Oral history interview with David Ellsworth, 2007 July 16
- Description
-
Sound recording: 5 sound files (2 hr., 41 min.) : digital, wav
An interview of David Ellsworth conducted 2007 July 16, by Josephine Shea, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Ellsworth's home, in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
Ellsworth speaks of living and growing up in Iowa for the first fourteen years of his life; moving to Boulder, Colorado when his father became the director of libraries; being the youngest of two boys; his parents meeting at Oberlin College; his early interest and skill in leatherwork and woodwork as a child; spending time with the family at their cabin up in the mountains in Colorado; his experiences with music, vocals, and woodshop in junior high; attending a preparatory high school that had a very strong art program; singing in the Army for the Army Air Defense Command; traveling around with the band; being sent to the headquarters of United States Army of Europe in Heidelberg as a speed typist; studying and learning German while abroad; getting admitted into the architecture department at Washington University in St. Louis; flunking out after three semesters; going to New York City to follow a love interest as well as to study art; attending The New School for Social Research; moving back to the Midwest due of the heavy toll of city life; enrolling in the sculpture department at the University of Colorado and receiving both a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts; his first independent show at Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado; working as a designer for a stainless steel food services equipment company called Green Brothers; working at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado; opening up a private studio in Boulder; partaking in various craft shows; working with the Belles Artes Gallery in New York City and Santa Fe, the Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles, The Hand and the Spirit Gallery in Scottsdale which became Materia Gallery, the Gargoyle Gallery in Aspen; and the Cooper-Lynn Gallery in New York City; working as a teacher at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg; his experiences working with resin; his past experiences working with various kinds of wood; his past divorce; the influence of Native American and Southwest architecture and landscape on his work; the lack of reviews on woodturners and woodturning exhibitions; the difficulty of writing about craft art because of the lack of language; turning down commission work because of the limitations it imposes on the artist or creator; the direction in which he believes the craft of woodturning is going; woodturning as predominantly a hobby for retirees seeking to satisfy a need for creative energy; woodturning as a male-dominated craft; the surprisingly large number of well-known men in the fiber field today; designing and making his own line of tools; creating tutorial videos; holding woodturning classes at his home studio; his working process and how it has changed over time; how he and his wife Wendy ended up in Quakertown, Pennsylvania; and how he came up with his various series and how each developed. Ellsworth also recalls Ed Moulthroup, Melvin and Mark Lindquist, JoAnn Rapp; Steven Hogbin, Lois Moran, James Prestini, Irving Lipton, Albert LeCoff, Rick Mastelli, Clay Foster, Michelle Holzapfel, Mark Sfirri, Virginia Dodson, Betty Scarpino, Bonnie Klein, Arthur and Jane Mason, Fleur and Charlie Bressler, Giles Gibson, and others. - Type
- Audio
- View Original
- https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-david-ellsworth-13679
- Source
- Archives of American Art
- Keywords
- Woodwork Colorado Iowa Decorative arts Wood-workers
- Notes
- Place of publication, production, or execution: Pennsylvania General Note: Originally recorded 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 41 min. Citation: Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with David Ellsworth, 2007 July 16. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Funding: Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service. Biography Note: David Ellsworth (1944- ) is a studio woodworker from Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Josephine Shea (1958- ) is a curator from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. Provenance: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators. Location Note: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
- Name
- interviewee: Ellsworth, David, 1944- interviewer: Shea, Josephine, 1958- Subject: Klein, Bonnie Subject: Bressler, Charlie Subject: Hogbin, Stephen Subject: LeCoff, Albert B. Subject: Holzapfel, Michelle Subject: Lipton, Irving Subject: Foster, Clay Subject: Gibson, Giles Subject: Scarpino, Betty Subject: Moulthrop, Ed Subject: Mason, Arthur K. Subject: Bressler, Fleur Subject: Rapp, Joanne Subject: Dodson, Virginia Subject: Mason, Jane S. Subject: Lindquist, Melvin Subject: Sfirri, Mark Subject: Prestini, James Libero Subject: Mastelli, Rick Subject: Lindquist, Mark Subject: Moran, Lois Subject: Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Subject: New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.) Subject: Woodstock School of Painting Subject: United States.Army Subject: Oberlin College Subject: University of Colorado Subject: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Subject: Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.) Subject: Anderson Ranch Arts Center Subject: Del Mano Gallery Subject: Belles Artes Gallery Subject: Cooper-Lynn Gallery Subject: Gargoyle Gallery
- Identifier
- Record number: (DSI-AAA_CollID)13679 Record number: (DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)274890 Record number: AAA_collcode_ellswo07
- Additional Info
- Theme: Craft
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Sound recording: 5 sound files (2 hr., 41 min.) : digital, wav
An interview of David Ellsworth conducted 2007 July 16, by Josephine Shea, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at Ellsworth's home, in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.
