By Miles Hilton
Next Friday, head to Pearl City Clay House (220 East 2nd Street) in Jamestown for an exploration of the past, present, and future of the art of woodworking and furniture making. A new exhibit, “Innovation from Tradition: a modern interpretation of Jamestown’s furniture making legacy” will open on December 13th, from 6-8pm. A Q&A with the artist, woodworker Brian Millspaw, will be held in the space on December 14th, from 1-4pm. Millspaw is owner of Millspaw Furniture Design, and can be found online at www.millspaw.com, and on Instagram at millspaw_furniture_design.
The exhibit, funded by a New York State Council on the Arts ‘support for artists’ grant, is a “celebration of the history” of furniture making in the Jamestown area, according to Millspaw. Examples of Jamestown furniture from the last century and advertisements from the industry’s heyday will share space with Millspaw’s contemporary creations, as well as explainers on the modern tools he works with, such as CNC machines and 3D modeling software.
“Making furniture has always been my job. It’s also a passion,” says Millspaw, who moved to the Jamestown area to work in the woodworking industry. An independent woodworker before entering furniture factories, Millspaw uses his “own practice after hours to level up” his professional skills. Conversely, the replicability of factory furniture construction inspired his approach to this solo show, which will feature chairs made by Millspaw, as well as those from Jamestown’s furniture-making past.
“I’m interested in chairs mostly because they are the most difficult of any kind of furniture,” says Millspaw. Compared to pieces such as cabinets or tables, which feature mostly right angles, “a chair is a lot more of a challenge.” Additionally, says Millspaw, “it’s the only type of furniture that you really touch a lot […] you interact with it constantly, and there’s way more forces applied.” This leads to certain design constraints, such as stretchers between the legs of a chair to help manage the applied forces, that Millspaw is always seeking to circumvent. This exhibit will showcase a new innovation that allows him to remove stretchers altogether, as well as deeply curved designs that took him several tries to perfect.
Unlike some of Pearl City Clay House’s past, more traditional art exhibits, Millspaw isn’t hoping to represent anything with his work except for “some idea, and doing whatever it takes to make it real.” “There’s a visual idea that I had and I didn’t want to give up on it” despite multiple failed attempts, he insists, “I wasn’t gonna compromise.”
Millspaw uses mostly local woods in his work, and takes inspiration from the material. Chairs, with their curves and lack of flat planes, are the “epitome of what wood wants to be.” As the exhibit, with it’s juxtaposition of tradition and modernism, shows craftspeople are always perfecting new ways to work with the material. This is what inspires Millspaw most. “Am I always looking for some way to push the limits?” he asks, and without waiting for an answer, says “yes, yes.”