In this episode of why make I talk with sculptor, furniture maker and educator Jack Larimore about how his background in landscape architecture. What led him down the path to discovering a love of design and eventually making furniture. Furthermore how a lack of a formal education In the arts really allowed him to explore sculptural ideas with few preconceived notions. Then we get into a deep dive about in his most recent exhibition called Bonding that was held at Rowan University in the spring of 2024.
Why Make? Episode 64: Percussionist Jim Roberts
Season 5 · Episode 64
Wednesday, September 18, 2024 • Duration 52:05
On this episode of Why Make we have Jim Roberts a percussionist, producer, artist and educator who resides in Chapel Hill NC. Jim plays the drum set, djembe, congas, and has many recordings under his belt. He has just finished a 17 year teaching stint at Elon University where he taught percussion and directed the Elon World Percussion Ensemble.
Jims journey in percussion dated to his earliest years playing in band class to marching band to drum and bugle core to African music traditional fiddle music and so much more. Please join us for a percussive journey with Jim Roberts
Why Make? Episode 55: Mia Hall
Season 5 · Episode 55
Sunday, October 15, 2023 • Duration 57:32
In Episode 55 of the Why Make? podcast we talk with Mia Hall, a maker, former educator and current executive director of the Penland School of Craft, one of the oldest and most prestigious craft schools in America. After growing up in Sweden Mia moved to northern California at the age of 18 and explored for the next 10 years. When a close friend became a buyer for Pottery Barn that possibility as a career excited Mia and she found a path forward through art school. Eventually enrolling at San Diego State University in the interior design department Mia found her true passion upon discovering the furniture design program where she earned both her undergrad and graduate degrees. Always knowing that she wanted to teach Mia became the first Furniture instructor at the new crafts program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. During her time teaching there she also became the director of the program. In 2017 Mia became the executive director of Penland and took on the job she always really wanted to do. Morphing from a worker in wood to a worker in paper, spreadsheets in particular.
From Sweden to the mountains of North Carolina join us as we talk with Mia Hall about her path in the arts and the future of craft education.
Why Make? Episode 54: Bob Ebendorf
Season 5 · Episode 54
Monday, September 18, 2023 • Duration 38:24
Retired educator, jeweler and metalsmith extraordinaire Bob Ebendorf joins us on episode 54 of the Why Make podcast. Originally from Topeka Kansas, Bob was a star football player and wrestler in high school who had the choice of a big time college athletic scholarship or attending art school. Lucky for us he made the right choice! After spending his undergraduate and graduate years in the art department at the University of Kansas Bob then went on to spend a fair amount of time in Norway honing his technical skills in metal smithing before returning to the U.S to teach. Bob is a self proclaimed radical in the jewelry and metals field, often choosing to work in found objects, thrift store finds and junk instead of precious metals and stones. After a long career in the arts Bob’s work is in the permanent collection of many museums and at 83 he still enjoys teaching, creating and just being curious.
We had the privilege of having this conversation with Bob while he was teaching a workshop at the Pocosin Center for the Arts in Columbia NC in June. Many thanks to the good folks at Pocosin for allowing us to spend some time on campus.
Why Make? Episode 53: Robert F. Lyon
Season 5 · Episode 53
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 • Duration 58:14
Welcome to Episode 53 of Why Make? On this episode we talk with Robert Lyon, a woodturner, artist and educator who lives and works in the Columbia, SC area.
Literally climbing the walls with handmade ladders as a small child, the sky was the limit, as Robert explored model rockets and building theatre sets, before landing in art school for college.
His lifetime in the arts started in ceramics when he discovered he could spend the whole day at the wheel and not notice the passage of time. No matter what he did Robert always wanted everyday to feel like that flow state.
We talk with Robert about being an assistant professor at Louisiana State University where he helped to set up one of the most vibrant ceramics programs in the U.S at the time before discovering the lathe.
After 5 years in administration Robert returned to teaching in the art department at the University of South Carolina until retiring in 2017. Robert has continued with enthusiasm to teach, and explore the lathe, making his outlandish turned forms during his full-time art practice.
Join us as Robert Lyon takes us back and forth across the Rio Grande, flowing through his minds eye, into those places where he finds inspiration.
Why Make? Episode 52: Katie Thompson
Season 5 · Episode 52
Sunday, July 16, 2023 • Duration 49:02
In Episode 52 of Why Make? we talk with Katie Thompson, an artist, writer, creative consultant and instructor based in the Low Country outside of Charleston, SC. Katie wears many hats including being a disabled mother of two, and wife and partner to fine furniture maker Joseph Thompson.
Katie has a passion for people and sharing their stories, and pursues her inclinations as a storyteller through her monthly online woodworking journal Pen and Chisel and her ongoing project the Women of Woodworking in which she has helped to create a community gathering place for women and non-binary woodworkers.
We delve into many things with Katie including her work with the Furniture Society, the Wood Art Alliance and how she uses her chronic health conditions to make a positive impact by advocating and sharing her experiences with others.
Hold on tight and join us as we get inspired by bionic woman Katie Thompson!
Why Make? Episode 51: Aspen Golann
Season 5 · Episode 51
Sunday, June 25, 2023 • Duration 01:09:42
The long awaited conversation on Why Make? Podcast with artist and maker Aspen Golaan.
Why Make? Episode 50: Kimberly Winkle
Season 5 · Episode 50
Tuesday, May 9, 2023 • Duration 51:31
On this episode of Why Make? we talk with Kim Winkle, an arts administrator full time teacher and artist. Kim is a Professor of Art and the Director of the School of Art, Craft & Design at Tennessee Technological University’s Appalachian Center for Craft.
