Science and Art

You have said that you didn’t choose furniture making as a career, that it chose you. Were you already a maker? How did you discover woodworking and then decide that was your path?

I had taken some art classes, but didn’t think of myself as an artist or a maker (that term wasn’t in our lexicon back then!). After high school, I attended Bowdoin College, a small liberal arts school in Maine. We were required to take classes in many different areas, regardless of major. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I thought it was going to be something in science because I really enjoyed those classes in high school. And then I started taking art classes. I loved making something with my own two hands, yet I couldn’t see myself as a fine artist.

I felt I needed to choose between science and art, but neither felt exactly right. I decided to take some time off from college. I got a job as a nanny, and it was Robert, the father of the family, that introduced me to woodworking. One morning at breakfast, I was flipping through a Thomas Moser catalog, and I offhandedly said that I thought it would be cool to be able to make furniture because it is useful, but you can make