furniture design

hi, i'm byron conn, and i'm from new jersey. i'm currently a junior in the woodworking furniture design program so my work is pretty complicated not necessarily from visualstandpoint more the the conceptual

furniture design, background and all the processes i go through and it all starts off in my childhood for the most part -- whether it'sit's being at the beach a lot

growing up surfing with my uncle or just playing games with my family. family'sreally had a big part my background in math and science hasreally played influence in that whether it's having complicated geometry or using curves andin different ways and just really creating a three-dimensional object my artistic influences are less individual people and more nature itself

you know like i said i spent a lot of time on the beach growing up over the summer just staring at the waves rolling in and being out there on the waves, it's played a pretty interesting role of how i approach design and use those things and there's so many things out in nature that people try to replicate or kinda go for a similar aesthetic

but all you have to do is really look at at certain things in nature and just drawfrom that -- there's really endless design in nature that's really just unknown as far as people that influence meobviously my professors here -- rich tannen and andy buck really influence my work pretty directly and they're great, theyreally do a lot of great work richard newman also, who's a local here,he taught us for one quarter and he's just

there's no better craftsmanship the creative process personally all comes from inspiration. it's all... it's very personal to what i'm goingthrough and my best work is always when i'm happyand feels like when i'm always by the beach or just somewhere nice but at the end of the day it's really almost a state of mind of what gets thatinitial starting point and then once i have that idea it's

making all those fine adjustments andpulling it into this technical side which is the side i likemore that's what i feel my proficiency is,is more the technical making aspects and wood is such a variable material there's so manythings that can change and go wrong and it doesn't always do what you wantso knowing how to handle that and... but sometimes the the actual processes making the piece are far moreinteresting and i think

visually appealing thing the finalpiece can be so it's working all that into the final project i'm not sure there's one piece that reallycaptures who i am as an artist or bestrepresents me i think the piece i've already touched upon in the reliquary is the closest all the pieces i've done are different phases of things i've explored or ideas i've had our first project was a hand-joinery(?) tablewhere we couldn't use any power tools

and that that i think set the set the standard for me as far as how iwanted that to play into my work so that definitely represents me well andthat was something that carried into the reliquary making sure that it was really clear that it was made by hand andeverything was was thought through and carefully considered the reliquary, i think, is a good one

also the last project i did a dining chair using dovetails to join the seat and back and shaping the surfaces by hand those are things i'm really interested in a new project i've worked on that'sgiven me quite a challenge was when istudied abroad last summer in croatia i focused on the project was city as a site so it wasreally open

dubrovnik in croatia was really just -- it was the first time i was in europe and iwas just culture shocked in a good way i was really taken aback by how much culture therewas and how the relationships people had was so much different than here and whati was used to so taking my viewpoint and taking theirviewpoint i was able to really relate the two and try to put that into what i came up with as a room divider

also i'm going to icff international contemporary furniturefair in new york city and it's it's a little overwhelming for mefor where i'm at now being a student it's really a lot to take in and be prepared for while i'mstill doing other classes and trying to squeeze in my last project but i think it'll be a great opportunity and it's really going to

open my eyes to what's really out there and what it can be i can't really i can't really give that much advice to aspiring artists because i am one so with that being said i think it's reallyimportant -- and i've noticed this personally -- it's really important to be open and open-minded

in particular about experiences you have, the things you do where you are, you know no matter where you are or what you're doing there's always a lot you can learn from it and you're never gonna stop learning,so it's really just having an open mind and being willing to to put yourself a little bit out of the comfort zone to know

where you're going to head

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