A native of Oklahoma Kim holds a Bachelor of Fine Art in Ceramics from the University of Oklahoma. She then started her MFA in ceramics at San Diego State University but during her first year was persuaded to take a class in the Applied Design, Furniture and Woodworking program then headed by Wendy Maruyama. Where she then earned her MFA in furniture design.
Winkle’s work is well known for the elaborate surface markings she uses on her colorful turned and carved forms that she somehow finds time to make while being director of the Appalachian Center for Craft and maintaining a busy teaching schedule.
Please join us as we find out what inspires maker Kim Winkle!
Why Make? Episode 49: Wendy Maruyama Part II
Season 5 · Episode 49
Friday, February 17, 2023 • Duration 38:16
Why Make Podcast, Wendy Maruyama Episode Part II Transcript
Time Code
00:00 Robb Helmkamp
Hello and welcome to Why Make, where we talk to makers from different disciplines about what inspires them to make.With your hosts Robb Helmkamp and.
Erik Wolken
Erik Wolken. If you would like to learn more about the makers we interview on Why Make please go our website why-make.com
Robb Helmkamp
And please help support the Why Make podcast and Why Make productions by making a tax refundable donation to us on Fractured Atlas.
Erik Wolken
Fractured Atlas is our new non profit fiscal sponsor which allows us to access a wide range of funding possibilities including funding available only for non-profits
Robb Helmkamp
Visit https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-why-make-project or go to the donate to Why Make page on Why-Make.com
01:03 Robb Helmkamp
Welcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part two of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama.
Erik Wolken
Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy’s work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species
Robb Helmkamp
As we discuss later in the podcast Wendy was born with significant hearing loss and cerebral palsy and at her request, to aid our listeners, we have included a full transcript of our conversation on our web page for this episode which can be found on the page of why-make.com It can also be found in the episode notes on Apple podcasts
Why Make? Episode 48: Wendy Maruyama Part 1
Season 5 · Episode 48
Friday, February 17, 2023 • Duration 34:07
Why Make Podcast, Wendy Maruyama Episode Part 1 Transcript
Time Code
00:00 Robb Helmkamp
Hello and welcome to Why Make, where we talk to makers from different disciplines about what inspires them to make.With your hosts Robb Helmkamp and,
Erik Wolken
Erik Wolken. If you would like to learn more about the makers we interview on Why Make please go our website why-make.com
Robb Helmkamp
And please help support the Why Make podcast and Why Make productions by making a tax refundable donation to us on Fractured Atlas.
Erik Wolken
Fractured Atlas is our new non profit fiscal sponsor which allows us to access a wide range of funding possibilities including funding available only for non-profits
Robb Helmkamp
Visit https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-why-make-project or go to the donate to Why Make page on Why-Make.com
01:01 Robb Helmkamp
Welcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part one of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama.
Erik Wolken
Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy’s work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species.
Robb Helmkamp
As we discuss later in the podcast Wendy was born with significant hearing loss and cerebral palsy and at her request, to aid our listeners, we have included a full transcript of our conversation on our web page for this episode which can be found on the page of why-make.com It can also be found in the episode notes on Apple podcasts
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Please join us and take a listen to our wide ranging discussion with one of the more amazing artists in the woodworking field, Wendy Maruyama.
02:06 Erik Wolken
Moving along Wendy, let's talk about the next phase of your work. Because the next phase of your work use do start to tackle some of your identities in your bodies of work in Turning Japanese, Simple Pleasures and Indulgences & Men in Kimonos you do start to sort of not only address your heritage, but really start to use narrative in your work. What was what was behind all of that? I mean, what do you think was the inspiration behind that? The whole thing that started with Turning Japaneseand Men in Kimonos exploring your cultural identity.
02:42 Wendy Maruyama
I think the Turning Japanese series the Men in Kimono riff came from my first trip to Japan could be in '92 maybe I can't remember but I'd never been to Japan until the early 90's and like anybody else I was just amazed by what I was seeing over there especially the craft scene. There is such a strong craft heritage in Japan not only with woodworking, ceramics of different styles at the same time some of the fields like textiles really evolved into the modern times to use the unusual fibers and metal in weaving. And then of course, going to downtown Tokyo in the Shibuya District dominated with all this neon stuff, it was very much like Blade Runner if you've seen the movie Blade Runner? It was clearly based on Tokyo. And so there are these two very different aspects of Japan, the old and the very, very, very new high tech side of it. There is a little bit of conflict to you know, I'd be riding on the subway and you can see these Japanese business men reading these pornographic cartoons it was called Manga. I think it was it all these lady with big boobs, it's all cartoons. It was such a flurry of images and so I think some of that was mostly my personal response to what I saw in Japan and I realized that I didn't fit even though I was Japanese American. Japanese descent. I did not fit into that whole culture, I mean, even if I tried. I mean, I'm kind of proud of it from a distance but I realized I don't think like that. So, maybe that was kind of a mixture of sadness and relief in a way. It is a very patriarchal society so there was that and it was kinda just a response to my experiences going to Japan.
05:44 Erik Wolken
And the other interesting thing about that body of work is you begin to introduce using video and still images into it too. And you're really starting to truly experiment with your craft and and I thought that was absolutely wonderful. You know, you reached outside the box, which I think is what we all aim to do as artists. When you first started using video and still images? And where did that come from?