Ellsworth speaks of living and growing up in Iowa for the first fourteen years of his life; moving to Boulder, Colorado when his father became the director of libraries; being the youngest of two boys; his parents meeting at Oberlin College; his early interest and skill in leatherwork and woodwork as a child; spending time with the family at their cabin up in the mountains in Colorado; his experiences with music, vocals, and woodshop in junior high; attending a preparatory high school that had a very strong art program; singing in the Army for the Army Air Defense Command; traveling around with the band; being sent to the headquarters of United States Army of Europe in Heidelberg as a speed typist; studying and learning German while abroad; getting admitted into the architecture department at Washington University in St. Louis; flunking out after three semesters; going to New York City to follow a love interest as well as to study art; attending The New School for Social Research; moving back to the Midwest due of the heavy toll of city life; enrolling in the sculpture department at the University of Colorado and receiving both a bachelor of fine arts and a master of fine arts; his first independent show at Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado; working as a designer for a stainless steel food services equipment company called Green Brothers; working at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, Colorado; opening up a private studio in Boulder; partaking in various craft shows; working with the Belles Artes Gallery in New York City and Santa Fe, the Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles, The Hand and the Spirit Gallery in Scottsdale which became Materia Gallery, the Gargoyle Gallery in Aspen; and the Cooper-Lynn Gallery in New York City; working as a teacher at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg; his experiences working with resin; his past experiences working with various kinds of wood; his past divorce; the influence of Native American and Southwest architecture and landscape on his work; the lack of reviews on woodturners and woodturning exhibitions; the difficulty of writing about craft art because of the lack of language; turning down commission work because of the limitations it imposes on the artist or creator; the direction in which he believes the craft of woodturning is going; woodturning as predominantly a hobby for retirees seeking to satisfy a need for creative energy; woodturning as a male-dominated craft; the surprisingly large number of well-known men in the fiber field today; designing and making his own line of tools; creating tutorial videos; holding woodturning classes at his home studio; his working process and how it has changed over time; how he and his wife Wendy ended up in Quakertown, Pennsylvania; and how he came up with his various series and how each developed. Ellsworth also recalls Ed Moulthroup, Melvin and Mark Lindquist, JoAnn Rapp; Steven Hogbin, Lois Moran, James Prestini, Irving Lipton, Albert LeCoff, Rick Mastelli, Clay Foster, Michelle Holzapfel, Mark Sfirri, Virginia Dodson, Betty Scarpino, Bonnie Klein, Arthur and Jane Mason, Fleur and Charlie Bressler, Giles Gibson, and others.
Audio
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-david-ellsworth-13679
Archives of American Art
Woodwork
Colorado
Iowa
Decorative arts
Wood-workers
Place of publication, production, or execution: Pennsylvania
General Note: Originally recorded 3 sound discs. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 41 min.
Citation: Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with David Ellsworth, 2007 July 16. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding: Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Biography Note: David Ellsworth (1944- ) is a studio woodworker from Quakertown, Pennsylvania. Josephine Shea (1958- ) is a curator from Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan.
Provenance: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Location Note: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
interviewee: Ellsworth, David, 1944-
interviewer: Shea, Josephine, 1958-
Subject: Klein, Bonnie
Subject: Bressler, Charlie
Subject: Hogbin, Stephen
Subject: LeCoff, Albert B.
Subject: Holzapfel, Michelle
Subject: Lipton, Irving
Subject: Foster, Clay
Subject: Gibson, Giles
Subject: Scarpino, Betty
Subject: Moulthrop, Ed
Subject: Mason, Arthur K.
Subject: Bressler, Fleur
Subject: Rapp, Joanne
Subject: Dodson, Virginia
Subject: Mason, Jane S.
Subject: Lindquist, Melvin
Subject: Sfirri, Mark
Subject: Prestini, James Libero
Subject: Mastelli, Rick
Subject: Lindquist, Mark
Subject: Moran, Lois
Subject: Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts
Subject: New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y.)
Subject: Woodstock School of Painting
Subject: United States.Army
Subject: Oberlin College
Subject: University of Colorado
Subject: Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America
Subject: Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.)
Subject: Anderson Ranch Arts Center
Subject: Del Mano Gallery
Subject: Belles Artes Gallery
Subject: Cooper-Lynn Gallery
Subject: Gargoyle Gallery
Record number: (DSI-AAA_CollID)13679
Record number: (DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)274890
Record number: AAA_collcode_ellswo07
Theme: Craft
