Gregory Beson
I own a small wooden mug, gifted to me some ten years ago. The mug is a carved birch burl able to contain little more than 150 ml of liquid. It’s shape is plump and soft, fitting nicely in the contour of the hand. The mug requires a balanced and attentive stride when filled with morning coffee. It slows pace, brings awareness, offers joy; centering me each day as I walk my old dog.
After years of use the oils of the coffee beans have stained the interior a dark brown, indirectly charred by the roasted beans. It’s outer surface is speckled with traces of liquid streaming down to the base. It’s handle has darkened where my fingers have held it for years. These are the evidence of a life lived and shared. This vessel is a beacon. A simple artifact which holds memory and experience both tangible and poetic. A statement against disposable cups and a starter of conversations.
A little mug can serve as an exemplar of what I believe designed objects and artifacts should offer our world. My practice strives to consider the responsibility and implications of the objects I bring into the world. It considers how to create objects of meaning; through materiality, semantics, aesthetics and poetics. In this way, I create pieces to be lived with, which can become a part of an individual's daily life. To eventually embody their own memories and meanings.
We are in a time of disconnect and expedited pace. This way of practicing is focused on varied means to help people slow down, reflect, ruminate and connect to one another and the world in which we all share. To consider their own part of this shared space we all inhabit. Where we are, have been and might hope to be.
2022
Haystack Open Residency
The decks of @haystack_school are its arteries. The boards are unfinished hemlock, left to grey and bare the Maine winter snow and summer sun. Every ten years or more individual planks need to be replaced due to rot, cracking or splintering. The maintenance staff marks them with a small spray of yellow spray paint when their service is complete.
After talking with the staff, I was led to a burn pile of these planks and saw they might still have yet another life left to live.
This bench was informed by the architecture and the methods of construction and fabrication used for the decking.
In this small exercise I was able to both collaborate with Edward Larabee Barnes and create a new meeting space for my fellow residence of Haystack.
What a gift I was given.
Summer 2020
Gregory BesonA collection like this did not begin as a sketch or even as a conceptual idea. It began as a conversation. With friends, family, lovers, clients and students. With authors deceased, yet ever present in conversation and dialogue. Definitions of home are for each one of us to conjure and create.
It is my belief the pieces of furniture and artifacts which populate our interior spaces are essential to making a home. The rituals we perform, routes we travel and habits we repeat each day are the physical actions taken which manifest a home feeling. The artifacts which provide the stage for these acts are indivisible collaborators, providing the armature of a shelter beyond walls.
A walnut cutting board gifted for a new apartment allows the recipient to create a notch, a cut each time they nourish themselves and others. Breaking of the bread, recorded across the grain. Yet not all marks are physical and seeable. Experiences, both profound and mundane create notches in our memories.
Be it a fixture in daily routine, or an accessory seen in passing, these artifacts are what hold together the home space we create. When moving, does not the feeling of home slowly evaporate with each picture frame removed, each book packed away? Artifacts weave our experience into the present by revealing a past and giving a reassurance for the future. That chair will still be waiting for me when I return at the end of the day as it sat patiently for my mother for so many years. This knowledge can offer reassurance, continuity and a sense of place.
This small collection of varied typologies has been created for you to weave into your home. Made singularly of American Walnut wood they offer opportunity for a lifelong communion with a material. Patient slow growth rewarding us with its rich texture and tone in its second life. I wish you could smell the wood being cut, it is both sweet and bitter.
Each is a surface to present the artifacts of a life being lived, one being shared. Spring cherry blossoms in a vase on a sunny afternoon. A single candle on a cold November evening. A new friend sharing a meal, at dusk on the summer solstice. These memories we create, the spaces in which we live each day, this is our home.
In the spring of 2018 I was introduced to Karen Davidov of HMA2 architects in NYC. She had been interested in my discussions with another colleague related to theories of making and the hand / brain connection which craftsmanship provides. I was repeating the idea that tools, in the hands of skilled makers become extensions of the hand. Thus also an extension of the brain / imagination. Karen approached me and proceeded to discuss her grandfathers scissors–he was a tailor–and how that tool to her was a representation of the man, his life, and his skill. Ultimately she was relaying the inspiration she felt which the tool embodied. From there we then discussed everything from choreography to jewelry. I immediately knew I was lucky to meet this woman. I had before this time been feeling a bit down on the design community in NYC I had (or did not have). I had yet to meet people I found deep connection with and who challenged me.
At the end of our meandering conversation she asked, “so you’re a woodworker?” I agreed that I was, and she suggested I meet a client which the firm was completing a home for in Sands Point, NY. This led to one of the most enjoyable collaborations with a client and firm I’ve have had to date.
The client was very clear to begin; her family was going to “really use,” the proposed table. She was communicating what I too value: objects must be used and enjoyed, objects are woven into the fabric of our daily routines and therefore become imbued with memories. This life, history and memory is shown in dings, wine rings, shoe marks on the base, wear and patination on the surface. The table is one of the best pieces in the home at projecting the history and use of the place. It is a multi use piece available to all members of the household equally.
I was overjoyed to be able to work with a client who shared my own ideals and values. A client who trusted me and allowed me to dictate what would fit their beautiful new home.
I chose two book matched slabs of black walnut from Pennsylvania for the top. These were two of the best slabs I had seen in sometime and they were perfect for the home and family. I made the base from flat sawn white oak to give the table some contrast. From talking with the client they wanted this table to last generations and live in the house for as long as it stands. So, I made the table feel heavy. As if it was just as much a part of the house as the brick.
I also specified the chairs. Wishbones were considered but we needed something new yet with a tie to historical precedents. The splinter chair by Nendo was agreed upon. I liked them so much I even have one at my home!
While not everyone can afford to have a table such as this designed specifically for them anyone can form memories around a piece of furniture. It only takes care, focus and love. To more dinners with those you care for.