06:11 Wendy Maruyama
I'm trying to think. Trying to remember if the Tasmanian Tiger piece was first, I think it was. But anyway, in the Turning Japanese series I started using photo's because I went to a flea market in Kyoto. It's one best thing about Japan! It's amazing what you can find at the flea market. Some love it. If you ever go to Japan, make sure that you go into a big flea market either in Kyoto or Tokyo. The stuff that you find is amazing, but anyway, I came across a box of old black and white photographs of Kabuki actors. And I found out later that in Kabuki theater, women were not allowed to perform. I don't know if that is the case now? But women were not allowed to perform in Kabuki and so the female characters in a Kabuki play were always played by men who were expert at mimicking the feminine movement of women in the story. So all these men I mean all these women in kimono were actually men and they were quite beautiful and alluring and I was just kind of fascinated by that, how these beautiful, these men were. And they were prettier than I was and I thought it be kinda fun to use some of these images. At the same time, I'm a big Japanese sci-fi fan I think that was because that was the first time I saw Japanese people in a movie. It was in a Godzilla movie where you see all these Japanese people running from Godzilla. In one of the Godzilla movies there's these twin fairies (the Shobijin). I don't know if you remember they were sidekicks to Mothra, who was another monster. So I wanted to create this sort of these twin geisha women in the image of this. Oh I don't know, it's amazing about Photoshop, I was taking Photoshop class, and it's amazing how you can make fantastical images using Photoshop. So that was an opportunity to experiment with different media. I tend to jump around from, you know, from subject to subject cause that's the way my life goes. I'm not one to stay with one idea for 40 years, I think I would be bored to death. So it's important for me to just kind of reflect my life through my work. And so hopefully you get an idea what I've been going through by seeing my work in a linear pattern.
09:41 Erik Wolken
Yes, you definitely see a progression of your work, because then the next body of work you move on to is Executive Order 9066. And the Tag Project. And of course this is referring to, and I'm going to use the correct terminology. This is referring to the incarceration and or imprisonment of the Japanese people on the West Coast of America during World War Two. Just to give you an idea of the scope of this project, and Wendy you can go on to talk about it more, but there were 120,000 Japanese, people of Japanese heritage, imprisoned during EO 9066. And the Tag Project, you printed out a replica of the original tags, these people wore as they were sent to their prison camps. 120,000 tags, that is a mind boggling number.
10:38 Wendy Maruyama
That's a lot of tags. I started this the body of work when I was an artist in residency at SUNY New York, SUNY Purchase that is State University of New York Purchase. I knew that I needed to do this work, but I wasn't really ready until then. I mean it's a really hard topic because my mother's side of the family was deeply impacted by Executive Order 9066 because they were in Los Angeles at the time when Pearl Harbor was bombed and all that happen. But what struck me and kind of made me sort of angry was I was really surprised at how many people didn't even know about this episode in American history, especially on the East Coast and in the south and even now sometimes you run into people who don't even know about it. I think people know, more people know about it now. But even 15 years ago, when I started this project I was running across a lot of people who didn't know, they kind of knew but they didn't really know. And when you tell them how many people were sent away to these prison camps but it's daunting to think about. And so I also thought a lot about the Holocaust too. It doesn't hold a candle to what happened here, but still the fact that Executive Order 9066 happened in this country, this country of freedom and all that. I just really wanted to bring that to the forefront with my work. And I also wanted to get to know more of the Japanese American community. And so one of the first things I did was that I reached out to the local San Diego Japanese American historical society to learn more about Executive Order 9066. And I started talking to a lot of other people who were sent to prison in Poston, which was in Arizona. Most people from San Diego were sent to prison camp in Arizona. And that's when I started to make it into a community project and I would host these tag writing parties we would have different chores people would stamp tags, they would write the names, they would tie, tie them together, there were a lot of processes in for each tag and the only way I was going to be able to do 120,000 tags was to make it a community project. But hopefully make it an educational project, but also social advocacy project. So that people can learn about what happened. And I would show a slide show before we would start working on the tags. I was going to temples and churches and high school classrooms, and college classes, and galleries and museums. So it was kind of a broad outreach and it took 4 years but we did manage to finish all the tags in time for the 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066.
Erik Wolken
That was a massive undertaking, what led you I mean, what led you at the beginning to first think of producing these 120,000 tags?
14:54 Wendy Maruyama
I must have been crazy, you know. I started out by making just a few tags of people that my family knew. And I was incorporating them into cabinet pieces and for instance this one cabinet had the image of a young Japanese American girl in the back. And the tags were all showed they were under the age of 10 and were sent to camp in 1942. But then a friend of mine, Christine Lee came to visit me in NY and she said, you know, it would be amazing if you could do all 120,000 tags. Now, Christine, kind of, she does this kind of work, you know that that very labor intensive. And at first I thought she was crazy. but then, you know, I thought about it and the impact it would have would be so much more powerful than just seeing a couple of tags here and there. And um I like the idea of art reaching in... You know, I am kind of a shy person and so it is really hard for me to like reach out to strangers and just interact. I think it has a lot to do with my hearing disability,, it kind of forced me to do that.
16:44 Erik Wolken
Right. And, and I mean, we'll have pictures of all this up on our website. But um just to paint a picture. So there's two pieces to the Tag Project in EO 9066. So there is the Tag Project, which represents all 120,000 people that were imprisoned, and then...
Robb Helmkamp
In 10 camps I correct?
17:03 Erik Wolken
Right. Memorializes, the 10 camps that were mostly over the Southwest, and just amazing images of these places where people were housed for three, four years, and it's an equally intense part of the piece. You know, I would I would encourage people to look into it further. And also there is a great website called www.densho.org, which will help better inform you about the incarceration and imprisonment of people of Japanese, Japanese Americans remember these were Americans, Japanese Americans during World War Two.
Robb Helmkamp
And then there's also you've kept quite a blog about the process of the project on your website.
