THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502100073
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ANN BARRY BURROWS, SPECIAL TO HOME & GARDEN
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
THERE'S A NEW gallery in Hampton Roads where you can pick up a piece of authentic Virginia art - and sit, sleep or dine on it.
Four master furniture makers from across the state are showing, and selling, their creations at the Mulligan Gallery in Virginia Beach. But this is no ordinary furniture.
Called ``art furniture,'' the pieces are beautifully crafted and full of meaning and inspiration. William Mulligan, gallery director, has brought together what he believes is the largest collection of art furniture in Virginia.
``I've had an interest in furniture as an art form,''
Mulligan said. ``I consider art to be a continuum from two-dimensional art to sculpture and furniture and even architecture.
``We will continue to add and refine, but right now we have what I would have liked to have had on day one.''
His gallery opened in October inside the Chambord Antique and Design Center in Virginia Beach. The art furniture exhibition will continue through March 18.
Mulligan himself is a sculptor, and the gallery includes some of his human forms in clay and bronze. He also has begun making window valances and mirrors and mirror tables out of polystyrene, a lightweight material that serves home decorating well.
An upcoming lecture by Norman Goodwin will continue the theme of art and interior decor. Goodwin is an artist and an art professor at Old Dominion University and is on the board of directors of the Muscarelle Museum in Williamsburg.
From 7:30 to 9 p.m. on March 3 he will talk about the hanging and displaying of art and collections and eclectic combinations of the old and the new, among other things. Other free lectures planned at the gallery later this year will address art criticism and appraisal, the creative process and the limited-edition print.
At the Feb. 3 opening of the art furniture exhibition, the evening was devoted to furniture as art and to meeting the men who conceived and crafted the 25 pieces on display.
Artisan Ronald Puckett brought furniture of such elaborate craftsmanship, with traditional influences, that viewers could only gasp. He has been designing and building fine furniture for 15 years from a studio in Hanover County.
Cherry, ash and mahogany woods were often mixed and combined with painted and gold-leaf effects on a poster bed, leather chair, dressers and cabinets and tables. In the past year his work has been featured in magazines such as Southern Accents, Interior Design and Metropolitan Home.
Similarly styled furniture was exhibited by John Harvey, a Richmond artist who attended college with Puckett. Harvey is nothing if not experienced. He has made keepsake boxes from exotic hardwoods for 15 years, producing about 15 a week - an estimated 8,580 in all. Unlike those standard gift-shop items, he seems to develop an affection and sense of possessiveness for the major furniture pieces he creates.
``With the prices some people pay for them, I know they will take care of them,'' he said. ``They will treat them differently than, say, a soda can.'' That knowledge helps him let go of his work, even though, he said, it's like losing your favorite puppies.
The third artist is not a full-time furniture designer, but a psychotherapist from Newport News. Tom Wessell began making furniture about six years ago and told the crowd that it has become more than a hobby. In fact, he said, his work and his art are beginning to merge.
Psychic issues of self, of temporalness and spirituality and of life and death are suggested in the furniture he creates. In so doing, he transforms utilitarian objects such as a clothes tree, a coffee table and a blanket chest into fantasy creations with deep meanings.
It is wholesome to live with artful objects, Wessell said. ``Things in your environment can influence you,'' he said. Thus furniture with a spiritual value ``can help you stay focused and help you deal with life's issues.''
Within the Mulligan Gallery, Wessell has no franchise on originality. The sculpted work of Ashland artisan Charles Sthreshley is made from tinted concrete which, as literature from the Sthreshley Studios suggests, conforms to the body like sand underfoot.
Sthreshley's work is being shown concurrently in Palm Beach, Fla., at the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum. An exhibition there titled ``Please be seated'' includes Sthreshley's work, ``Seat of the Sand King.''
Popular in beach communities, his indoor-outdoor furniture is fanciful and more like art than furniture. Yet it is extremely useful, shaped for sitting and dining. One problem, however, is extreme weight. A blue bench inspired by the Stonehenge ruins weighs about 200 pounds.
``There is so much in each piece,'' says Mulligan of the art furniture. Prices range upward from $2,000, so, he noted, the furniture is more likely than mass-produced art or factory-made furniture to be cared for and to appreciate in value. ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER/Staff color photos
CHARLES STHRESHLEY SCULPTED HIS ``BLUESTONE BENCH'' OF CONCRETE.
JOHN HARVEY'S WOOD CURIO CABINET EVOKES THE IMAGE OF A NEW YORK
SKYSCRAPER.
TOM WESSELL'S WORK AS A PSYCHOTHERAPIST MERGES WITH HIS ART IN THIS
WHIMSICAL CLOTHES TREE LOADED WITH JUNGIAN SYMBOLISM.
Photo
Charles Sthreshley's ``Botanical Table'' is of concrete, steel and
glass.
by CNB