John Castner is a woodturner and live-edge wall artist working in burl, spalted, and figured woods from his studio in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania. His pieces find the form hidden in the wood rather than impose one on it: hollow vessels with paper-thin walls, wall reliefs that follow the natural edge, bowls polished until the grain reads like topography.
John was inspired by the works of David Ellsworth and Mark Lindquist, both pioneers who lifted wood turning out of craft and propelled it into fine art. Ellsworth, founder of the American Association of Woodturners, developed the hollowform techniques that redefined what a piece of turned wood could become. Lindquist, whose spalted and sculpted vessels now live in the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, brought a sculptor's ambition to the lathe. Together they proved that wood deserved a place in museums, not just workshops.
Each piece in this collection is one of one. The wood decides.
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