Creative Woodwork: Artistry With A Passion

The Purchase College of Art and Design will have some new and exciting additions through this fall.

Artist Yuri Kobayashi will display a recent series of work with several pieces at the Purchase College School of Art and Design in the Richard and Dolly Maas Gallery; now until September 10 with free admission. The exhibit is open to students and the public. A reception for the artist is scheduled on September 9.

Kobayashi came to the United States from Japan in 2002 and has been a resident at Purchase for eight months. She spent most of her time teaching a masters class in woodworking art in the 2010 spring semester. She also served as a mentor and guest lecturer. She received her BA degree in architecture design at Musashino Art University in Tokyo.

After training in traditional Japanese woodworking, she moved to the U.S. to pursue an MFA degree in woodworking and furniture design at San Diego State University. Engrained from childhood in a culture that embodies a ritual process, she has been melding this passion with an awakening of her inner voice by using visual language in her artwork.

"I also teach at the Rhode Island School of Art and Design, so after this show I go back there.  Most of my work embraces process and change; it symbolizes the growth of human life, nature and our surroundings. A piece may be inspired by a boat, another by seed pods. It's based on my experience of feelings and I use wood to express my ideas," she said.

Some of her pieces are based on her emotional experiences. Her works hold short, punchy titles like Faith, Will, Prayer and Believing. There are two more pieces that she's still working on that were not displayed, which will be called Stepping Stones and Battle. All are made of wood except her prayer piece which is mounted to a wall and made of origami paper to represent birds.

Dennis Fitzgerald, is a faculty member of the woodworking department at Purchase College and also runs the artist residency program. The resident spends quality time with the students one-on-one in the studio rather than a formal class.

The goal of the program is to bring in a new artist every semester and prepare talented students for a career in art and design.

"The resident artist does a body of work,  teach the classes and are available to students so the students can get a sense of how an artist is working and it's been about four years we've run this continuing program and the artist does an exhibition -- so it opens up the school to different opportunities and allows our students to have different experiences," he said. "The exhibit will be here when the students return so that they can get a sense of what Yuri's been up to and understand more about her work."

While in residency, the artist develops a class around what they want to do. Each resident does one class while they're at Purchase. 

"Yuri co-taught a masters class with a resident from last semester and worked with multiple materials, said Fitzgerald. "That was the prime organizing theme behind the class."

The program is an ongoing one, in applied design with an emphasis on furniture. It's designed to advance the careers of practicing artists and to prepare students as professional artists and strengthen awareness of the significance of applied design. 

The program is made possible by a grant through the generosity of the Wingate Charitable Foundation which is a private grant-giving institution founded over 40 years ago.