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Biography:
Michael Mode is a self-taught lathe artist, born in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, in 1946. His first experience of woodturning came in 1973 while watching a Moroccan craftsman using an arab bow lathe to make mashrabiya spindles. A fews years later when trying a lathe himself for the first time, his aptitude, passion, and design sensibility for woodturning immediately became obvious. His earliest efforts focused on lidded containers created on a foot-powered lathe made from an antique sewing machine. A motorized lathe soon replaced the foot power, but the theme of lidded vessels continued through all his major works until May of 1999 when he began creating laminated bowls as well. Michael draws inspiration from several sources, including the material itself, particularly burls and figured woods; from the interplay of openness and closure in a lidded form; from the art and architecture of Mughal India and the Islamic world which he visited extensively in over two years of world travels; and most recently in the combination of geometric patterns with the curvature of turned objects to produce surface designs of intricate symmetry and grace. Michael’s work has been purchased for numerous museum collections, including the Renwick Gallery of American Craft of the Smithsonian, as well as many of the private collections in the United States. He has taught aspects of his woodturning skills at symposiums of the American Association of Woodturners and for local chapters of the same organization as well as at the Arrowmont School for Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and other craft schools around the country. He has written articles for Fine Woodworking, American Woodworker, and Wood Magazine and his work is featured in various books about woodturning and woodworking. He lives with his wife and family in New Haven, Vermont, where he maintains a one person woodturning studio. Collections and Show Awards: MUSEUM COLLECTIONS: Museum of Arts and Design, New York Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. Los Angeles County Museum of Art Contemporary Museum of Hawaii Detroit Institute of Art Minneapolis Institute of Art The Danforth Museum of Art Peabody Essex Museum Tang Museum of Skidmore College University of Michigan Museum of Art Fuller Craft Museum Cincinnati Museum of Art Cedar Rapids Museum of Art Currier Museum of Art Boston Museum of Fine Arts Art Museum of South Texas Philadelphia Museum of Art SHOW AWARDS: Award of Excellence, Laumeier Sculpture Garden Art Fair, 2017 Best in Show, Chicago Botanic Garden Art Festival, 2016 Best in Show, Palm Beach Fine Craft Show, 2015 Best in Wood, Bethesda Row Art Festival, 2014 Second Place Wood, St. Louis Art Festival, 2013 Award of Merit, Boca Raton Art Museum Festival, Boca Raton, Fl. 2012 Purchase Award, American Craft Exposition, Evanston, IL 2011 Purchase Award, Art on the Square, Belleville, IL 2011 Award of Merit, Boca Raton Art Museum Festival, Boca Raton, Fl. 2011 Best of Wood, Art on the Square, Belleville, Il. 2010 2nd Place Wood Award, Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Miami, 2009 Award of Merit, Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver, 2005 First Place Award, Danforth Arts Festival, 2004 Award for Excellence and Originality, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, 2003 Second Place Show Award, ACC Craft Fair Sarasota, 2002 Third Place Show Award, ACC Craft Fair Atlanta, 2002 Award of Distinction, Naples Arts Festival, Naples, FL. 2001 Second Place Wood , Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Coconut Grove, FL. 2001 Award of Merit, Danforth Museum Craft Fair, 2000 Best of Wood, Coconut Grove Arts Festival, Coconut Grove, FL. 2000 Best of Wood, American Craft Exposition, Evanston, Il. 1999 Jurors’ Award for Superior Excellence, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, 1998 Award of Excellence in Wood, Westchester Craft Show, Westchester NY. 1997 Purchase Award, American Craft Exposition, Evanston, Illinois, 1996 2nd Place Wood Award, St. Louis Art Fair, 1995 Jurors’ Award for Superior Excellence, Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, 1995 3rd. place Wood Award, Cherry Creek Arts Festival, Denver, CO. 1995 Excellence in Wood Award, Washington Crafts Expo, 1994 2nd. Place Show Award, Boston Mills Arts Fest, Ohio, 1993 Best Presentation of Crafts, Washington Crafts Expo, 1989 Best In Show, Washington Crafts Expo, 1988 Publications: Audacious, the Fine Art of Wood, Montalto/Bohlen Collection, University Press New England, 2015 The Cutting Edge, Contemporary Wood Art & the Lipton Collection, Fine Arts Press, 2011 Woodturning Today, American Association of Woodturners, 2011 Conversations With Wood, Ruth & David Waterbury Collection, Mpls. Institute of Art, 2011 Wood Art Today: Furniture, Vessels, Sculpture (Schiffer Design Book) 2010 New Masters of the Wooden Box, Fox Chapel Publishing, 2009 American Art Collector, Alcove Books, 2008 New Masters of Woodturning, Fox Chapel Publishing, 2008 400 Wood Boxes, Lark Books, 2004 500 Wood Bowls, Lark books, 2004 Nature Transformed, Wood Art from the Bohlen collection, Hudson Hills Press, 2004 Art & Antiques magazine, featured studio artist, October, 2003 The Fine Art of Wood, the Bohlen Collection, Abbeville Press Publishers, 2000 Contemporary Turned Wood, Hand Books Press, 1999 The Fine Art of Small-scale Woodturning, Sterling Publishing, 1999 American Woodworker magazine, #44, April, 1995, French Polishing on the Lathe Fine Woodworking #102, back cover The Art of Making Elegant Wood Boxes, by Tony Lydgate, 1993 Fine Woodworking Design Book Six, 1993 Fine Woodworking #89, A Turner's Chess Set Wood Magazine, December 1988, Heirloom Tree Ornaments Fine Woodworking #73, stroboscopic turning technique Fine Woodworking Design Book Four, 1987 Fine Woodworking #62, making wooden chucks Redbook Magazine, December 1986, Victorian Christmas Decorations |