As
a teacher at the Kansas City Art Institute, April Pugh works in the school's Central
Shop, where students can drop in to receive help on any project that incorporates
woodworking. "Whether they're ceramic students or fiber art students or sculpture
students, whatever they need to design we help them build it," April said.
"It really covers the whole range of art work."
Number Five: Katie's Place
Philippine mahogany, wenge, cedar,
redwood,
white oak, leather
12 x 12 x 7 inches
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The
36-year-old Pugh relishes her position as a full-time instructor at the private
liberal arts college. She is immersed in the creative process, and she enjoys
helping find solutions to different problems a project may present.
"I
feel very, very lucky," April said. "Being in the position I'm in, I
feel like I learn something every day. The students who come to the Art Institute
bring with them a very fresh eye toward the world and their artwork that really
surprises me every day. I learn from them every day, and they learn from me.
"Whenever
I sort of get burnt out from my schedule, I just remind myself how lucky I am.
It is very rewarding to know that you're doing what you're supposed to be doing."
Miniature Number Six: Kemper
wenge, mahogany, tagua nut
6 x 4 x 4
inches
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Pugh
entered the world of woodworking in a roundabout way. When she was a 19-year-old
college student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, she began working part
time in a friend's workshop. "I kept having this nagging feeling in the back
of my head that I'm supposed to be doing something with my hands, even though
I had no training," April said. "I was absolutely at a crossroads. I
was wondering what I wanted to do."
At
about the same time, April, who was adopted at age 4 along with her older brother,
decided to find her biological family.
"We
were adopted out of Topeka, Kansas," April said. "I had a last name
for my father, who I got from my brother's newspaper birth announcement, and I
just got out the phone book and looked up Lowman."
Number One: Chanda
Douglas fir, ebony, curly maple, mahogany
12 x
11 x 5 inches
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After
first reaching a relative, she was soon on the phone with her biological father.
"I ended up finding my biological father and older sister, and they were
both artists," April said. "My father was a bronze sculptor, and my
sister was painting large billboards in LA. I found the experience to be very
profound."
Soon
after meeting her biological family, who she now keeps in close contact with,
April left college and immersed herself in woodworking. She worked full-time in
her friend's shop for a number of years until she was hired at the Art Institute
10 years ago.
While
April got her start in woodworking as a wood turner, she has developed her own
artistic and utilitarian style that incorporates a wide range of influences, primarily
Ray and Charles Eames and George Nakashima.
Cantilevered
Coffee Table
black walnut, ash
16.5 x 20 x 51 inches
Cherry Coffee Table
cherry, black walnut
17 x 18 x 30 inches
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"I'm
absolutely inspired by Ray and Charles Eames - kind of an industrial, very clean
modern look," she said. "The polar opposite perspective is George Nakashima's
style of taking a natural slab of wood with the natural edges and altering them
very little, and using Japanese joinery to make a utilitarian piece that is more
about the natural slab of wood.
"I
just think the way the Japanese (design and build projects) is so intelligent,
so clean - the non-mechanical joinery with wedged tenons and sliding dovetails.
They use the wood itself to make a joint using hand tools and chisels that I think
is so much more rewarding than using a table saw to make a mortise and tenon."
In
her home shop, which is literally in her home's living room, April oftentimes
displays a piece of wood for a long period of time so she can constantly look
at it and best determine how it should be used. "Some of my furniture that
(incorporates) raw slabs, it is the wood itself that inspires me; the grain, the
color. I've really tried to alter it as little as possible. I'm not one to use
dyes or stains. Sometimes it's just a magnificent switch of wood that inspires
me. As George Nakashima says, you just want to give it a second life."
"The
beauty of the wood presents itself and you want to turn it into a utilitarian
piece and make it useful. You glorify the piece by making a useful object."
 
Aluminum Barn
cypress, pine, redwood, leather
12 x 9 x 9 inches
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This
style is evident in April's piece Cantilevered Coffee Table, made from Black Walnut
and Ash, and her Cherry Coffee Table, which is made of Cherry and Black Walnut.
Another
aspect in much of April's work is the beauty of the structure itself, such as
her series of miniature round barns. Her Aluminum Barn and Shingled Barn are designed
after actual round barns, a building style that she is trying to preserve through
her work.
"If
you look at the round barn structures themselves, they're absolutely incredible,"
she said. "They are structurally beautiful objects. Round barns are disappearing
around the country. It's cheaper to just go get a metal pole barn than fix a round
barn. I hope through my art I can recognize some of the history and preserve it
somewhat."
April,
who includes working on her motorcycle and wooden and fiberglass boat-building
among her interests, plans to build a full-size round barn on the new property
she is buying. Eventually it will become her shop, which would be a considerable
change from her current in-home workshop.
"When
I told (my biological mother) I had a shop in the house, she wasn't sure what
to expect," April said. "When she visited for the first time she was
impressed by how clean and organized everything was."
Shingled Barn
redwood, oak, cedar, leather
15 x 9 x 9 inches
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While
April does most of her small projects at home, she also fully utilizes the Central
Shop at the Art Institute for larger projects, although it is hard to find uninterrupted
time to work on her own pieces.
For
many of her projects, April's favorite woods to work with are Mahogany and American
Black Walnut. "First of all, with Mahogany, it's a harder, dense wood, but
it machines so beautifully. Mahogany does everything you ask it to do, with the
exception of bending," April said. "American Black Walnut is just a
unique wood in that it's never boring. It has wonderful crotch grain patterns,
and the color is just amazing; reds and mochas. It is so deep and rich, by the
time you add oil to it the color just pops.
"I
get teased quite a bit in the shop because Mahogany is by far my favorite wood
to work with. I called it the king of woods. I got a lot of teasing about that.
Everyone always says, 'Why don't you use Mahogany, April? It's the king of woods!'
"
Good-natured
teasing aside, April thoroughly appreciates being able to match her vocation with
her avocation. Her passion is her profession, and she fully realizes her good
fortune. "It takes more than a single lifetime to learn everything about
woodworking," April said, "so I strive to learn as much as I can in
a single lifetime about woodworking."
This article originally appeared in the Woodworker's Journal eZine.
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Copyright; 2010 Woodworker's Journal
All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval devices or systems, without prior written permission from the publisher.
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