User:Craiger19/sandbox/Norm Sartorius

'''Norm Sartorius

Norm Sartorius is an American woodworker who carves fine wooden spoons. Largely self taught, he has explored the common wooden spoon as a context for one-of-a-kind sculptures that span many styles including natural, biomorphic, abstract, symbolic, ethnic, and ceremonial. Called a "Great American Woodworker" in 2012, his works are in major museums and galleries such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery, the Yale Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and many other public and private collections. He is a frequent participant in the premier woodworking and craft shows in America, and won the Award of Excellence at both the 2015 American Craft Council show in Baltimore and the 2015 Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington, DC. Since 2007, he has co-directed a grant-funded research project on the life, work, and legacy of American woodworker Emil Milan.

Early life and education
Sartorius was born in Salisbury, MD and grew up on the Maryland Eastern Shore, the son of a country doctor. The arts were not emphasized in his family, certainly not as a potential career. He was, however, highly attuned to nature as a child and noticed forms and patterns in sand, shells, leaves, seedpods, waves, and clouds. He found the effects of natural processes such as erosion, weathering, rust, wear, and decay particularly interesting.

He received his BA in Psychology from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) in 1969, then worked as a psychiatric social worker for a few years at the Maryland State Mental Hospital. He found that work unfulfilling and longed for a job that resulted in more tangible products. Lacking any background whatsoever, he completed an apprenticeship with versatile crafters Phil and Sandye Jurus (Jurus Studio, Baltimore, MD), who had studied with Emil Milan. There, he learned how to make small functional wooden items such as cutting boards, bracelets, light switch covers, and kitchen utensils including spoons. More than skills, he learned about craft as a business and had his first role models on how to live life centered on craft and creativity. From the start, he felt compelled to make wooden spoons.

Early career
In the mid-1970s, he moved to West Virgina and started selling wooden works including cutting boards, pie servers, canes, knife racks, and spoons at regional craft fairs. He noticed early on that people responded most to his unique wooden spoons. He credits studio furniture maker Bobby Reed Falwell, whom he met at such a craft fair, with encouraging him to focus more on spoons and to see spoons as small sculptures. He became an assistant at Falwell's studio in 1980-81 (Lexington, KY) and later completed workshops with noted woodworkers David Ellsworth, John Jordon, Al Stirt, Del Stubbs, Bonnie Klein and Michelle Holzapfel.

Early exhibitions of his works included the West Virgina Craft Exhibit at the Union Carbide Gallery, New York City (1977) and an invitational exhibit at the Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC (1979). In 1979, he was juried into the American Craft Council craft show in Baltimore, and a work of his was selected for the Fine Woodworking Design Book. In 1981, he received the Governor's Award of Excellence at the West Virginia Juried Exhibition.

After moving to Parkersburg, WV in 1982, he started focusing more exclusively on fine art spoons. In 1986, his spoons were featured in an exhibit at the Pro-Art Gallery in St. Louis in conjunction with the Craft Alliance's high-level Wooden Vessels exhibit. Other early exhibits included the Huntington Gallery (WV) traveling craft exhibit (1985–86); another exhibit at the Pro-Art Gallery entitled The Medium is Wood (1987); and the exhibit Contemporary Works in Wood at the Cultural Arts Center, Athens, Ohio (1986, 1989). The 1990 American Craft Council show in Atlanta has been cited as a major turning point for Sartorius' career. He focused exclusively on high end spoons and redesigned his booth to create a gallery-like environment, presenting each spoon as a sculpture. It was there that he met and made his first sale to Robyn and John Horn, major collectors and patrons of American craft.

Artistic approach and influences
Sartorius' career explores the sculptural possibilities of the simple wooden spoon. He sees the concept of "spoon" like any other craft category such as "bowl," "plate," or "teapot," in that each allows endless exploration of form, size, color, texture, symbolism, meaning, and emotional valence. His works not only explore the possibilities of what it means to be a spoon, but "play with deep-seated assumptions regarding a spoon's characteristics." As he has said, "Spoons are an infinite category. You can make thousands and no two are alike."

