Michael Sale­mi remark, “usu­al­ly, wood­turn­ers behave like sculp­tors – they remove the wood that “does­n’t belong” to reveal a pleas­ing shape. But for this show, I have new pieces that are ‘con­struc­tive.” I make turn­ing blanks by cast­ing epoxy resin around inter­est­ing pieces of wood and turn those blanks with an eye toward cre­at­ing beau­ti­ful mar­gins between the epoxy and the wood. The result­ing pieces can be bowl forms, plates, vas­es, box­es or wall hang­ings. This new turn­ing pro­gram allows me to cre­ate col­or con­trasts between the nat­ur­al col­ors of the woods I use and the epoxy. I espe­cial­ly like con­trast­ing the dark browns of Cal­i­for­nia Man­zani­ta with sea green and blue.

Jason Smith’s is an award win­ning sculp­tor whose pieces are col­lect­ed both domes­ti­cal­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly. “I draw my inspi­ra­tion from nature with an empha­sis on abstract and Asian inspired designs.These designs cre­ate visu­al bal­ance using rhythm, action and move­ment, com­bine to cre­ate com­po­si­tions that con­vey the implied ener­gy found in my work.”