Featured Chaboo artist Kelly Neidig has been working on a series of landscape themed work.  The series can be seen on her website.  In her own words:

My memories can be vague or vanish quickly and sometimes the only thing I have left is color. I see a connection between my memories and these fleeting landscapes I create.I focus more on color and less on shapes presenting little information to the viewer. This allows the viewer to call on their memories of place and connect with the painting based on their experiences.

It will be interesting to see how she uses negative space and the heavy linear quality of the bamboo ply left behind with her heavy colored lines.  I think it will be a great meeting of texture and color. I really wanted Kelly in on Project Chaboo after she talked to me about her creative crisis that led to her current theme of work.  It is always great to hear about the journey.  Thats what its all about isnt it?

Kelly also serves as board president of Portland Open Studios.

Portland Open Studios offers artists in the Portland metro area opportunities to showcase their work, engage a curious public, and network with other artists, all within a supportive environment. It’s a unique educational organization that serves the community and helps artists meet their professional goals through workshops, publicity, exhibitions, and the open studios tour.

Thanks for participating Kelly! Im glad you are on board and Im really excited to see how you work with the lines of the bamboo.  I also like your email last name of neidiggity.  Funny!  I get it!

Joel Wakeman is nearly done with his chaboo!  He has built one from scratch, re-interpreting my design using salvaged materials.

Joel works a lot with hand tools and even mills his wood by hand without a jointer/planer.  These are hand cut dovetails!  Very impressive.  I like how he makes the material appear lighter and thinner by tapering it out towards the edge.

Joel and I actually went to the same school, the Rhode Island School of Design.  If I hadnt quit we would have been in the industrial design program together.  Its interesting to see what I missed out on by leaving school and working instead.  I asked him to come by my shop the other day and show me how to mill wood with only hand tools.  I brought out an old chunk of mahogany i had laying around the shop and he taught my apprentice Lauren and I how to flatten the face and then true up a square edge by hand.

Even though I will continue to mill wood by machine for most applications it was nice to do it by hand to really feel the material.  I got out my really nice Japanese handplane which cuts on the pull, not the push.  It felt really smooth and controlled on the mahogany and made really nice shavings.  So nice that Lauren took some home with her.  She really enjoyed using the hand tools so I think ill teach her how to use a chisel safely next chance i get Thanks for the lessons Joel.

You can see Joel’s work on the website for his company, Integration Workshop. You will see that the images on his site are very well photographed.  His wife is a very talented photographer and also has an unrelated talent for falling asleep while standing.

In no particular order here are the artists participating so far:

Alisha Wessler - illustration

Lauren Wessler - wood, paper mache

Jennifer Mercede - painting

Chris Haberman - painting

Sohaila Adela - illustration

Kelly Neidig - painting

Nell Warren - painting

Robin Kaplan - illustration

Dave Laubenthal -wood, metal

David Bertman -wood, metal

Kari Merkl - metal

Joel Wakeman - wood

Juno Lachman - glass

Eric Day - wood, metal, fiberglass

Todd Griffith - painting

Joe Mansfield - laser

George Ramos - wood

Mike Halvorson - wood

Paul Sykes - wood

Lindsay Holmes - recycled skateboards

Jess Hirsch - watercolor

APAK - illustration, painting

Erin Albin (appetite) - screenprinting/fabric

Brendan Budge - industrial design

Lisa Kuhnhausen - interior design/fashion

Jason Hernandez - wood

Sarah Bennet - wood, epoxy resin

Karl Ramentol - industrial design

Ken Tomita - wood, bamboo

Amy Ruppel- designer

Maren Jensen- illustration

Sara Huston - furniture design

Orange design.build - salvaged materials

Marshall Ryan - architecture

Ryan Thomson - architecture

Megan Scheminske - painting

Don Jensen - wood

David Butts - kinetic sculpture

Marc Riera - architecture

Ryah Radomski - furniture

John Paananen - interior architecture

Emily Steen - graphic design, environment design

Oluwaseyi (Shay) Sosanya - mechanical engineering

Tom Huang - furniture design

Ben Wood - furniture

Emily Knudsen - interior design

Corbin Keech - architecture

Jim Haas - furniture

I had the priviledge of loaning chaboo and sensu to my friend Jiro Yonezawa for his exhibit at the Portland Japanese Garden. The beautiful setting was a perfect match for his art.  The venue was stunning to say the least.  I talked to the art director there and she was very receptive to the idea of doing a group show there for furniture in 2010.

Sensu was used to display a few of his smaller pieces and also to serve as a reception table.

Chaboo was used to display one of his basket sculptures.

Jiro is a master sculptor, formally trained in Japan to work with bamboo weaving.  His work is amazing in its craftsmanship, form and attention to detail.  He has developed signature techniques as he has refined his craft over the years.  He is world renowned and his work is included in the Lloyd Cotsen collection of bamboo baskets considered to be the greatest collection in the world today.

The show at the Japanese Garden continues througout the month of November.  You should go have a look.  The gardens are beautiful as well with the last of fall foliage clinging on.

My friend Jiro Yonezawa is a master bamboo weaver/sculptor.  His work will be on display at the Japanese Garden Nov 15-30.  He has asked me to loan a few of my furniture pieces to display his sculptures. The versatile Chaboo, of course and Sensu.

There is an opening reception this sunday nov 16 at 2pm with a lecture by Nancy Moore Bess, author of Bamboo in Japan. I have her book.  Thanks Patty and Chen for buying it for me a few years ago.

Jiros work is amazing!  Ive helped him out with some public art projects in the past and wish I could continue to learn from him about working with bamboo but he has moved back to Japan.  Were lucky to have him back temporarily for the show.

And yes, I am recruiting him hard for Project Chaboo.  Integrating his bamboo cane work into Chaboo would be appropriate and incredible.  Im crossing my fingers that he has time during his stay here.

If Jiro doesnt have time, I will do something myself where I integrate raw bamboo into Chaboo.  The interplay between machined and natural of the same material would be interesting to explore.