Several artistic influences have been noted in Sartorius' career. First, Sartorius credits his early exposure to James Krenov's classic book A Cabinetmakers' Notebook (1976) with stimulating his sensitivity to the unique character of each piece of wood, as opposed to seeing it as a commodity material. Second, he attributes his sculptural style that shuns embellishment in favor of pure line and form to Emil Milan, an American woodworker who trained as a sculptor. Although Sartorius never met Milan, his first mentors, Phil and Sandye Jurus, apprenticed with Milan and passed on key aspects of his approach, artistic sensibility, design philosophy, and tool use. Sartorius' sculpture Homage now in the Yale Art Gallery is a tribute to Milan. Two other acknowledged influences are Dona Meilach's books on small wooden works and Stephen Hogbin's articles in Fine Woodworking magazine and his seminal book Woodturning: The purpose of the object (1980).

Sartorius has cited three specific sources of design inspiration. First, drawing on spoon-making traditions in diverse cultures, his influences have ranged from Northwest Coast Native American horn spoons to carved ivory spoons from West Africa. These influences broadened and deepened following a grant to study and photograph spoons from around the world. Second, he draws considerable inspiration from nature. In an interview, he stated that he "sees spoons" in everything, particularly in natural forms such as seedpods, leaves, flowers, and found and weathered objects. Growing up on the Maryland Eastern Shore, the influence of seashells, crustaceans, kelp, shore birds and other sealife often show through in this work. Third, he is inspired by the wood itself, particularly contrasting heartwood and sapwood colors, unusual grain, knots, textures, or weathering in a piece. Every piece he crafts, he has said, "starts with the wood itself." In fact, he estimates the characteristics of the piece of wood itself suggest the size and shape of more than 75% of his finished pieces.

Overall, he describes his creative approach as intuitive. He tends to react to each particular piece of wood rather than forcing his own design intentions. "The wood is usually the inspiration for the first cuts," he says. "And the shape of the piece has to do with the texture, grain, and figure of it..." He leaves his most interesting pieces of wood lying around his shop, often for months on end, to revisit them and contemplate possible spoons that lie within. Once he sees the spoon a piece can become, he pounces on it because he feels his creative inspirations cannot be turned on and off, but can be recognized and channeled.

Wood, tools, and work process
Sartorius prefers to work with very dense hardwoods, especially root wood and burls with contrasting colors of heartwood and sapwood, intense figure or grain patterns, and unique character from knots, defects, damage, weathering, or other idiosyncrasies. Much of his work has used exotic woods such as Hounduras rosewood, amboyna, cocobolo, Macassar ebony, koa, pink ivory, Brazil wood, kingwood, chechen, and afzelia. He has often used woods from Australia including conkerberry, paela, budgeroo, needlewood, flame sheoak, river gum, jarrah, chittum, Australian snakewood, lacey sheoak, grasstree, and curly river oak. North American hardwoods have included leadwood, desert ironwood, mesquite, juniper, manzanita, madrone, American holly, algerita, and yew to name a few.

Sartorius usually follows the same sequence of steps when crafting his spoons. First, he uses a bandsaw to roughly shape the overall form of the spoon. Then, an inflatable sanding drum with very coarse 24-grit sandpaper is used to remove saw marks, smooth out the facets of the cuts, and shape the convex curves of the exterior of the bowl. He determines the exterior shape first before working on the inside of the spoon bowl. "It fixes the outside form," he has said, "which is scupturally what one sees first." A die grinder (rotary tool) with a carbide cutter is then used to remove mass from the concave interior of the bowl. A smaller cutter is used to further shape the piece, particularly the transition between the bowl and the handle, which he sees as particualrly critical. The fine details of the spoon are made with a carving knife, then a die grinder with a ball-shaped burr is used to clean up and refine the interior of the spoon bowl. This is followed by hours of hand work, sanding, scraping, and polishing the work.

Works
Sartorius has produced a wide range of one-of-a-kind works. The 9" lilac spoon (1992) below, and the spoon crafted from red amboyna, illustrate the range of his small-to-medium sized fine art spoons. In his Collaborations With Nature series, natural features of the wood remain untouched. These natural features frame and highlight the more refined and polished areas as shown by the desert root wood spoon below.  In recent years, Sartorius has begun to make larger sculptural woks (15" -24" height).  These often reflect recurring design elements seen in his spoons as shown in the Ditchdigger sculpture below.

