A pair of original Illinois woodworking craftsman—onerustic, one polished—celebrate the organic art of nature.

Story and Photos ByJoe McFarland

hat’s the secret togreat woodworking?Perfect lumber wouldseem to be one essen-tial: At lumberyards

everywhere, those serious woodwork-ers can be seen appraising individualboards, sighting down edges forstraightness, running palms acrossplaned surfaces. Flawless wood, onemight conclude, must be the startingcanvas for the art of woodworking.

Or maybe not.Not all woodworkers are convinced

the best cuts of wood are always thebest. When it comes to revealing theorganic art of nature, sometimes, those

Kinser probably would grab the “defec-tive” walnut—and incorporate it into aperfectly finished piece of exquisite fur-niture. His reasoning: The details of liv-ing history engrained within wood,even if those “flaws” don’t make thecut among purists, truly are as beautifulas any human art ever created.

Example: Something as humble as anatural crack snaking across a table—orthe wandering, serpentine path of abeetle’s tunnel—directly communicatesthe artful compositions found every-where in nature.

From an economic standpoint,Kinser’s use of lumberyard cast-offs is

Illinois woodworker Kyle Kinser loves to use

locally harvested wood for his finely crafted

furniture designs. Many of his pieces include

unusual, one-of-a-kind natural “defects”

that reveal the beauty of nature.

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factory-cut rectangles of perfect,unblemished wood can be, well…per-fectly boring.

Kyle Kinser is among those differ-ent-thinking Illinois craftsmen whodeliberately go against the grain whenit comes to selecting good wood forprojects. Given the choice between aclean slab of perfect, white oak and abeetle-chewed slice of black walnut,

also a very smart way to build. “Defec-tive” wood is widely overlooked bythose carpentry conformists who pay apremium for flawless lumber. It’s also aGreen choice Kinser is making. The fru-gal conservation of our resources mat-ters deeply to this rural craftsman.

“Wood doesn’t grow on trees, youknow,” Kinser often jokes when askedabout his deliberate use of the question-able lumber he incorporates into finelycrafted furniture.

“I like to practice conservation,” heexplains with a shrug. “I hate disqualify-ing wood just because the industrydoesn’t consider it up to standard.”

It turns out, Kinser isn’t the firstartist to enshrine the beauty of nature’seffects in wood. His teacher and men-tor, the late James Krenov of the famedCollege of the Redwoods Fine Wood-working Program, loved to incorporateunexpected twists of natural wood intohis elevated designs. Even wood thathad been streaked by filaments of fungienhanced the appeal, Krenov insisted.

“I like what nature has done,” Kren-ov once explained during a televisioninterview. He was defending a small,natural crack in a spalted maple panel.Kinser became lifetime friends withKrenov after enrolling in Krenov’s Cali-fornia woodworking program in 1982.After returning to Illinois and setting uphis own shop, Kinser initially found anaudience by producing elevated, Kren-ov-influenced furniture designs. Allartists borrow and trade inspiration on

the road to originality, and Kinser soondeveloped his own style with a dramati-cally organic message from nature:

Cracked, decayed and outrightpeculiar slices of wood became bothaccents and centerpieces of Kinser’sastonishingly crafted works. Not onlydoes the sense of nature permeate hiswork, the work exists because of whatnature created.

“I’m willing to let the wood totallyinfluence me,” Kinser agreed whilepausing beside long, irregular sections ofaged walnut he keeps in his Makandaworkshop. Nearly all of the pieces oflumber he’s accumulated over the years(“They’ve become old friends,” he saysfondly) were harvested locally, oftenfrom trees Kinser watched for decadesuntil nature let them fall. Once broughtto a local mill and sliced open, the treesreveal the story of their life within theirgrain, and spark project ideas wheneverKinser discovers something unexpected.

“A lot of my pieces evolve directlyfrom a particular piece of wood,”Kinser notes. “In fact, I’d much ratherhave a piece of wood tell me what Ishould do with it than try to force adesign on a piece of wood.”

Still, he does love a woodworkingchallenge. When Makanda’s largestcatalpa tree finally went down in 2008,Kinser bought the fallen giant from thelandowner to cut it up and enshrine itin furniture. The challenge: Catalpa wasdeclared “too stringy” to be of anywoodworking value by the masterJames Krenov.

