Daniel Mack Rustic Furnishings, Inc., is a small design and production studio in Warwick, New York about 60 miles from New York City. Daniel Mack, the principal designer-maker, started doing this work in 1978. He is a self-taught artisan and is influenced by everything around him. He follows the Principles of Imagination and Intuition.
Dan works on major interior architectural projects using natural materials as columns, beams, stairways, railings and wall treatments. He works on exterior projects like pergolas, arbors, fencing and even a treehouse!
He works with a very talented group of other rustics. He still makes some furniture. All work is commissioned, but there are always a dozen or so finished pieces on hand. There are often rustic building materials – birch bark, peeled logs, forked trees – available for sale.
Balancing the rustic construction work, Dan does research on the powers of natural materials. He is working on a series of Imaginal Furnishings: objects which resemble furniture and tools, but perform ambiguous and changing functions. He has been working for several years on a series, The Anima. These are carvings from bark he collects along the Hudson River. They are on a new website. He is also working on a series of Imaginal Tools based on the assumption that you first make the tool, then the task for which it is needed will appear.
Dan teaches about working with natural materials at The Omega Institute Rhinebeck, NY, his own studio, the Woodlander Gatherings and various arts and craft centers. His 6th and 7th books came out in June '08. He is at work on a book with the working title, The Wayward Artist.
News
- Big Book Season. You can get my two new books: The Adirondack Chair and The Hammock. from me, signed, for $20 each or both books, signed, for $36, by Priority Mail. PayPal to rustic@warwick.net or a check to me at 14 Welling Ave Warwick, NY 10990.
- Besides my two new books, I'm in a three others just published: Studio Furniture of the Renwick Collection, Guys and Garages, and 500 Chairs.
- Till September, One of my "Rugbeater" Chairs from the Memory Series is at the National Design Museum, in New York.
- Till October, The Anima Series is at the Ram Dass Library at Omega in Rhinebeck and online at Fine Art America.
Rustic Work: Current
- finishing a modernist loggish house in Connecticut, a 4-yr project
- a lighting construction from peeled maple and yew
- more chairs
Events
| 2008 | |
| till October | Anima at Ram Dass Library, The Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY. Visitors welcome Info at Mythopoetry. |
| August 9 | Block Island, RI, Island Bound Books, Book signing for The Adirondack Chair with 9 images from Block Island locations. |
| August 16-18 | Woodlanders Gathering, Warwick, NY limit 25-30 people Dates shifted by ONE DAY! Updated Schedule (7/19) |
| August 30 | West of the Hudson Show opens at Kaaterskill Gallery, Hudson, NY till October 5th |
| September 13 and September 20 10:30-12:30 | Benedictine Hospital, Kingston, NY. Creative Workshops for people who have experienced breast cancer. dblaha@benedictine.org |
| October 12 | STICKS Show opens at Unison Arts |
| October 18 | The Art School at Old Church, Demerast, NJ. Intro to Rustic Workshop 9:30-4:30 |
| October 25 | Unison Arts, New Paltz, NY. Working Rustic Workshop 10-4 |
| June 2009 | The Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY 5-day Rustic Intro |
| July 2009 | Woodlanders Gathering, Mineral Point, WI |
Recently Finished
- Workshop on "Interior Landscapes" as part of the Warwick Summer Arts Festival. It was a guided introduction to making small collage cards and imaginal tools.
- more buck fencing
- Week-long workshop at Omega which included two Mayan women. from the Mayan Artisans Collective I worked with last year.Overview by Aid to Artisans
- another Memorial Cedar Bench for Bear Mt State Park with Twigz
- Cedar Arbor at The Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY with Twigz
- a 10' wispy willow sofa for a restaurant in Chicago with Tor Faegere
- an 8' driftwood bench for California
- Cedar Post, Beam and Rail Work with Twigz
- 16' x 20' 2-story Tree House, 20' up a Big Sycamore in NJ
