Married Woodworkers Create Enduring Works

For most of us wood is solid matter, but for married couple Karl Dennis and Cathy Scanlan it appears to be a fluid, effortlessly malleable material. Gazing in awe at the married couple’s woodworking projects - Dennis’s violins and Scanlan’s figurative sculptures – you nearly forget such crude tools as saws and chisels were part of the creation process.

Working side by side in their Warren studio the creative couple have quietly forged their parallel and intersecting paths, simultaneously juggling both freelance art careers and family life.

Of his wife and fellow artist Dennis says, “It’s always inspiring to be around people who are creating stuff even if it’s not exactly the same work.”

Dennis is a master Luthier (that’s the official term for stringed instrument maker) and member of the prestigious American Federation of Violin and Bowmakers, of which there are only 158 others in the United States.

Dennis’s clients are professional musicians seeking high quality craftsmanship. Though he creates modern pieces, he is known for his replicas of early music stringed instruments (think Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras.) His violins, which take several hundred hours to craft, can be seen in action with orchestras around the country. An instrument completed in the past few weeks will be on display – and in use – at the upcoming Boston Early Music Festival, called by The Times, London “the world’s leading festival of early music.”

“I feel suited for this,” says Dennis. “There’s an opportunity to learn with every instrument. There’s an incredibly deep well to draw from, and you’ve never surrounded it. You can make a perfect omelet, but there’s no such thing as a perfect violin.”

Scanlan, a RISD graduate, is seeing to fruition the completion of a work that began two years ago for the historic John Brown House in Providence. A pergola on the property had fallen into decay and Scanlan was hired to recreate the hand-carved post caps depicting the signs of the zodiac.

The twelve mahogany pieces, each of which took nearly two months to carve, are set to be installed this summer. Scanlan says with proper care they should last about 150 years. In a newsletter the John Brown House called Scanlan’s pieces, “true works of art, skillfully carved, majestic and bold.” 

“With each block as you work into it you have a two-dimensional drawing that has to be translated into 3-D. There’s a time of chaos, where everything has to find it’s place within the block of work. Then the piece itself has the moment where everything’s coming together and that’s very satisfying,” Scanlan says.

Also, this week Scanlan completed another long term project, a giant hand carved boar's head to be attached to one-of-a-kind oversized Hurdy Gurdy (another early stringed instrument) for Providence-based composer Steven Jobe. The sculpture made it's debut a few weeks ago at the Blackstone River Theater in Cumberland, where selections of Jobe's opera were performed.

She and Dennis are also involved in other creative pursuits. Scanlan is a member of Warren Clayworks group, and has participated in many exhibitions with her fellow ceramists. Dennis, not surprisingly, plays violin (a.k.a. fiddle) with local bluegrass band, The Pegheads.

And, since there appears to be enough genetic creativity to go around, their daughter Maddie Dennis was one of two students in the state to be chosen by Google to represent Rhode Island in an art competition. Their 16-year-old son Spencer, meanwhile, has asked his father to teach him to make a violin this summer.

“I think he has him in it to do it. He’s a clever kid and careful when he wants to be but, the first one is really challenging,” Dennis says with a knowing laugh.