Ashley Eriksmoen
Media: Wood, Furniture, Sculpture
As a furniture maker, I strive to find ways to connect people to their personal spaces. How? I make domestic objects out of wood. Or one might say I domesticate wood into objects, taking wood from its wild, natural state to one that will behave indoors without losing its living spirit.
My creations push beyond their functional objecthood to become more like friends of the house. Combining the highest level of craft with my artist’s obsession for drawing and sculpting the living world, I work to infuse functional objects with movement and personality to make all rooms living rooms. Rather than relying on the standard machine operations, right angles, and flat lines common to our man made world, I seek out asymmetry, natural curves, and hand-shape forms. While designing and building, I visualize an imaginary skeleton in the furniture and how it might stand, sit, and slump depending on its mood and situation. Applying stance and body language to furnishings, I suggest that these objects are exhibiting human behaviors and