Mike McKinney

Wood

Jul 24

Turning wood has been an integral part of my life since 1993. I have recently discovered that I am a fourth generation woodworker. My granddad and dad were woodworkers and I had the benefit of being around them in the shop which nurtured my internal craving for working with that medium. Today, I love to shape, embellish, and carve wood to the best advantage for what the wood gives. Hopefully I will be able to adequately discover what lies within the wood. My work involves lots of natural edge and utilitarian pieces to be used, displayed and enjoyed. I have been known to make urns, hollow forms, ornaments, and various other objects that can be shaped on a lathe.

I believe that form and shape have very much to do with whether the work is pleasant to the observer’s eye and that the quality of the finished product puts the exclamation mark on that piece. I tell folks that wood is a medium that begs to be handled in order to fully appreciate the form, the grain, the figure, the texture, or any of the other natural or applied characteristics.