When asked to provide a resume, biography and such I would rather let the work speak for itself; my faults and weaknesses are there too. Anyone who wants to find out the details of my life can ask. I work in my woods. I have a small shop, more like a studio; by my real work is in the woods. It is a small farmstead in Northeast Albemarle County, Virginia, just above the vineyards of Barboursville. the forest is ideal for this kind of work: the hardwoods of hickory especially, as well as locust, sassafrass, elm, and walnut. To a visitor walking in my woods I will proudly show a hickory that was harvested, how old, how many chairs it yielded. I am still using the bast--hickory bark--that I harvested seven to eight years ago. Talk conservative to me, I'm a woodworker.
The magic of this work is that it comes through my hands. My first chair sits on the front porch, stained and rugged. In those days, the shop was a basement, the furnace room of the house, so ideal for long winter nights of drying rungs and for understanding the medium. But in the Spring you would find me in the yard shaving, taking off bark, knocking together chairs. The work may be somewhat more refined now, but not more soulful. The work is still organic, it is strong and I feel comfortable with it; there are always new directions to its turning roads. To me its as exciting to see what comes from a newly split log as it is to feel finish penetrate a piece that is ready for its seat. It is my hope that the work can continue to speak for itself.
NOTE: Michael has shown at the Huntington Museum of Art, won a spot in the Conservation by Design show at the Rhode Island School of Design, and is presently exhibiting at FuturePerfect Worldwide, Inc. in Charlottesville, Virginia. The pictures above were photographed at this show. For availability and price information you may contact Michael Swanson at barkinghill@aol.com
The wonderful portrait above of Michael Swanson was accomplished by Marylou Chibirka who has been a painter since childhood. Ms. Chibirka lives in upstate Pennsylvania on her family farm and is mother to three daughters, ages 6, 14, and 16. Quite a full palette I would say!
