A lot of my sculpture falls into the category I call “memory boxes,” and I’ve gotten some commissions to make such pieces every now and then. The latest was commissioned by three daughters for their parents’ 60^th birthdays, and it was a great project. Some members of the family had seen a piece I had done for Annie and Steve Lynch, a sort of memento mori of Annie’s mother, a couple of years back, after her passing (Annie’s mother, not Annie!), an end table that contained objects and images from her and their life.

Annie and Steve are dear longtime friends—not to mention patrons, if you will, since they bought some other work of mine, including Letterbox—and I had some sense of Annie’s mom, and a solid sense of their own life together raising their own family as contemporaries. The subjects of the Mahoney commission were at the start of the project complete strangers, and I first wondered how the process would be in that circumstance. The short report is that the process was fun, even thrilling, largely due to the openness of the daughters and friends of the Mahoney family to share stories, images, and objects of significance to Allison Kempe and Dugan Mahoney.  For most of this project, Emily was in London, doing graduate work at the London School of Economics, and we used Skype and email for our meetings.

I pursued a sofa table or console table form, which made sense to Emily, especially as I quizzed her on the likely location for the piece, which you can see fits quite well in the target placement; my own interest in this form had to do with an early idea I had for under-skirt lighting of transparencies, although the first concept was to take stills from home videos and slightly pixelate them for graphic effect. I ended up choosing to use digital and scanned photographs and documents in simple collage, edited from a large number of submissions from the family and printed on a Canon i9900 inkjet.  The lighting fixtures are two T50 compact fluorescent units, toggle-switched and mounted on a side skirt. The inside area under the removable glass top, composed of an upholstered base using clothing fragments reflecting the subjects and objects and photographs and documents, was lit by LED tape under the top skirt frame, and toggle-switched on the side skirt. There is a rectangular translucent Plexiglas cutout in the center of the bottom, lit from the lighting units under the base, to which I secured several dried rose stems.

The wood is cherry, milled and built by me, except for the dining table Cabriole legs, which I get from a specialty supplier. Although I often like to present screw joints, I decided to follow a more traditional furniture look by hiding or covering the screw heads. The finish is a four-time rubbed oil application. The glass top was sized and ordered by me, but shipped directly to a sister who lives nearby in Denver.  I built a shipping crate for the main piece, handing off the work—and meeting Emily for the first time—in the parking lot of Mass MOCA; I put the crate on rolling casters, added handles, and made sure that the TSA could inspect the piece, since Emily was flying out of Logan with the commission.

It was a pleasure to create a piece for those still with us, although the gift was a surprise and I couldn’t go directly to the source, as it were, for information, objects and images, or inspiration. Within the cork-lined skirt interior border, I left a section of the side wall blank, since Allison and Dugan are wished to have many more happy years ahead, and they are welcomed to add new pictures themselves.

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This curved teak and multi-hardwood blanks and fish-scale oak trip boasts double door fronts with a bottom drawer.  The interior is upholstered in silk with carcass made of MD and plywood and shelf of thin-planed multi-wood blank.  Green-glazed terracotta a, with wood holders is placed over a top cut-out with small fitted glass bowl for tea candle placement, with provides illumination of the interior space.

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Rich, Perfection, Projection, Reflection (2000)

A coffee table piece, with drawer, casters, built on a one-hundred year-old yellow pine shipping box, with new walnut trim and walnut and maple drawer front; with assemblage of mirrored sunglasses, text on paper and glass fragment, and plate mirror within a dark-green upholstered box, under pate glass surface. Other surface elements include ceramic slab, a wood block made up of multiple kinds of wood, and an illuminated slide strip presenting portrait and still life studies.

Size: 34 in. (w) by 20 in. (d) by 20 in. (h).

Price: $1,525.

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L22 (Bar Noir)

Incorporating a free-form black-glazed terracotta arch atop of this four-foot high, 10-degree, free-standing pyramid cabinet designed to service as a movable bar. The light is provided by two vented 150-watt halogen lamps that shine up into the arch’s underside. The front face of the arch moderates light through four adjustable tiger maple louvers; the back face is etched glass that provides great backsplash lighting. Wood materials include maple, tiger maple, maple veneer plywood, and ebony wood for inlay accent and trim. Other notable features include a lockable, fold-down surface at a comfortable height for mixing, and a lockable fold-down cabinet door hinged at the base with bottle rack; this piece rests on hidden, locking casters. The upper “bar” work area has a grounded electronic outlet with small light and main lamp switch, plus racks for glasses and bar tools tools.

Size: (base) 40 in (w) by 32 in. (d); (height at peak of arch) 64 in.

Price: $3,200.

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CF03 (Murphy Piano Bench

What does one do with limited space but a full-sized piano keyboard?  Here’s a commission that provides one answer: a “Murphy Bed” style cabinet that presents family images when folded up, and provides correct height keyboard access when down.  The body of the cabinet is poplar, painted white; photograph collage trim is cherry with brass corner caps, and Plexiglas glazing.  Note the bottom cut outs for power and electronics cables.

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CF01 (Greenwood Table)

This coffee table is made of walnut and cherry hardwood, with ceramic inset elements highlighted with gold-leafing on the top surface. Legs are 3-inch cherry rounds, with walnut  round cross-pieces and walnut and cherry dowels for bottom “shelf” structure.  Particular attention was paid to walnut figuring, including selection of knot-bearing pieces.  Construction is square-butt/glue and screw, with double plywood table base for extra strength, so that coffee table can also serve as a bench. Finish is polyurethane (surface has 7 coats).

Size: 47 in (w) by 20 in. (d) by 17 in. (h).

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Made for a desk or table surface, with direct incandescent lighting onto the surface from round cutouts underneath the lamp. Wood includes bubinga, paduk, and mahogany, with a base box made up of plywood and pine; construction is square butt joinery, using glue and hidden screws; legs are “found” Queen Ann-style, with multi-wood free-form shapes and glass rod as spacer support toward the feet. Electrical fixture is a double ceiling fixture socket that holds two 60-watt bulbs; the other lighting features include etched glass lens filling both arch faces; in-line dimmer switch.

Size: 24 in. (w) by 32 in. (h) by 7 in. (d).
Price: $825

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Arch Table Lamp

Floor-standing furniture piece is useful as foyer illumination or, set aside a chair, as room/reading lighting. A variety of woods, including bubinga, cherry, paduk, and mahogany is used, along with plywood and pine for the base box; construction is square butt joinery, with gluing and exposed, countersunk brass wood screws; this piece has a lower shelf made up of hardwood wood slats. The electrical fixture is made up of three ceramic sockets, each holding a 100-watt halogen bulb offset with an insulated aluminum metal reflector, and made adjustable with an in-line dimmer switch.

Size: 38 in. (h) by 30 in. (w) by 9 in. (d).
Price: $1,700

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