17:50 Wendy Maruyama
I did and I feel bad that I haven't really kept it up to date, but it was really to follow the whole process of the tag project. At the same time I wanted to share relevant news articles that were not only about the Executive Order 9066, but just discrimination. I remember working on the tags and this whole outcry with a woman at the UCLA library posted a video of herself complaining about Asian students in the library and she was making fun of the way they talked, shing shong chi chong. But video went viral, and it kind of backfired on her. Discrimination on that level is still alive and well, most people know now.
Erik Wolken
So moving on to your next advocacy project, because this really is a phase of your life where you're taking on a very much the role of an advocate is the Wildlife Project. Do you want to describe the Wildlife Project a little bit?
19:07 Wendy Maruyama
Like I have said before, and I think you know this, I love animals more than people, who are just awful. I started reading too many articles about the demise of the elephant in particular. Poaching for the ivory and it's not only just the elephants, but rhinoceros and tigers, all for the sake of being able to show off someone's wealth. The elephant population was really precariously dropping to the point the danger of becoming extinct. So I wanted to do a whole series of work, kind of highlight this issue. And at the same time, I meet somebody, Elizabeth Kozlowski, who was an independent curator and she wanted me to do an exhibition at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, which is where she was working at the time. And so that was the incentive to make a whole body of work about wildlife. Again, you know elephants are big and I wanted to be able make these huge pieces and I had to figure out a way to make them big without making them heavy and difficult to manage. At the time, I was working in a very small studio. And so I came up with the idea of making them out of very thin pieces of wood and sewing them together. When I was in high school, I loved to sew and the fabrication of making a dress or an article of clothing, is very three dimensional and it could be applied very easily to other materials like cardboard and wood and paper. I guess it's like a form of origami, creating volume with these very flat surfaces. So that was how that work came about and then it was accompanied with a bunch of other pieces.
Erik Wolken
The other thing that fascinated me about that show is that the other pieces were in different mediums. You did a huge rhinoceros in plaster and then you did a pangolin which I'm not really familiar with what a pangolin is, in rattan It was you still continue to experiment and I just find that wonderful.
22:06 Wendy Maruyama
It’s fun, you know like I said I think wood working just doing woodworking would really bore me to death. Just some materials they have a different capacity to express a different idea. The thing about glass is that I was able to, I was offered a residency at Pilchuck so it is kind of funny how these opportunities come together and make it possible to integrate projects and so I was able to spend I think it was two weeks or three weeks at Pilchuck and I was given two amazing glass blowers to help me make these tusks and I mean obviously glass was the perfect medium. And it was kind of tricky because you know William Morris, William Morris was a hot glass blower, he's still blowing glass he became known for the very large blown primitive forms. But he also did elephant tusks but it was a different context. He presented them a just large sculptures of beautiful tusks and I wanted to portray the tusks as being bloody and taken from a living animal. So the glassblowers and I had a conversation about that you know I said I don't want to do it if you feel like it treads too closely to other glass blowers work. But my message is completely different and they agreed that it would work with kind of presentation that I was using. The tusks were created through the help of Dan Friday and Nancy Callan who are amazing glass blowers in the Seattle area.
Erik Wolken
Right and then of course there's the life size and burlap rhinoceros!
Wendy Maruyama
What was I thinking, right um.
24:38 Robb Helmkamp
You were thinking about that old desk that you made a long long time ago with chicken wire and Paper Mache?
Wendy Maruyama
I learned a lot from that Paper Mache piece, you know I thought about that Paper Mache piece when I was doing the plaster rhino. It's kind of funny how that comes around again. The rhino was necessary to make because I wanted to have I wanted to have that scale and I wanted it be made out of plaster because it was white and fragile and it was like a ghost. But now I need to find someone who needs a plaster rhino, so if you know anybody that wants it, and if you can pay for shipping you're welcome to have it.
Erik Wolken
I would take the plaster Rhino. But Robb will have to pay for the shipping!
25:31 Robb Helmkamp
We might be able to work something out. I mean, I could put it behind me here in my office but...
Wendy Maruyama
It's the size of the small Volkswagen bug that's how big it is.
Robb Helmkamp
All right, we're coming out to San Diego to get that.
25:41 Erik Wolken
Well speaking of the Wildlife Project one of the pictures will post on the website is a wonderful picture of Robb and I and Tommy Simpson in front of one of the elephant masks when we were filming the Tommy Simpson documentary and we didn't end up using it in the documentary but it's it was it was just a wonderfully sweet moment of talking about, about your piece Wendy with Tommy Simpson. As we were as we were filming for the Tommy Simpson documentary.
Wendy Maruyama
Tommy Simpson, like I said, you know he was a huge inspiration back in 1970-71. I still have the very first book that he did that got torn up from years of flipping through it and sharing with my students.
Robb Helmkamp
Its well loved and well used.
Wendy Maruyama
That really makes me happy
Erik Wolken
The was the book was published I think...
Wendy Maruyama
I would never have known that I would cross paths with Tommy Simpson back then. I mean he was like a movie star back then in the 70's and then we he came to visit San Diego one year. Oh ahhhh He stayed at my house!
27:06 Erik Wolken
So let's talk about your most recent bodies of work the Color Field pieces and Memory because you're sort of leaving advocacy and going back to your roots in color. I love the Color Field pieces there, you know you're just really exploring the basics of color which is I just find incredibly appealing and almost a 2D sense as opposed to a three dimensional sense although there's texture.
