Kurt Meyer - Artist Information




"Work will be a pleasure and work will be a sharing when the things we make are born out of beauty and of need." —The News from Nowhere Biography Resume and Artist's Statement Galleries Exhibiting My Work Company Statement Video Clip of Award Winning Box Current Newsletter Previous Newsletters		Central to my transition to full-time woodworking was the creation of a suitably inspiring workspace. On October 1st, 2000, a group of friends and family gathered to raise a timber-frame workshop.
My home and workshop is located in Ashfield, a small and thriving town in the foothills of the Berkshires. Ashfield is alive with skilled artists and craftspeople, whose collective energy is inspiring and renewing. Creative ideas flow readily in a harmonious setting of fields, brooks, towering maples, and quiet forests.

Top		Woodworking is in my bones. For twenty years I've been making this or that, usually as a gift. In 1990 I got my professional start in the Pacific Northwest after winning first place in a Christmas ornament competition. I live now with my family in rural Western Massachusetts where I've built a timber-frame workshop and have begun producing furniture as well as the small decorative pieces with which I started. I know that my esthetic sense has developed out of time I spent in Japan as a child, but perhaps other aspects of my approach to woodworking were formed there: when the drawing or design I create begins to take on life in three dimensions I always thank the wood I'm using for sharing part of its spirit with myself and with others.

Top		My foundations as a woodworker came through gift-giving; a gift made with the hands carries so much of the heart with it. The emphasis on handwork has persisted in my development as a woodworker. The level of precision I demand in my work is achieved through caringly-maintained hand tools. My approach to aesthetics is based on spare adornment and gentle tastes, classic rather than rustic, refined but not "machined". I have a fondness for the miniature but have explored aspects of joinery ranging in scale up to timber-frame (post and beam) construction. I strive for designs and methods that improve the product as it ages. My finishes, for example, acquire a patina through use, rather than starting out with a patina faked through staining or antiquing. This approach, I believe, was at one time fundamental. A roof on a public building, as an example, was well-understood to both look better as the shiny copper slightly corroded to a greenish color and to perform better as this surface corrosion sealed each seam and protected the underlying copper from further corrosion. In a modern age when the emphasis in most products is on good looks that last only a few years until the product needs replacement—a time of instant gratification in a throw-away society—I try in all aspects of my work and personal life to espouse and promote enduring durability and beauty. My work has been displayed in fine galleries across the nation.
At work on the frame of my workshop, August 2000.
Top		An Artisan’s MarketPlace-Plainville, CT Artwood-Bellingham, WA Clark Art Institute-Williamstown, MA Clark Art Institute online store Classics On Main-Salado, TX Craft Company No. 6-Rochester, NY Deerfield Museum Store-Old Deerfield, MA The Escape-Georgetown, TX GalleryM-Half Moon Bay, CA Gallery at the Vault-Springfield, VT Gallery in the Vault-Wooster, OH Grovewood-Asheville, NC Guilford Handcraft Center-Guilford, CT Handworks Gallery-Acton, MA Heartwood-Saluda, NC Iowa Artisans Gallery-Iowa City, IA Julia Rush Fine Crafts-Hickory, NC Mackerel Sky-East Lansing, MI Moonstones-Cambria, CA Moravian Book Shop-Bethlehem, PA New City Art-Easthampton, MA Northwest Fine Woodworking-Seattle, WA Northwest Fine Woodworking online store Point of View-Williamsville, NY Pottery Plus-Orange, CT Real Mother Goose-Portland, OR Shelburne Arts Cooperative, Shelburne Falls, MA Silverscapes-Northampton, MA Skyland Farm-Burdette, NY The Society of Arts and Crafts-Boston, MA Uniquely New England-Hollis, NH Uno Alla Volta Catalog Upper Pioneer Valley Visitor Center-Greenfield, MA Village Artisans Gallery-Boiling Springs, PA Whistling Moose Gallery-Harbor Springs, MI Wood Gallery-Newport, OR Wood Merchant-LaConner, WA Works Gallery-New York, NY 11 South Gallery-Bernardston, MA 15 Steps-Ithaca, NY
Company Statement Top		In business part-time since 1990, Meyer adopted the company name “23rd Century Antiques” when he transitioned to a full-time crafting business in 1999. The company name he chose signifies both the heirloom quality and durability of his product. Meyer produces each item entirely by hand in the workshop he built in the foothills of the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. While Meyer uses appropriate power tools such as a table saw and jointer, his caringly maintained hand saws, chisels, and hand planes and his personal attention to consistent quality are critical to evincing the warm feeling apparent in the final product. The satin warmth of touch complements Meyer’s visually tasteful designs. He designs each new product using a sense of balance and an esthetic sensibility developed in part during his childhood in Japan. Each of Meyer’s pieces benefits from the care he takes in choosing and matching the domestic and exotic hardwoods that form his palette. Since each tree bears the individual marks of its own growth history, Meyer always strives to combine pieces of the right color, grain density, and pattern. This effort unifies the final result beyond a simple combination of colorful woods. Meyer applies his experience both through design and material choice to ensure that the natural movement of his organic medium works in concert rather than in conflict after the piece is completed and in the client’s home. Having sold directly to galleries and through retail fairs since first starting in 1990, Meyer has used the change to a full-time business to emphasize wholesale marketing. His first wholesale trade show exposure (as a member of the Massachusetts Style Guild at the Buyer’s Market of American Craft, Philadelphia 2002) was a success. Meyer intends to build on this initial positive public exposure with an ongoing wholesale trade show presence.