Dick splits his time between Prescott, in the central Arizona mountains and Spruce Head, a lobster fishing village on the midcoast of Maine. He was a carver before he started turning, so his turned pieces often include carving. He took up woodworking in retirement a few years ago and is the product of excellent teachers at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine and Yavapai College in Prescott. He alternates between a few series: Pilgrims Vessels are typically small lidded vessels with a carved seashell or similar sealife finial. (Scallop shells are symbols of pilgrimage, and these are vessels for the owners to take with them on their journeys through life.) Modern Vessels are an imagining what sculptural turned vessels might look like if they had been made during the heyday of “modern art” through the ‘30’s. Fishbowls are usually visual puns. Routercarved vessels use a small palm router to set in shapes and planes as a piece is taken back and forth to the lathe. There is a lot of design in Dick’s more sculptural work. A piece may be turned, bandsawed, routered, hand and power carved. It takes a long time. He demos and teaches local workshops to help turners develop a personal identity for their work using copyright free Dover images for embellishment – carving or pyrography.
- Dick Kelly