Ann Matrone
Few materials undergo so great a transformation as aged pieces of trees transformed into shaped, finished, and polished vessels. Indeed, aging can improve the colors of wood. As aging progresses, sometimes even as the tree is growing, outside organisms act on the wood to produce color modifications. When worked into the design, finished, and polished, these changes enhance the beauty of the final product. Woodturning provides the method for creating shapes which can then serve as the starting point for individual expression, always providing a new example of the beauty of finished wood.
I was introduced to woodturning in 1994, not long after my first trips to the deserts of the Southwest. As my skills at woodturning grew, I saw that many of the vessels I created were reminiscent of shapes of the southwest native Americans. More recently, I have combined turned vessels and groups of vessels with other materials such as natural weathered wood, stone, and various metals. I continue to discover self expression in the surface treatments of my wood pieces.
I am a member of the Woodturners Guild of North Carolina, the American Association of Woodturners, the National Woodcarvers Association, and the Orange County Artists Guild. My pieces have been accepted for the juried exhibitions of the Orange County Women's Center's "Through Women's Eyes, By Women’s Hands" exhibitions from 1996 through 2002, by invitation from 2003 to present, and for the Raleigh Fine Arts Society Artists Exhibition in 1996. In 2001, one of my pieces received a Juror’s Choice Award in the Women’s Center Exhibition.
