Donald Derry

b. 1956, Othello, Washington

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2007-08   Turned & Sculptured Wood, Del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2006       This Is Not Glass, American Art Company, Tacoma, WA
                Nature Transformed, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
                Contemporary American Woodturning, Rochester Arts Center
2005-06   Turned Wood-Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2004        Celebrating Nature, Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
                Nature Transformed, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
2001-04   Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL
2003        World Trade Center Memorial Competition, New York, NY
2001-03    West Coast International Woodturning Competition, Vancouver, Canada
2000       Fine Art of Wood; The Bohlen Collection, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2005        Wood Turning on the Edge, University of Idaho Press
2004        Nature Transformed, Hudson Hills Press
                Celebrating Nature, Craft & Folk Art Museum
                400 Wood Boxes, Lark Books
                500 Wood Boxes, Lark Books


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Donald has been a woodworker for 35 years and has made everything from fine furniture and cabinetry to rock and role guitars. In 1992 Don and his wife Kathy adopted a baby girl and made the decision for Donald to change his job status from cabinet maker to full time stay at home dad. Fatherhood gave Donald time to reconsider his career and go into woodturning. Donald states, "Turning appealed to me because it isn't dependent on the cutting, fitting and endless measuring that my cabinetmaking required." So in 1993 he began in earnest to teach himself the craft of Woodturning. His interest in color came about do to an observation that he made at an American Association of Woodturners symposium in 1994. A highlight of the symposium was an instant gallery containing several hundred turnings by amateurs and professionals alike. When he viewed the gallery he ask one question." What is it that I don’t see represented in this exhibition?" Donald noticed that vibrant color and optical quality finishing were two attributes being neglected by modern wood turners and he set out to exploit both to the highest degree of optical brilliance he could. His quest has been successful enough that his work is more often thought to be Fine Art Glass rather than fine crafted wood.

Presently Donald is working in open grain and burl woods that have neutral wood tone. These woods lend well to the coloring process he has developed. The colors are pigments from an industrial paint supplier along with aniline dyes. The pigments are hand-rubbed into the unfinished wood, sanded to the appropriate contrast, blended with solvent and enhanced by airbrushing. Each hollow form is then sprayed with 7 to 10 coats of lacquer followed by a 6 step and very intense hand polishing routine, executed until the surface is optically perfect. To give a perspective on the whole process Donald states that, "Coloring, finishing and polishing is far more rigorous and risky than the wood turning."

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I had never worked with color artistically until I applied it to my turnings. This opened up a universe of discovery that forced me to view the world with new eyes. The relationship between light and color is no longer something I can take for granted. Rather, it is something I feel compelled to engage in. The use of color can be so quirky and unpredictable that it always challenges me. Often I start with an idea of what I wish to create, but very seldom does the outcome coincide with my original vision. More often than not, the outcome is even better. I've learned to accept that no artist masters the use of color. Nature simply allows us the honor of playing with it. I have been asked,"Which is more difficult, the wood turning or the coloring?" The answer is that both processes are arts of risk that I can no longer separate into different categories. The hollow vessel is more than a painter's canvas and the color is more than a mere application. Neither can become a complete picture until the form is right and the finish has dried.