27:34 Wendy Maruyama
I um, you know, after doing Executive Order 9066 and the Elephant Project I was kind of beat up emotionally. It was really tough working on those pieces and it was even tougher for me to talk about those pieces after being asked to give talks during shows, it was kind of difficult to hold myself together. but anyway I'm getting better at it now. I can start talking about these things without breaking out in tears, but I needed to do something that was not heavy I needed to go back to using color again in a very pleasant way. It was an invitation to show that got me started on the Color Field pieces. Somebody in Colorado was having an exhibition of Bauhaus inspired furniture. because I think it was like 100th anniversary of Bauhaus and there is a Bauhaus Institute in Aspen so they wanted to do an exhibition of furniture but the problem was I hated Bauhaus furniture it wasn't really my thing. all that metal tubing and whatever. But I loved Annie Albers, who was a weaver with the Bauhaus movement, and she had a wonderful use of color and so I modeled my work after Annie Albers. It was kind of down my alley in terms of exploring color again. That's why they became two dimensional because of the weavings they were inspired by.
29:41 Robb Helmkamp
Were the pieces that you created where they kind of modeled after tambours? Like on a piece of furniture...
Wendy Maruyama
Yeah that's true I forgot that... I'm glad you mentioned that because tambour pieces were one of my favorite things to make actually. I've made a lot of carcass pieces that have tambours and I love the textural qualities of tambours. Yeah, for sure that was an inspiration.
Robb Helmkamp
Your use of more muted colors. From the Bauhaus movement I guess Annie's kind of take on it is really nice. It's nice to see that side of Bauhaus.
30:26 Wendy Maruyama
I usually like punch colors but I wanted to experiment with a different tone of colors.
Robb Helmkamp
Very beautiful. So let's talk about a little bit about Memory, one of the last bodies of work that you've, you've completed.
30:43 Wendy Maruyama
Lets see in 2018 my uncle died... I have an aunt and uncle I am very close to they were kind of like second mom and dad and my uncle had severe dementia and he finally passed. I think it was 2018. I'm trying to remember but so my aunt was living alone and turned out that she had dementia as well. She was such a brilliant women and was such a role model for me it was really tough to see her decline. So we made the decision at the end of 2019 put her into a memory care facility, and so... and then of course Covid hit so right after we put her there we weren't even able to visit her for about 6 months. There was a lot of guilt and concern and so that was kind of tough. Like I said your getting older and you go through these phases and then go through things with your parents. Some of your friends may die. You know some of this stuff that you're going through at my age anyway. So the memory series was first about her loosing her memory but it's also about memories that people keep and I think it's a very powerful thing. Memories kind of get reused in a way there kind of special after a while, you start thinking about dreams that you've had and they're very similar to many different things that are kind of not intangible things that you think about. In short the work of trying to make these intangible things tangible, relatable in a very tactile way. So the memory piece I did about my aunt has a black lacquered mirror that goes from completely reflective to becomes very distorted at the very end to where you don't recognize yourself anymore, and the case that it is in has a kind of Asian aesthetic to it, being Japanese American. But there is a dysfunctional door on the left side it moves but it really doesn't function to any degree. That was referencing lack of memory, her inability to solve problems. I think that black mirrors have a lot of meaning, you know the iPhone is a black mirror, a black mirror to technology. And in Japan, this is interesting because I think I need a black mirror, the geisha woman in Japan as they aged began to use black lacquer as a mirror because the black lacquer kind of made your wrinkles go away. So you couldn't see your wrinkles so the process of aging is sort of disguised in a black mirror. Yeah, anyway, so the whole black mirror series is about conveying depth. So deep looking into that black lacquer. It looks like you're looking into a deep dark hole. Well you're looking at a reflection. It's been a lot of fun working with you with the black lacquer and I've been really lucky, because um... I don't know if you know Greg Johnson? He's a finisher in upstate New York he has been doing the black lacquer mirrors for me and he does such a beautiful job.
35:11Erik Wolken
The Black Mirror is just an incredible metaphor. That's just incredibly powerful.
35:16 Wendy Maruyama
It's so rich you know it's interesting how the many things you think about when you look at it. Plus I love the TV series I've seen the Black Mirror. I love that TV show.
Robb Helmkamp
Isn't it great? I've watched it through and through. It makes you think!
Erik Wolken
So and starting to wrap this up, Wendy. What are you working on now? What's your what's your what's your next body of work or what are you what are you moving forward with now?
35:48 Wendy Maruyama
I am still finishing up the Black Mirror (Memory) series and wrapping up that little chair (Matador) I was telling you about earlier. But I don't really know now what I am going to be making next but hopefully I have been talking to Tom Loeser about doing something together. We were talking about maybe showing together again? No, we haven't looked at the details yet. But it is always kind of fun to show with a good old friend.
Erik Wolken
Well, Wendy, I just want to wrap this up because this has been an absolutely wonderful conversation with you.
Wendy Maruyama
Oh, good. I'm glad I hope you can get at least 10 minutes out of it.
Robb Helmkamp
Oh, I think we can at least do 15. No Wendy it's been an absolute pleasure talking with you
Erik Wolken
Right and we always end… by saying Why Make
Robb Helmkamp
Why Make
36:47 Wendy Maruyama
Thank you very much. Why Make
podcast
Erik Wolken
Please join us and take a listen to our wide ranging discussion with one of the more amazing artists in the woodworking field, Wendy Maruyama.
02:03 Erik Wolken
Okay, are we ready to have a very serious conversation about nothing?
Wendy Maruyama
Oh, yeah that will be fine by my book.
Erik Wolken
We'd like to welcome Wendy Maruyama to the Why Make? Podcast.
Robb Helmkamp
Welcome Wendy. Welcome to Why Make!