“Part of the challenge of using catal-pa was to make something with awood Jim would never use,” Kinsergrinned. After sawing and drying the

boards, Kinser not only managed toincorporate the catalpa into olive-tinted furniture panels, he found one,particular characteristic of catalpa tobe exceptionally redeemable.

“It doesn’t move,” Kinser declared.Movement of wood—the expansionand contraction of wood throughhumidity—is not an issue with catalpa.“Once it’s cut, it stays.”

Despite the crafty triumph, the tech-nical properties of wood don’t moveKinser as much as the art he finds withinthe wood. And he’s not alone out there.

Fellow Illinois artisan and truly prim-itive wood crafter Bob Arseneaureduces the art of woodworking to itsmost ancient level: Arseneau createswhat’s known as bent-wood furnitureusing nothing more than sticks andbranches bent into the shape of practi-cal furniture, often keeping the roughbark intact.

If anyone out there could be called aprimitive woodworking artist, it wouldbe Arseneau. This shaggy-beardednative of southwest Illinois gathers flex-ible sticks and branches—willow is afavorite—as raw material for a craft thatdates back millennia. It’s a purely atavis-

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Cutting into an old walnut log, Kinser

discovered an irresistible labyrinth of

beetle galleries he decided to incorporate

into matching panels.

Illinois primitive wood craftsman and nature

lover Bob Arseneau bends flexible branches

and sticks to create truly rustic furniture.

tic art, reversing civilization’s evolutiontoward elegant furniture. According toArseneau, the popularity of this back-to-nature craft soared after a national mag-azine took notice.

“Back around 1980, ‘Better Homesand Gardens’ had a cover showingbent-wood furniture,” Arseneauexplained. “Suddenly everybody want-ed to have at least one piece of bent-wood furniture in their home. It washuge. Even rich people with fancyhouses wanted to have that primitivetouch. For people living in the city, Iguess it reminded them of the placethey’d rather be.”

Even after the bent-wood crazesubsided, Arseneau continued making

rustic pieces to supply friends andlocals. His creations, from coffee tablesto rocking chairs and love seats, remainconversational fixtures on Midwesternfront porches, gazebos and even inbusinesses.

Everybody has their brush-with-famestory, and Arseneau recalls one loveseat he made that was being displayedin a St. Louis coffee shop near Washing-ton University. It was in that seat that1960s altered-consciousness guru Timo-thy Leary once decided to take a break.

“Leary was speaking at the universityone day and stopped by the coffeeshop afterwards,” Arseneau explained.“Somebody snapped a picture of himsitting in my love seat, wearing his longrobe, looking all stately…”

Arseneau pauses, shaking his head,recalling the fate of that seat.

“I sold that love seat,” he grumblesthrough his thick beard. “I sold it to aguy who didn’t even know who Timo-thy Leary was.”

No matter. Everyone who admiresthe rugged architecture of Arseneau’screations knows the visible details ofthe furniture itself are what matters.The pure, natural message of his unem-bellished creations remains as enduring(and endearing) as nature itself. LikeKinser, Arseneau lets the flukes ofwood guide his craftsmanship. Neitherworks from a blueprint, and neithersketches out in advance what he

intends to build. For his part, Kinsersays a pencil would be useless as hedevelops his ideas.

“To be honest, I’m not very good atdrawing a two-dimensional square,”Kinser laughs.

Despite their seemingly drastic differ-ences in output, both woodworkerscredit the pure art of nature as a primaryinfluence, trusting organic compositionsas well as any written measurement.

It’s not surprising, therefore, somany people are instantly drawn towhat these sylvan artisans create with ashared vision. We are all admirers ofnature—including what comes out ofthe woods.

For bent-wood crafter Arseneau, tapping

in a few nails holds his creations together.

For Kinser (above), finishing his exquisite

furniture requires many hours of sanding

and carefully rubbed oils.

While maintaining the rustic art within

wood, Arseneau also pairs perfectly cut, con-

trasting pieces for his bent-wood furniture.

20 / OutdoorIllinois October 2010