About the Artist

There is something amazing about working with your hands.  Even if that motion is simply whittling away at a stick until nothing is left, it’s still better than sitting, watching life go by.  When your mind gets the chance to guide your hands to create an object, that’s when the soul starts to awaken.  But when your hands move perfectly in coordination with an image in your mind, and every shape that appears is true to form, those are the moments that I live for. 

I have been going through a transitional period with my work.  My current work is dramatically smaller in scale than past pieces, which sometimes allows me to get pieces completed quicker.  I’ve begun working in multiples rather than on a single piece, allowing the piece to grow with each new addition.  As well as a reduction in scale, my pieces have a delicacy that the past work lacked.  Perhaps this reflects my confidence in manipulating the material.  I have developed a much more delicate touch and my pieces, in turn, have become somewhat sleeker.  The hard geometry of my earlier work is being broken down into more organic flowing forms.  Also I am doing a lot more work with hand tools, carving away at the wood rather than leaving a flat smooth surface, making the pieces more active.

I feel more like an artist now than ever before.  I used to refer to myself strictly as a maker, but recently I find myself making with more meaning.  I find sources of inspiration from all that nature can offer, and all that people try to hide.  A piece of wood itself can inspire a design, once the right shape has been made the piece tells you to stop.  Any work after that is ruining the form the wood seemed destined to have.  The intuitive nature of turning is especially enticing.  The structure and design opportunities in furniture combined with the freedom and spontaneity of turning keeps woodworking exciting and fulfilling no matter how long you’ve done it.

In the future I will continue investigating this smaller scale and work on fine tuning my skills in carving. Once I have mastered working small and detailed, I might move back up in scale.  I will continue to work in series as long as I have the opportunity to make work effectively.  I feel like I had more time to perfect the work when multiples are made, each form stirring up a new idea.  I plan on incorporating additional material into my projects, moving away from strictly wood and adding in some metal or found materials.  I would like to keep myself open to all possibilities and take as much influence from my surroundings as possible.

- Jon Delp 2007