2007 AAW Symposium - Part 3

Saturday, June 30, 2007.

Of all the demonstrators at the symposium I most wanted to sit through one of Alain Mailland's rotations. His work is so interesting and he's such a creative genius that one can't help but learn a lot by watching him work.

I caught several glimpses of his rotations, but sat through the one where he showed images of his work and shop. That was fantastic! I especially enjoyed watching the progression of his work from one design to another.





There were some late entries to the instant gallery and some work I had missed the previous day, so here are some more pictures from the gallery. This sculptural piece is by Nick Agar.















Dennis' Laidler's suspended vessel. I might have posted a pic of this already. . .











Lidded segmented vessels by Mark Kauder.











More of Alain Mailland's sculptures.











no comment. . .

















Another look at the trade show.










A quick hello to Jimmy.











Back to the instant gallery.


Close-up of one of Sharon Doughtie's bowls. I like how she works the Norfolk Island pine branching pattern into her Celtic weave designs.








This one moves beyond the basic bowl form. I like the motion in this piece.









Ken Rodgers made these pierced mask forms.












A set of vessels by Bob Dool (ok, so I do have some brown and round pics to show on my blog).










This is round, but not brown. Steve Worcester made a vessel from shredded credit cards in epoxy. That's good recycling for you.













The Youth Turning program was in full swing on Saturday. Bonnie Klein took the morning sessions and Nick Cook the afternoon. The program is a huge success. Congratulations to Bonnie and Nick, and all the volunteers who make this work.



Saturday night is when the AAW banquet and auction take place. Binh Pho gave an abbreviated tribute to Frank Sudol as the banquet was in full swing. It was really hard to hear what was happening over the sound of cutlery on plates and the ongoing conversations amongst 1500 attendees.

It was a nice gesture by Binh, though.



The AAW auction is an important component of the Saturday night banquet. With a room of 1500 - 2400 people, running an auction efficiently is a big challenge. For the past several years John Hill has been our auctioneer. This year John worked the first half and the second half was turned over to a professional company of auctioneers.

There were mixed reviews of this. Some attendees thought it was pretty efficient while others complained that the company didn't know enough about the work being auctioned.

My opinion is that John really knows how to auction the work from woodturners, but that the spotters in the pro company were probably better at keeping the auction moving along than what has happened in the past with volunteer spotters. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.


In past years the announcing of each piece has been done by Phil Brennion (past president and double term board member). Phil wasn't able to attend this year's symposium so announcing duty was passed onto Jacques Vesery, who promptly recruited helpers (Art Liestman, Christian Burchard, and yours truly).








Malcolm Tibbetts also was helping with the auction as a current AAW board member.

"You guys are having way too much fun!"















Christian says, "really?"










Ok, so we'll get serious. . .












"Not a chance," said Jacques.

We took turns doing the announcing, which worked out pretty well. It was sometimes a challenge to figure out how to pronounce names of turners who we didn't personally know.











These contributions are from familiar faces - Steve Sinner on the left and Don Derry's contribution on the right.









I think this Koa vessel was from David Ellsworth, but I might be misremembering.











A donation by Bill Tilson.

















Art Liestman's donation.












John Hill is hard at work . . .
















while some of us are goofing off.










Bill Luce's contribution to the auction.












I couldn't resist photographing this angle of Gerritt Van Ness' donation.

















This was the donation that brougt in $30,000 - a collaboration between the late Frank Sudol and Binh Pho.














The collaboration between Bonnie Klein and Jacques Vesery brought in a respectable $20,000.


















"Yes, I'm allowed to touch it. I made it!"















This one needed to be shown properly. I can't remember the maker, but the title was "George Bush's gift to the American people."

Those of us backstage had a hard time not laughing about Jacques' rendition of Vanna White, especially given the visual innuendo. Enough said.









I think this was Alain Mailland's piece, but I can't remember the details more than a month out from the symposium.

Anyway, the auction was a huge success with more than $100,000 raised for the educational opportunity grant program.

A sad farewell

Frank Sudol, one of the most inspirational turners in North America, passed away on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. He was an influential innovator in terms of techniques (the captured boring bar hollowing system for his tall, thin-walled vessels; thin wall piercing, airbrushing, etc.) and was a turner who encouraged us all to fire up our creative engines. You could always tell when Frank was demonstrating at a symposium because the room was standing room only and overflowing into the hallway, and there was so much laughter coming from the room that you knew a good time was being had by all. Frank will be sorely missed in our woodturning community.

2007 AAW Symposium - Part 2a

Friday, June 29, 2007. The first day of the AAW symposium began with the opening ceremony. The highlight was a beautiful and moving tribute to Frank Sudol given by Binh Pho. Frank was scheduled to be a lead demonstrator this year, but passed away in December 2006. He will be sorely missed in our woodturning community.

The 2007 AAW symposium was at the Oregon Convention Center - a wonderful facility. I had attended a scientific meeting here about five years ago and was impressed with the facility for taking care of a large group of scientists. I was even more impressed with the facility for an AAW symposium. The rooms were large enough for everyone to have a comfortable view of the demonstrators. The video set-up seemed to go very smoothly. The trade show and instant gallery spaces were great, and the volunteers and AAW staff members were helpful and they all did a terrific job of putting on a great symposium.




I dropped in on the beginning of the youth turning program as Bonnie Klein was finishing the set-up.










Who goes with which lathe???









