Grandfather, the Craftsman

I would love to introduce to the audience a dear friend of mine – a grandfather. This kind and sometimes – on the surface – cold man has made waves and left marks in the world of woodwork. His first work was a clean cut but cubic model of a turtle. Some of his most recent and notable works include those below – a 13 foot tandem canoe and a lithe statue of The Lift. The decades that have visited and left him in the meantime are extended moment of formation – sometimes extreme. Whether it be war and more intimate death or love and lakeside rest – he is able to use timber for a number of ends in various means. These ends can be decks and kitchen cabinets in the form of function or models and works of art in the function of form. His favorite kind of work however are the items that are blend the two notions with his own fascination with the world as he understands it. The boat above – and below – is functional because he wanted to build one. It is not fashioned in a character much his own alone but also decorated with his love for the chemical bases of life. This kind of work also includes love chests and instruments made for members and friends of our households. He considers timber in each of these cases as an extension of a fluid mind into concrete time and dimension – actualization – for whatever the cause because he loves to do so.

The nature of this extension however entails an intricate creative track that is both wild and sane. It could involve the identification of a lack – whether it be artistic or a set of stairs – and then an extensive amount of time in the mental acrobatics of abstract invention drawn out in metrics. These two kinds of ends – form or function or some kind of combination – both include a series of material and construction tests before the decision about how to move on is made. These tests inform what he can or can’t achieve – but he notes these failures as sources for new ideas such as a new form of timber. The ends are sometimes not what he had set out for – but each one was considered for hundreds of hours. I love him a lot for it.

Here's a video of him –

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jerry+spady&&view=detail&mid=E2B9FFEF1F4D1D217C44E2B9FFEF1F4D1D217C44&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Djerry%2Bspady%26FORM%3DHDRSC3