Wendy Maruyama
Thank you! Thank you for having me, you guys.
Erik Wolken
The question we always start the podcast with is: What is your first memory of making something?
02:00 Wendy Maruyama
Well, you know, I can remember when I was maybe four or five years old, my mom used to bring home these little art kits, craft kits, maybe not coloring books. But things that you had to like put together. And I remember very distinctly a paper cutout book where we had to fold them and they were sort of kinetic. I remember I was more interested in the whole fabrication process verses drawing and painting. Although I did draw and paint when I was little, but I preferred punching holes in paper and you know that sort of thing. So I would say that would be my earliest recollection of making stuff.
Erik Wolken
Right. So you are an active maker. You liked to be involved in the making. You weren't a passive maker.
03:47 Wendy Maruyama
Right. Got to be more than just a piece of paper and crayons. I want to ...Even if it meant crumpling paper up or stabbing a piece of paper with a dowel rod, or...
Robb Helmkamp
Not just making marks but making holes in things too, changing the shape of it.
Wendy Maruyama
Ripping things apart. I remember needle craft stuff too. Like working with yarn and string. And of course you know back in the 50s the kinds of toys one would get would be very much based on gender and I never got the little hammers and the screwdriver kits for kids, you know. I got the sewing kit and the dolls and that kind of thing. So hopefully that changed a little bit now, but I do remember that pretty clearly because I would go to my cousin's house. I had male cousins and they all had the really cool cars (coins?). That wasn't made available to me because I guess mom felt like I needed more of a Homemaking Type Kit.
Erik Wolken
What was your first introduction and attraction to furniture and woodworking when did that come?
05:12 Wendy Maruyama
Well, you… if you want the earliest: I remember in 6th grade camp, we got sent away to some mountain retreat. When we were all in 6th grade and I really kind of hated it because I hate camping and I hate hiking. I am just not into the outdoor scene. But the most fun things I remember… we had to find a piece of wood in the woods and bring it back to craft room and sand it. Make it all pretty and put oil on it. And I remember the transformation of the wood once I sanded it and made it all pretty and put oil on it, kind of magical. I think my mom still has this piece of wood somewhere. I think I saw it on her dresser a couple of years ago. But anyway, so that would be my earliest memory. But then my first piece of furniture happened when I was 19. I was taking a craft class at a junior college that was in San Diego called Southwestern College and they had an excellent craft program. And this would be the 70s and craft was really enjoying a huge revival at that time and so I was taking jewelry and ceramics. The craft class, we didn't really have a woodworking program, but we had a craft class, which introduced us to all sorts of things, like batik and textiles. And so that we did a little bit of ceramics and weaving and then woodworking was the final project and I was really intrigued by the fact that, you know, I was able to use the machines. And the other good thing was that the woman that was teaching class also made furniture. So kind of like wow, you know, Joanne can work in wood! You know, I'm going to learn how to work in wood. So anyway... I made a three legged chair that was really kind of organic, kind of poorly made, but I didn't know what I was doing. We didn't have any machines for doing mortise and tenon and she (Joanne) didn't use joinery in her work. It was kind of a California thing. We used a lot of dowels you know, and I think that was inspired by Sam Maloof who used a lot of dowels to fabricate his furniture and the dowels were decorative of course too. You know were you use contrasting woods with dowels. And back in those days, we were using a lot of leather so I had leather seat and it was uh pretty hippy influenced work. And its funny because I have the chair in my studio now and I want to replace the seat and maybe clean it up a little bit, you know. But anyway, that was my first piece of furniture. That would be 1971 maybe seven? Yeah '71.
Robb Helmkamp
That's great that you still have it.
Erik Wolken
You'll have to send us a picture of that piece. And if it was truly hippie Wendy, you would have macramé the seat
Wendy Maruyama
Oh, maybe.
09:26 Erik Wolken
Did you know who Sam Maloof was when you were 19
09:30 Wendy Maruyama
Um. No I didn't actually. But you know looking back, I remember thinking, "Why did I use dowels?" Oh and it was screwed together. Screws and the dowels were really there too hide the screw head. Anyway, I didn't know Sam's work until I went to San Diego State. I transferred from Southwestern to San Diego State. Now Larry Hunter was my teacher there and he was the one who kind of exposed me to a lot of makers at the time. Wendell (Castle) well, of course, was a biggie and he had a huge Influence on California woodworkers and we had some really amazing woodworkers in California too. Larry Hunter being one of them and Jack Rogers Hopkins who I think is greatly under appreciated for his work. He did some massive stack lamination pieces. Personally I think that he I think he was really the first person to really incorporate stack lamination into furniture. And I think that Wendell started using the same techniques, around the same time, but my feeling is that Jack was really the early pioneer for that method of working.One day I remember seeing a movie not a video, but it was a movie, you know we he had a movie of him building a music stand from start to finish. It was a much different method of construction and stack lamination. That movie was probably made in the late 60’s, 67 maybe. B ut my main influence at that time was Tommy Simpson. I was really just wowed by Tommy's work at that time, you know? So sculptural. And it wasn't merely about woodworking, it was more about fantasy forms that one could make. I think all of his work was made with wood. But, I think could have been interpreted into Paper Mache, plaster, with the kind of forms he was creating with wood. And of course it was all painted. So my first piece of furniture that I did for Larry Hunter was a desk that was very inspired by Tommy Simpson. But it's all made out of chicken wire, plywood and Paper Mache.
Erik Wolken
And this was in a woodworking class you did that?
