Looking at Kevin DesPlanques pieces of art sculpted out of wood, the first thought is Wow! What beauty. The second thought is, I wonder how comfortable it is to sit in?
DesPlanques crafts functional pieces of art, mostly rocking chairs, out of several types of wood. The wood can be as exotic as zebra wood from the west coast of Africa or as plain as American birch. No matter the name of the wood, his sculptures are a work of art, and they will be shown as such at the American Craft Council art show in St. Paul, Minn., April 15-17.
Sometimes people dont look at woodworkers as artists, but we are, DesPlanques said. I consider myself more a sculptor than a woodworker.
DesPlanques, a former woodshop teacher at Dolores High School and San Juan Basin Technical College, learned his art process in 1999 from James Cole, a fellow artist who used to reside in Mancos. Desplanques said hes always been artistically minded and when taught the process of sculpting the wood, he started visualizing ways to use it in all kinds of pieces. Besides rocking chairs, he also sculpts rocking ottomans, tables, pub and dining room chairs, and hes currently working on a love seat made from wood.
Each piece is designed and then glued together with virtually invisible seams. One rocking chair, made out of birch and painted black, took about 150 hours to complete. DesPlanques said he usually doesnt paint the chairs, but with this particular piece he wanted people to see the art in it.
I wanted to emphasize it as a piece of sculpture and not just a piece of wood, he said. A lot of times if you have a piece made out of really nice wood people tend to look at the wood and not the shape.
DesPlanques sold the first chair he made at the Four States Agricultural Exposition in 2000. After that, it was almost a decade before he started crafting again. DesPlanques is extremely allergic to wood dust. He didnt work on his art for about eight years because he would suffer asthma attacks and skin rashes from the dust. He now wears a suit designed for handling hazardous materials with a mask that pumps in fresh air for him to breathe.
Bronze is another form that DesPlanques is interested in exploring. He will cast a limited run of 30 chairs this spring, using his favorite black chair as a sacrificial lamb. Though he said it will be a painful task for him to use the chair, he plans to video the dismemberment and title it Rest in Pieces.
As far as I know it will be the only thing like it on the planet. I know of no other artists who are casting sculptural furniture, he said, adding that he plans to develop at least five bronze pieces this year in addition to his wooden line.
DesPlanques wood rocking chairs start at $5,500. He expects the zebra wood chair hes showing in St. Paul will sell for more than $10,000. He recently sent out an application for a show at the Philadelphia Museum, and his goal is to be accepted into the annual Smithsonian American Art Museum show in Washington, D.C.
DesPlanques will have a website for his art available in the next couple of weeks at www.kdesplanques.com or he is available by phone at 749-9463. He also makes custom commissioned pieces that he helps clients design.
At a recent show in San Francisco, a woman stopped in front of one of DesPlanques chairs and knelt down in front of it. He said she moved her hands up and down the wood, feeling the curves and angles. The woman was blind, and when she stood she informed DesPlanques that the chair was beautiful.
That was probably the best compliment Ive ever received, he said.
Reach Paula Bostrom at [email protected].