Seaside Walkabout Leafipede

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I go deeply enough into a series, it often ends up spawning sub-series. And so it is that the Leafipedes have formed a family of their own within the Spiritus Naturalis collection.

 

While it has this double-belonging, Seaside Walkabout also stands apart in that it’s the first in this body of work to be sculptural furniture. It’s a table, unlike its siblings here and here, for both of which I purposefully tilted the leaf form and preoccupied it with other elements, making them decidedly not-tables.  

What caused the the shift? The Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center, amid a renovation of their office, requesting something lovelier than the stodgy old counter.

 

This being an island, and the shoreline steps away, it was natural to give it an oceanic gist. The cedar floating leaf top with its cool, speckled fiber surface suggests shallow water lapping up on a shore. The underside is a warmer sand tone, like a beach below the tide.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The madrona branch legs with their bulbous tops remind me of bull whip kelp. The bands of color shift cooler, as if they’re descending into the depths. A brass mesh veil hangs below, like a keel sailing through kelp.

 

Seaside Walkabout is 60" long, 36" high.