Major works
Several of his major works are in gallery and musem collections. Conquistador (16" X 8" X 7") is carved from Honduras Rosewood Burl is in the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery. Homage  a tribute to Emil Milan, this work was crafted from a discard piece of cocobolo found in Milan's barn workshop in Thompson, PA.  It depicts a conjoined serving bowl form by Milan and spoon shape by Sartorius.Spoon From A Forgotten Ceremony (17" X 2.5" X 2") is carved from Jamacian Dogwood with ebony stands and is in the Arkansas Art Center.

Selected craft shows
Throughout his career, Sartorius has been a frequent participant in the top invitational and juried craft shows in the United States. These include:
 * The Smithsonian Craft Show
 * Washington, DC, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995,1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012-2015
 * American Craft Council Craft Fair
 * Baltimore, Maryland, 1979, 1991, 1993, 1995-2007, 2009-2015
 * Atlanta, Georgia, 1990, 1991, 2004, 2010
 * St. Paul, Minneapolis, 2001
 * San Francisco, California, 1992
 * West Springfield, Massachusetts, 1984, 1985, 1992
 * Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show
 * Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1991-1995, 1998-2001, 2003–2004, 2007-2014
 * American Craft Exposition
 * Evanston, Illinois, 1993, 1995-2005, 2007, 2008-2015
 * West Palm Beach Craft Show
 * West Palm Beach, FL 2005, 2006,2009
 * Washington Craft Expo
 * Washington, DC 1992, 1993, 1997, 1999-2003, 2005-2007
 * Craft Boston (Society of Arts & Crafts)
 * Boston, MA 2003, 2004
 * Crafts at the Castle
 * Boston, MA 2004
 * Westchester Craft Show
 * Westchester Counthy, NY 1994

Selected exhibitions
Works by Sartorius have been selected for dozens of major exhibits across the United States. Notable among these are:

Beyond Boundaries (2014) Nature in Craft (2013) Across the Grain (2013) Poplar Culture (2012)
 * Sponsored by the Collectors of Wood Art and curated by Emily Zilber, Decorative Arts Curator, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Beyond Boundaries exhibit was held at the Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (SOFA Chicago) show, November 2014. It included Sartorius' work "Monument Valley" carved from Australian flame sheoak burl.
 * Three fine art spoons by Sartorius were selected for the Nature in Craft exhibit at the Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA, December 2013 to January 2014. The exhibit sought to trace how artists incorporate nature in their works through material, concept and execution.
 * The Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA, drew from turned and carved works, including a piece by Sartorius for the Across the Grain exhibit held April 10 – September 10, 2013.
 * Celebrating a fallen poplar tree that for decades graced Wharton Esherick's studio, the Wharton Esherick Museum distributed the wood to more than 40 woodworkers including Sartorius, who carved three spoons inspired by Esherick's unique studio furniture: the Fischer Sewing Cabinet, the Head of Dreiser, and the sculpture Spring Beauty. The exhibit was held May–June 2012 at Historic Yellow Springs, Chester Springs, PA.

What is Beautiful? (2012)
 * An exhibit at SOFA Chicago curated by Charlotte Wainwright, founding Director of the Gregg Museum of Art & Design, included two sculptural spoons by Sartorius entitled "Beneath The Surface" and "Classic, 2011."

Is Ornament a Crime? (2010) A Revolution in Wood (2010)
 * Curated by Cindi Straus, Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this exhibit was held at SOFA Chicago, November 2010. Sponsored by the Collectors of Wood Art, this exhibit re-examined the role of decoration in wood art.
 * In 2010, the Smithsonian American Art Musuem held a major exhibition of the collection of wood art by Fleur and Charles Bressler entitled A Revolution In Wood. The exhibit opened in the Renwick Gallery September 24, 2010 and ran through January 30, 2011 in Washington, DC.

