// Assorted Spoons //

Recycled wood

Various dimensions

2016

// Nest Chair //

By Xochi Maberry-Gaulke and Anne Marie Wald

Steel wire and eastern maple

2' x 2' x 3'

2016

For the past six months, my style has been transforming wood – a natural, freely growing organism – into simplified forms with uncomplicated silhouettes and smooth textures. I have considered my conversion of this wild material into constricted shapes in two lights. It can be a way of honoring the wood and its grain by reducing distractions and elevating natural patterns. But altering the wood to become such simple shapes can also mean ignoring the wood’s authentic, organic self.

I keep honoring the wood in mind when drafting my project ideas. The lines become soft, sleek, and pleasant to touch. The elegant color variations of the wood become more apparent, sometimes highlighted by the cut of the wood, other times through the finish. It was only upon reflection that I realized a dramatic trend appearing, possible evidence of my upbringing. Growing up in Los Angeles, Nature was something regularly displaced by concrete and steel, meticulously constrained, or growing between the cracks of the sidewalk.

Maybe I can’t escape LA’s relationship to nature.

.