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"Work will be a pleasure and work will be
a sharing when the things we make are born out of beauty and of
need."
—The News from Nowhere
Biography
Resume
and Artist's Statement
Galleries
Currently Exhibiting My Work
Company Statement
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A
central aspect in my transition to full-time woodworking has been
the creation of a suitably inspiring workspace. On October 1st,
2000, a group of friends and family gathered to raise a timber-frame
workshop. The production environment has been
in full swing since July, 2001.
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My
home and workshop is located in Ashfield, a small and thriving town
in the foothills of the Berkshires. Ashfield is alive with skilled
artists and craftspeople, whose collective energy is inspiring and
renewing. Creative ideas flow readily in a harmonious setting of
fields, brooks, towering maples, and quiet forests. |
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Woodworking
is in my bones. For twenty years I've been making this or that,
usually as a gift. In 1990 I got my professional start in the Pacific
Northwest after winning first place in a Christmas ornament competition.
I live now with my family in rural Western Massachusetts where I've
built a timber-frame workshop and have begun producing furniture
as well as the small decorative pieces with which I started. I know
that my esthetic sense has developed out of time I spent in Japan
as a child, but perhaps other aspects of my approach to woodworking
were formed there: when the drawing or design I create begins to
take on life in three dimensions I always thank the wood I'm using
for sharing part of its spirit with myself and with others.
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My
foundations as a woodworker came through gift-giving; a gift made
with the hands carries so much of the heart with it. The emphasis
on handwork has persisted in my development as a woodworker.
The level of precision I demand in my work is achieved through caringly-maintained
hand tools.
My
approach to aesthetics is based on spare adornment and gentle tastes,
classic rather than rustic, refined but not "machined".
I have a fondness for the miniature but have explored aspects of
joinery ranging in scale up to timber-frame (post and beam) construction.
I strive for designs and methods that improve the product as it
ages. My finishes, for example, acquire a patina through use, rather
than starting out with a patina faked through staining or antiquing.
This approach, I believe, was at one time fundamental. A roof on
a public building, as an example, was well-understood to both look
better as the shiny copper slightly corroded to a greenish color
and to perform better as this surface corrosion sealed each seam
and protected the underlying copper from further corrosion. In a
modern age when the emphasis in most products is on good looks that
last only a few years until the product needs replacement—a
time of instant gratification in a throw-away society—I try
in all aspects of my work and personal life to espouse and promote
enduring durability and beauty.
My
work has been displayed in fine galleries throughout the Pacific
Northwest, in the Southwest, and in New England.
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Artwood-Bellingham,
WA
Bainbridge Arts and Crafts-Bainbridge Island, WA
Clark Art Institute-Williamstown, MA
Deerfield Museum Store-Old Deerfield, MA
Elmer's-Ashfield, MA
Earrings & Co., Freeport, ME
GalleryM, Half Moon Bay, CA
Gallery in the Vault, Wooster, OH
Heartwood, Saluda, NC
Mackerel Sky, East Lansing, MI
Moravian Book Shop-Bethlehem, PA
Northwest Gallery of Fine Woodworking-Seattle, WA
Real Mother Goose-Portland, OR
Shelburne Arts Cooperative, Shelburne Falls, MA
Upper Pioneer Valley Visitor's Center-Greenfield, MA
Wood Gallery-Newport, OR
11 South Gallery-Bernardston, MA
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Company Statement
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In business part-time since 1990, Meyer
adopted the company name “23rd Century Antiques” when he transitioned
to a full-time crafting business in 1999. The company name he chose
signifies both the heirloom quality and durability of his product.
Meyer produces each item entirely by hand in the workshop he built in
the foothills of the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. While Meyer
uses appropriate power tools such as a table saw and jointer, his
caringly maintained hand saws, chisels, and hand planes and his
personal attention to consistent quality are critical to evincing the
warm feeling apparent in the final product. The satin warmth of touch
complements Meyer’s visually tasteful designs. He designs each new
product using a sense of balance and an esthetic sensibility developed
in part during his childhood in Japan.
Each of Meyer’s pieces benefits from the care he takes in choosing and
matching the domestic and exotic hardwoods that form his palette.
Since each tree bears the individual marks of its own growth history,
Meyer always strives to combine pieces of the right color, grain
density, and pattern. This effort unifies the final result beyond a
simple combination of colorful woods. Meyer applies his experience
both through design and material choice to ensure that the natural
movement of his organic medium works in concert rather than in
conflict after the piece is completed and in the client’s home.
Having sold directly to galleries and through retail fairs since first
starting in 1990, Meyer has used the change to a full-time business to
emphasize wholesale marketing. His first wholesale trade show exposure
(as a member of the Massachusetts Style Guild at the Buyer’s Market of
American Craft, Philadelphia 2002) was a success. Meyer intends to
build on this initial positive public exposure with an ongoing
wholesale trade show presence.
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