A Gathering of Spoons (2010)
 * Norman Stevens extensive collection of carved wooden spoons was the focus of an exhibit entitled "A Gathering of Spoons" held at the Gallery of Wood Art, St. Paul, MN, March 2 to May 24, 2010. A symposium on the exhibit was held at the American Association of Woodturners annual meeting, Hartford, CT, June 18 – 20, 2010.

DysFUNctional (2008-2011)
 * The Center for Art in Wood's seventh "Challenge" to wood artists led to an exhibit of highly creative, often humorous, and entirely nonfunctional works entitled "DysFUNctional". Held at the Center in Philadelphia, PA, October 3, 2008 - January 17, 2009, the exhibit included Sartorius' work Old and In the Way made from desert wood from Texas.  The exhibit toured five other venues across the US from 2009-2011.

Yale Collects Wood (2002)
 * Pat Kane, Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Yale Art Gallery drew from the gifts of John and Robyn Horn to create the exhibit ''Yale Collects Wood."

Wood--Small Treasures (2000-2002, 2004, 2006-2007, 2009)
 * A series of exhibits held at del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, California, have showcased smaller works by leading artists in wood.

Woodturning in North America Since 1930 (2001-2002)
 * A colloboration between the Center for Art in Wood and the Yale Art Gallery produced a major book on the evolution of woodturning in America and a corresponding exhibit that toured the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (2001); the Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC (2002); and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (2002). The exhibit included a ceremonial spoon sculpture by Sartorius entitled Spoon From a Forgotten Ceremony.

Objects for Use: Handmade by Design (2001-2002)
 * American Craft Museum, New York, New York

Living With Form (2000)
 * This exhibit focused on the collection of wood art by Robyn Horn and her husband.

Art in Embassies Program (1998-2001)
 * Works by Sartorius have been selected for the annual exhibits at the American Embassy, Brussels, Belgium.

Expressions in Wood (1997-98)
 * Featuring masterworks from The Wornick Collection this exhibit toured the Oakland Museum of California, 1997; McAllen International Museum, McAllen, TX, 1997; and the American Craft Museum, NY, 1998

West Virginia Juried Exhibition (1995-96, 1999-2000, 2005, 2007, 2008)
 * Sartorius has been selected many times for this exhibit in his home state by the West Virgina Department of Culture and History, Parkersburg, WV.

Challenge V, Lathe-Turned Objects, (1994-97)
 * The fifth in the "Challenge" series to woodworkers, this exhibit by the the Wood Turning Center (now Center for Art in Wood) in Philadelphia, PA was a breakthrough for Sartorius who added lathe work to his repertoire and opened up a new clientele of collectors. His iconic work "Spoon From a Forgotten Ceremony" toured with this exhibit starting at the Berman Museum Collegeville, PA to twelve other venues across the US.

The Year of American Craft'' (1993–94)
 * President George H. W. Bush declared 1993 "The Year of American Craft" resulting in over 70 master works being selected for the White House craft collection and spawning regional traveling exhibits. Sartorius' works were included in the exhibits at the Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV; West Virginia Department of Cultural and History, Charleston;; Sunrise Museums, Charleston; and the Governor's Mansion, State of West Virginia.

Permanent collections

 * Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR (3 spoons)
 * Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC (3 spoons)
 * Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (8 spoons)
 * The Center for Art in Wood, Philadelphia, PA (2 spoons)
 * The Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA (2 spoons)
 * Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI (1 spoon)
 * Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA (6 spoons)
 * Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh, NC (3 spoons)
 * Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN (4 spoons)
 * Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC (2 spoons)
 * Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL (1 spoon)
 * Museum of Art and Design, New York, (3 spoons)
 * Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (2 spoons)
 * Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (3 spoons)
 * Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI (6 works)
 * Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC (9 works)
 * West Virginia Department of Culture & History Permanent Collection, Charleston, WV (3 spoons)
 * Woodcraft Supply Corporation, Parkersburg, WV (1 spoon)
 * Yale Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (7 works)

