the residents’ experience through the blog posts, as well as through sketchbook drawings and small cabinets that will contain some of the “artifacts” from this year’s adventures and cohort.
James Maurelle, Artist
James Maurelle is an interdisciplinary artist; sculpture, video, photography, and sound art are his analog and digital primes. His work investigates the correlation formed between labor and creativity, at the center of this byway is the spirit of his work. Constructing objects and moving images are not unlike creating music compositions, the accompaniment, i.e., tools and materials, are a call and response to dexterity. The rubric to complete any composition is to know ones’ instrument(s)/tools; the creative process is based on this reciprocal understanding. His work has shown in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Austin, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Richmond, Cincinnati, and San Francisco. He is a recipient of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship (2015).
Janice Smith, Artist
For 40 years Janice Smith been designing and building unique wood furniture. Her interest in furniture began when “Shop for Girls” was offered for the first time in high school. She still loves turning ideas into reality and especially enjoys creating a sense of movement in her designs and playing with balance and asymmetry.
Chris Storb, Artist
Chris has worked professionally in the historic furniture field for over 40 years. His expertise is in the history of woodworking techniques, processes, and materials, coupled with the ability to share that expertise in a meaningful way with the public. Chris worked in the conservation department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art since 2003 where he collaborated on the conservation of a broad range of American furniture in the Museum’s collection. Most recently he worked for the Dietrich American Foundation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art performing an examination, assessment, and treatment of over 150 wood objects in the Foundation’s collection. He has published and lectured widely on historic furniture, woodcarving, and the history of woodworking and continues to write for his blog “In Proportion to the Trouble.”
D Wood, Scholar
D Wood designed and made furniture to earn a Diploma in Crafts and Design at Sheridan College in Canada and an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her PhD from the University of Otago was about craft and studio furniture in New Zealand. She is the editor of and a contributor to Craft is Political (Bloomsbury 2021).
Want to know more about the residency and how to apply? Check it out here. Want to know more about the history of the residency?? Check that out here. In the meantime, keep your eyes on this space for more posts on what the group has been getting up to!