12:40 Wendy Maruyama
Yeah this was a woodworking class. And so I think maybe it was like an introduction and maybe I showed this piece and Larry might have said well it would be faster if you made it out of chicken wire and plywood. You know, you might be able to achieve the form more quickly. So maybe he was trying to you know encourage me to create that form with the little knowledge that I had in woodworking. It was beginning class so it's interesting how he let me do that. If I was teaching a beginning class, I probably would not have said, "Oh make it out of Paper Mache." But uh in hindsight, I wish maybe I could have encouraged that. But, I think I was to deprogramed by the time I started teaching out. I had too many educators that, you know, dictated what woodworking should be and how it should be taught.
Erik Wolken
So what were those first what pieces you actually created for him like?
14:02 Wendy Maruyama
Well let me tell you, the assignments that I got were so totally different from what most of us are familiar with. And you have to remember this is the early 70's! One assignment was to go out into the woods and be with nature, look around and find something beautiful that was natural. And thinking about it now sounds so crazy. But anyway, so I found a seedpod out in the woods and decided to make a carved hand mirror that was inspired by this seedpod. But that was one assignment. And the second one, was um, I decided to make a music stand or a book stand and I wanted it to emulate a whales tail. You know, when a whale breaches in the ocean and it dives you see that beautiful tail coming out. Well the upper part of my bookstand had a lamp and the tail was really part of that lamp. You know, looking back I'm kind of glad I had those kinds of experiences when I was more naive and perhaps a little more open minded about what furniture could be. There were fewer limitations, if I remember, back in those days.
Robb Helmkamp
It's really neat to see you incorporating nature into your work already with the whale. I mean, how prescient is that about work that we're going to talk about later in the podcast. But, I think that was one of my most favorite things about living in California was being able to see the whales out in the ocean and go whale watching.
16:08 Wendy Maruyama
I agree. Talking about California after having been on the east coast for a while. And then coming back to California the plants are so different here, you know, just sort of otherworldly. The cactus, you know, even the more tropical looking plants that you see, the colors are so different. And I think that had a profound effect on my work. When I returned to California in the in the 80's I really started splashing that paint around. Well, you know, I was free from the indoctrination of the east coast woodworking scene.
Robb Helmkamp
Ha ha ha ha
Erik Wolken
Let's keep on moving on. And let's talk about Mickey Mackintosh. I think that's the first piece that I saw. Was that the first piece you saw Robb?
Robb Helmkamp
I think it was. When I started at Haywood Community College. My teacher Wayne Rabb talked about and presented some of your work in his slideshows. I remember seeing Mickey Macintosh and just being blown away. You know, not initially, not knowing what to think, but then reading into it and finding out the story behind it. And, you know, I think I tried to make up my own story about it when I first saw it,
Erik Wolken
So what is the story behind Mickey Mackintosh?
17:37 Wendy Maruyama
That was made in 1980 or 1981 and I had just graduated from RIT, Rochester Institute of Technology. And I was free, gleefully, free from school and from assignments and the watchfull eyes of Bill Keyser and Doug Sigler. I felt like I could do anything I really wanted. So I decided that I have always loved Charles Rennie Mackintosh chairs. I love the tall back chairs, and I loved Disneyland as a kid. Any opportunity I could get to and get Mom and Dad to take me to Disneyland was just heaven and one of my favorite memories was having one of those Mickey Mouse hats where you would have the big black mouse ears. I think I have an old picture of me wearing that. I thought to myself that would interesting to mash up the two things into one piece. So I said why not and I wanted to take two iconic images and put it into one piece. And that's how Mickey Mackintosh was born. I know a lot of people didn't love it, think of it back in the 80's. I showed that piece at Pritam and Eames in '82 or '83 and it never sold and then it went to another gallery. 30 years later now there has been a lot of interest in the chairs and I have sold so many of them just in the last 10 years. And so I had established there would be an edition of 25 starting in 1981 and so slowly have been pumping out the chairs over the last 40 years, and I just finished the last 10 of the edition which is now in New York City at R and Company Gallery.
Robb Helmkamp
When you first came up with the idea were you trying to achieve a mash up?
20:20 Wendy Maruyama
I hate making chairs okay. I really hate them. Even now I've tried to make chairs and I keep coming up with the same shtick for years. You know it just is hard to break out of that ubiquitous chair form, with 4 legs and slats and a seat and I kept drawing it over and over and over again and I just couldn't make any progress. And then I was drinking coffee and I put the coffee cup down and it made like a ring on top of my drawing and I thought oh my God that is perfect. So I am going to put those ears and that is how that happened you know.
Robb Helmkamp
That's perfect!
Wendy Maruyama
It just worked out, it just looked so good, it was the first time I can say oh I loved that piece. I usually don't brag a lot about my work and say oh this is a piece I made I love it's an amazing piece it's the Mickey Mackintosh Chair. That doesn't happen very often you know.
Erik Wolken
Do you have the original drawing with a coffee cup stain?
Erik Wolken
One more question about the Mickey Mackintosh chair. You use that industrial Zolotone finish? Was that inspired by the coffee stain as well?
21:45 Wendy Maruyama
You Know, there's not a lot of resources in Smithville Tennessee, there was an auto body supply store on the main drag there, that's the first time I saw a can of um I guess it's called Zolotone. I think it was called splatter paint or truck paint. I think it was made by Napa and it was black with little red and blue speckles. And thought it was the perfect color combination for Mickey Mackintosh. You stepped back and you saw that basically a black chair but if you walked up very close to it you not only saw the red and the blue but you felt the texture. It was smooth. That is how I came up with that surface. It was just serendipity that I came across that paint. Interestingly around the same time one of my colleagues at that time who was Ed Zucca had also discovered that same paint but he was using it in a very different way.
