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