I hadn't had a decent cup of coffee by the time I reached the convention center so I stopped in at Starbucks. It was a pleasure to find Jane and Arthur Mason there and I sat down with them for a visit. Jane and Arthur have been avid collectors and supporters of woodturning as art. Check the website for the Mint Museum, which hosts part of their collection.

I was introduced to the Masons at last year's symposium and so I just this year learned that Jane is a very talented 2D artist. She had her sketch book with her and showed me some of the drawings and sketches she had been working on.

Wow! I was very impressed. She captures the essence of a scene and the expressions of the people she sketches very well.



I've always wished I could draw. For the longest time I measured the worth of an artist by their ability to sketch. Maybe that's because my mother is a 2D artist and I used to sit as a model in her art classes, listening to the discussions bouncing around behind the easels.

My drawing ability is pretty limited to doodles and sketching plant parts in my field notebooks. I was so surprised to discover that I had some artistic talent in 3D and that my color sense was so well developed. I think it's because I've spent several decades learning to "see" nature through the lens of a camera or the eyepiece of a microscope. I still wish I could draw, though.







I did a quick round of visiting some of the demonstration rooms after finishing my coffee. Art Liestman had a good crowd watching him talk about elements of design.

I see Dennis Laidler there in the back (white-haired ponytail). . .





The Japanese turners also had a full room. Yoshinori Satake was talking about the history of Urishi-ware via an interpreter.









Alan Lacer. I'm not sure what rotation this was from - I'd guess it had something to do with use of the skew or making boxes.










Mike Jakofsky demonstrated hollow form techiques.









I took a quick walk through the trade show area and found Jimmy Clewes hard at work.







What I was really after was some prime time in the instant gallery during the early part of the day while everyone was wrapped up in the first rotations. I'll post part of my pictures now and finish it in a later post (Part 2b). FYI - I didn't take photos of all of the turnings in the instant gallery. What you'll see here are pieces that caught my eye. I'm biased toward decorated and sculptural work, so if you're looking for brown and round - I'm sorry to disappoint you. While I like the beautifully made bowl, platter, box, or hollow form made from beautiful wood, I find it much more interesting to see turnings that have gone beyond turning as a canvas for wood grain.





These fun turnings are by Art Liestman. I like how he's carried his Mondrian and Puzzle Illusion motifs forward into these interesting shapes.







This was an interesting vessel done as a collaboration by Millie and Ray Daikawa. It looked like a metal inlay, but I didn't pick it up to take a closer look. I'm not too sure about the way the design went onto the vessel, but the potential for this type of surface enhancement is certainly good.








Beautiful ornamental turning work by Robert Sakawye.











I liked the clean lines of these vessels made by Tom Crabb.










I also enjoyed seeing this pierced vessel by John Shrader.








Garry Bowes is developing a sculptural series. The first ones I saw seemed very rigid and stilted - these have so much more life to them. I can't wait to see what he brings to next year's symposium.







I love wood and glass together and so these finials were great to see. Dave Schweitzer brought these to the instant gallery. Dave collaborates with glass artist Bryan Rubino for the finials. It's a nice combination.







Then there's the amazing political and satirical humor of the zany Gerrit Van Ness. This one is titled, "Green with Envy."










This one is called, "Liar, Liar!"










"End of the Road."

I'd love to see a gallery exhibit of Gerrit's work. These small glimpses don't give the proper context for his creativity.










Multi-axis turnings by Mark Sfirri. You can see some process pics from my earlier blog postings.















John Williams is doing some great texture and coloring enhancements on his vessels.












Here's a detail view of the pyrography and coloring treatment.









These earring and necklace holders by Caroline Harkness are favorites of my mother-in-law.














I'm sitting in my "studio" chair in my living room as I enter this blog posting. I'm looking at my Michael Werner multi-axis bowl/sculpture that hangs on my wall. I love these platters - they're so interesting to explore.









It's great to see wearable art made from turnings. This necklace was made by Robert Nelson.















It's always fun to see where my influence has had an impact. This and the next decorated platter are by Bruce Campbell.

















Wow! I love the color and surface treatment here. These three vessels were made by Steve Sinner.









































A "Red Cord" vessel (left) and "Chinese Lattice" one (right) by J. Paul Fennell.









Lidded vessels by Wally Dickerman.












Two sculptural pieces by Booker Brooks. Booker is a fellow clubmate of my in Central Ohio Woodturners.














Colorful pierced work by Joey Richardson. You can see the influence of Binh Pho in this work.






I wanted to get to some rotations, so I took a break in photographing instant gallery selections. On my way out of the gallery I saw Gerrit Van Ness and Jim Christiansen sorting through envelopes. They're organizing a gallery exhibit and had all the invitations with them to distribute to various artists.

Art Liestman and I will be sending a collaborative piece to this exhibit.



The first POP (Professional Outreach Program) presentation was originally scheduled to be given by Giles Gilson. Unfortunately, Giles had to cancel. The presentation turned into a panel discussion on the work of Giles Gilson.

Panelists were (L to R): Jacques Vesery, Binh Pho, Ray Leier and Jan Peterson. Ray and Jan own del Mano Gallery.






The next rotation I attended was by Alain Mailland. Alain does some of the most interesting sculptural work in contemporary woodturning. You can see the carving he's doing on this tree vessel if you look at the big screen.






I'm hoping to go study with Alain sometime in the next two years.











This explains the next photo.






















I'll end "Part 2a" with this photo of Molly Winton's rotation.

I can't believe how many pictures I took! It's going to take a bit more time to finish all the processing and posting of photos. Stay tuned for more good fun. . .