Erik Wolken
Actually, one more thing about the I lied, I'm gonna ask one more question about the Mickey Mackintosh chair. Why do you think the chair wasn't accepted in the 80s but was much was accepted much later?
23:25 Wendy Maruyama
I don't really know. I mean, I wish I knew because it was the coolest thing I thought, but it wasn't the price I remember how cheap it was, I sold the first few ones for 500 bucks that's basically almost the cost of materials. But you know, nowadays, but I guess maybe because it sort of had a vintage reference to it, it just became iconic over the years. I think it took a couple of museums to highlight it. I think um it really helps when a museum supports your work and that more people would notice it. I think one of the first museums to acquire this piece was the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Glenn Adamson was the curator back then and he was creating a show about post modernism which of course this took place in the 80's. And so it was just sheer luck that Glenn wanted to utilize that chair for the collection and pushed it. Actually he pushed it from somebody else who bought it for hardly anything, and then like sold it for like a butt load of money. But I finally got my due after a bunch of... I was able to sell those chairs at a fair price, shortly after that. I hate talking about money, anyway.
Robb Helmkamp
It's kind of neat to see that they have a life that is now on to almost 42 plus years.
Wendy Maruyama
Yeah.
Robb Helmkamp
So you said you just made 10 More of them for the fall? What's it like making a piece after 42 years and I know you have made them, you know, on the way but 42 years after the first one. That's great.
25:50 Wendy Maruyama
Yeah. It's interesting because I've been invited to participate in a chair show here in San Diego. I was, oh God... I don't even know why I said yes. But I said yes. And I was back at the same place drawing the same stick chair over and over and over again. So finally just out of necessity I had to stop and I started ripping from three quarter inch square cherry stock and started making what looks like a ladder making a ladder but it's actually a ladder with the a little chair stuck on the bottom and the foot rail I made what looks like little mouse ears sitting at the top just because I needed to get it done you know, but it came out kind of cute. I mean it's cute. So I call it Matador because it looks like a little matador hat you know those little hats that bullfighters wear. That's kind of like a offshoot of Mickey Mackintosh in a way. Maybe I am doomed to that kind of chair design?
Robb Helmkamp
I wouldn't call it doom. I mean, it's almost iconic now that you... you know, you know that you can incorporate that shape to your chairs.
Wendy Maruyama
It's doom, It's doom, I'm doomed.
Robb Helmkamp
Ah it's not Doom!
Wendy Maruyama
I love that word "DOOMED
Robb Helmkamp
It's a good word.
Erik Wolken
I think your next piece ought to be called "Mickey Macintosh Doomed" And you can riff off of that ide
Wendy Maruyama
Yeah.
Erik Wolken
Maybe Mickey's ears fall off? So moving along past Mickey and through time. There is a wonderful episode of you on the Craft in America Series on PBS. And it is the Identity episode. And I think you do a wonderful job in that episode of explaining all of your different identities. And I was just sort of hoping that you would go back and sort of rehash that little piece for us?
28:03 Wendy Maruyama
Well you know... I was born with a hearing deficiency, I am about 80% deaf and I also have cerebral palsy, which has not really limited me too much, but it does affect my motor control. So you know, as much as I didn't like that identity over the years, in the last 10 years maybe, I started to learn to embrace that identity. In the past I tried to ignore it. And not think about it so much. Then I realized maybe it was not a good idea because people may find it noticeable and I should be up front about it so that people maybe would feel less uncomfortable with hearing me or seeing me for the first time. And if I can embrace that I think it makes it easier for other people to embrace it as well. That is my theory anyway. And then there's the Asian identity. I probably didn't even know I was Asian until grade school. When people were asking me if I was Chinese or Japanese. I would go home and ask Mom, "Are we Chinese or Japanese?" or they would ask me if Dad knew how to do Judo. And you know that kind of thing and that's when I realized they were kind of, being Asian was, was a thing. And then of course I identify as being a maker that's a huge one for me. I am very proud to be a maker, I am very proud to be a crafts person and I am fortunate that I have that too. I guess it's kind of a form of therapy, maybe? I don't know what I would do without that skill. You know? Anyway, so those are my identities that you know some are less obvious than others, and oh being a woman, that's another one
Robb Helmkamp
And so on being a woman, you were one of the very first women to graduate with a master's in furniture and design from RIT.
30:54 Wendy Maruyama
Kind of hard to believe! I can't even believe that's the big deal now, you know, but yeah I guess. There are plenty of other students female students in the program, but they were undergrads. And when they said, you know, you and Gail Smith (Gail Fredell) are going to be the first MFA students to graduate from RIT. I was like wow, you know, ok.
Robb Helmkamp
So what does this mean?
Wendy Maruyama
I don't know. Who cares anyway?
Robb Helmkamp
Yeah, that's… a that's a great attitude to have about it. Yeah, it's like you are being an iconoclast without knowing it.
31:48 Wendy Maruyama
Maybe that's a good way to put it. No, I was not really aware of that. And it was really funny because after I graduated there was kind of a slew of exhibitions that were called "woman woodworkers" and "women in wood". I guess that was a good thing? I know that a lot of other woman woodworkers feel kind of ambivalent about that, and I could understand that. I mean you want to be accepted as a woodworker regardless of whether your male or female. On the other hand you want to sort of prove something. I'm happy to be able to represent to put it that way. But I don't want it to be the only thing that kind of identifies my work I want to be acknowledged for what I can do and what I like to do. I suppose that would be a hard discussion in itself?
Erik Wolken
This is the end of part 1 of our discussion with Wendy Maruyama. Please make sure to listen to part 2 as well