Fellowships and awards

 * Collectors of Wood Art Award of Excellence for Art in Wood, Smithsonian Craft Show 2015
 * Collectors of Wood Art Award of Excellence for Art in Wood, American Craft Council Fair,  Baltimore 2015
 * Fellowship Award, Tamarack Artisan Foundation, 2014
 * Silver Award, Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington, DC, 2012
 * Best of Show, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, 2009
 * Merit Award, West Virginia Juried Exhibition, 2007
 * Excellence Award, American Craft Exposition, Evanston, IL, 2007
 * Award of Excellence, the Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington, DC, 1996, 2000, 2002
 * Newtensil Exhibit, Wharton Esherick Museum, Paoli, PA, 1999
 * Wharton Esherick Award, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, Philadelphia, PA, 1998
 * Best in Wood, Washington Craft Expo, Washington, DC, 1997
 * Best in Wood, American Craft Exposition, Evanston, IL, 1996
 * Honorable Mention, the Smithsonian Craft Show, Washington, DC, 1995
 * Craft Fellowship Award & Exhibit, West Virginia Commission on the Arts, Charleston, WV, 1993–94
 * Award of Excellence, West Virginia Juried Exhibition, 1991
 * Governor's Award of Excellence, West Virginia Juried Exhibition, 1989
 * Governor's Award of Excellence, West Virginia Juried Exhibition, 1981

Conferences, speaking, and teaching

 * Speaker and panelist, the Connecting Circles Symposium on the life, work, and legacy of Emil Milan, WHYY Studios, Philadelphia, PA, January 15, 2015
 * Panelist, opening reception for the exhibit Emil Milan: Midcentury Designer Craftsman, Henry Gallery, Malvern, PA, June 9, 2014
 * Panelist, opening reception for the exhibit A Revolution In Wood held at the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, September 24, 2010.
 * Participant, Echo Lake Conference, Bucks County Community College, Newtown, PA, 2009, 2012
 * Instructor, Common Ground on the Hill (Woodcarving classes), McDaniel College, Westminster, MD, 1997, 1999-2002, 2004-2005
 * Instructor, Cedar Lakes Craft Center (Woodcarving demonstrations and workshops), Ripley, WV, 1997, 1999
 * Instructor, Wood County Public Schools (Woodcarving demonstrations), Parkersburg, WV, 1996, 1997

Media coverage

 * The Crafts Report, article April/May 2013
 * American Woodworker magazine, a "Great American Woodworker" feature article, June/July 2012
 * The Hill (alumni magazine of McDaniel College) article 2008
 * Woodwork, magazine, cover feature article, June 2006
 * The Carol Duvall Show, HGTV, 2001
 * Turning Points, peridocial publication of the Wood Turning Center, Winter 1999-2000
 * American Style, magazine, Summer 1998
 * The Craft Report, September 1995
 * Woodshop News, Cover feature article, June 1995
 * Home Magazine, October 1994
 * Woodwork, gallery selection, June 1994, December 1993
 * Woodcraft Supply Catalog, cover feature, February 1994
 * Washington Post, Washington Home, April 1993
 * Woodturning, (Journal of the Guild of Master Craftsman, England) article March/April 1993
 * American Craft, magazine gallery selection, February–March 1992, Gallery, April–May 1994
 * Fine Woodworking, magazine article, October 1991
 * American Craft magazine, Portfolio selection, August–September 1991

The Emil Milan research project
Since 2008, Sartorius has collaborated with woodworkers Phil Jurus and Barry Gordon on a research project focused on the life, work, and legacy of American master craftsman Emil Milan. Funded by a grant from the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design, the Emil Milan Research Project has resulted in an article in Woodwork magazine and a research report containing extensive biographical and archival material. Sartorius played a major role in curating the exhibit entitled Emil Milan: Midcentury Designer Craftsman held at the Henry Gallery on the campus of Penn State Great Valley in Malvern, PA June 9 – September 26, 2014. The exhibit, which included works by Sartorius, traveled to the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia and was expanded to include 19 artists influenced by Milan. The exhibit, entitled Rediscovering Emil Milan and his Circle of Influence, was  held at the Center November 7, 2014 – January 24, 2015. Sartorius was a speaker and panelist at a symposium held in conjunction with the exhibit focusing on Milan’s life, work, and influence.