Wood Wowzers

Here I am mid-pandemic, like many of you, isolated in quarantine and wondering when I'll see another human being again. Enter: The YouTube.

There are so many funny pet videos one can consume in a sitting before you start dissolving brain cells. So in the effort to stimulate my brain out of atrophy, I explored into the strange side of art. As mentioned in previous posts, I found some GEMS!

However, none were quite as enthralling to me as the wide world of woodturning on the internet; the place where anything goes as long as it gets views! Where exactly can you take the time honored tradition of wood carving on a rapidly spinning machine? A whole lot further than I ever anticipated. I mentioned before the colored pencils but that is only one of my favorites. YouTuber Andy Phillip creates things all the time though managed to finely chisel his way to a beautiful globe with the brightly colored writing utensils and some epoxy resin. Wood Workshop seems to enjoy challenging the limits with awkward shaped pieces of wood that definitely challenge the balancing on his machine.

I saw one video tag about woodturning pennies which naturally made me wonder how it's 'wood' turning, and decided not to watch it when the image of tiny copper shards flying around filled my head. Regardless, taking this artform and turning it into performance art got me through some tedious times. I thought it absolutely deserved a mention so everyone else that's tired of cats being scared of zucchini on the floor can go on a more productive video spree when needed.

Better yet, this is the perfect opportunity to seamlessly (ha!) transition into sharing my excitement for this year's show! All of our artists will be featured on Facebook and get recognition here, as always. On the topic of woodturning, we have some fan favorites returning with their own unique spin on their craft.

​Gregg Kristophel, self-professed 'spooner' makes absolutely beautiful and eye-catching functional items; most notably his fantastic spoons!

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