'Oi Acoustics
Who Is This Guy?
It’s just me: I’m a one man shop from the forest to the finish.
No ifs ands or buts, with no one to pass the buck to.
Furniture Maker
I apprenticed as furniture maker in 1975 and have had woodworking shops ever since. In that original experience I was heavily influenced by the Shaker and Danish oil-rubbed aesthetic of clean lines, and was naturally drawn to live edge furniture.
Residential
Architecture
My career in residential architecture began 40 years ago in Colorado and New England before moving on to Hawaii, Oregon and California. While the local vernacular wherever a home is located is always prevalent in my thinking, I have also been influenced by the architecture of other cultures, and tend to explore combining those into new work as a "cross cultural" aesthetic.
I have a fondness for traditional Japanese Sukiya style architecture and its adaptations to the Hawaiian and southern California climates, notably including Greene & Greene. Their use of soft natural lines and patinas continues in my luthier work today.
Philosophy
Throughout my career I have admired the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi - "a view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of appreciating beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete" in nature."
It is a preference for understated simplicity, allowing the materials to speak for themselves with an intentional lack of adornment, relying instead on proportion, scale and clean craftsmanship without adding extra layers. Handmade furniture and instruments should look like they are, rather than factory made. The inherent irregularity, unevenness, natural cracks and live edges in real wood are all beautiful in their imperfection.
Lutherie
In my "small work" of lutherie, I strive to achieve elegance through simplicity, reducing the number of visual elements to the minimum required. The focus is on ergonomics and tone to make an instrument that speaks for itself and you won’t want to put down.