The fine woodworking program
celebrated its 30th
anniversary this year.
As part of the celebration
Hicks Art Gallery is now
showing notable pieces from
three decades of Bucks
woodworking alumni in the
exhibit, “FW@XXX”.
The program is not the only
thing being celebrated. For
29 of 30 years, Professor
Mark Sfirri has taught students
about the craft and
design of woodwork. Now as
the program’s director, Sfirri is
also an award-winning educator.
Two years ago Sfirri had the
idea of having
an alumni
show featuring
work of students.
He went
over his class
lists, tracking
down former
students, and
eventually narrowed
potent
i a l
contributors
down to about
thirty students
still actively
making woodcraft.
“I kept whittling
it down, and finally I decided
on nine people who could be more
roundly represented in the showing,”
said Sfirri. “There’s quite a
range of work in there, some very
sculptural, most of it, functional.”
One of Sfirri’s favorite peices is
a large wood turning by Doug
Finkel entitled, “Phyllis”. “There’s
something about a large chunk of
wood that is very easy for it to
look massive or heavy, but he very
delicately turned it down to a very
small area and carved it away,”
said Sfirri.
“His intention was to make it
look like two hands coming together
in a yoga pose,” Sfirri said.
“Phyllis” also functions as a funerary
urn, holding the ashes of
Finkel’s mother who practiced
yoga. The ashes are not present in
the showing.
Another notable work is George
Dubinski’s “G 3”. At first glance,
it appears to be simply a flat tray
with four sides- not a big deal.One
sees that the bent shape of the tray
is impossible to form out of wood,
or so it seems.
“He’s taken a very rigid material
and made it seem more fluid or
elastic,” said Sfirri. “But the technical
gymnastics that he had to go
through to make it, I still don’t
quite understand.”
Dubinsky is now a graduate student
at the Rhode Island School of
Design.
When visiting Sfirri’s classroom,
it is easy to see how someone
might mistake it for a simple
wood shop. But Sfirri’s approach
has made it more than that. Sfirri’s
students tackle issues of technical
expertise as well as issues of design,
function, aesthetics, and
structure, making student work
equal parts craft and art.
Sfirri credits Claude Falcone,
his high school art
teacher, as his inspiration
for teaching. “He raised
the bar so high that it was
virtually impossible to get
A’s. But what I realized as
a young, motivated student was
that he couldn’t raise the bar high
enough. I was ready to jump
through any hoops that he put in
front of me,”
“I realized that you could make
that kind of an impact on people
teaching at a public high school,
so when I got the chance to
teach here in 1981 I was
thrilled at the opportunity.”
This year, Professor Sfirri
was awarded James Renwick
Alliance 2010 Distinguished
Educator Award, a biennial
award given by the exclusive
support group of the Renwick
Gallery of the Smithsonian
American Art Museum.
FW@XXX will be on display
from now until the
end of the semester.