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, park benches, 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.
Artifacts of the Imaginal
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 I'm in a three other books 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.
- Anima Series at the Ram Dass Library, Omega in Rhinebeck and the Kaatskill Gallery, Hunter, NY till October, and online at Fine Art America. Info at Mythopoetry
Rustic Work: Current
- finishing a modernist loggish house in Connecticut, a 4-yr project
- a lighting construction from peeled maple and yew
- 12' driftwood interior railing for a log cabin
- more chairs
Events
| 2008 | |
| August 30 | West of the Hudson Show till October 5th |
| September 13 10:30-12:30
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4-5 |
Benedictine Hospital, Kingston, NY. Creative Workshops for people who have experienced breast cancer. dblaha@benedictine.org Artists Trading Cards and Making Imaginal Tools West of the Hudson, Kaatskill Gallery, Hunter, NY gallery talk/discussion"How objects speak: a lightly Jungian approach to the processes of making." Book signing Dan's new books The Adirondack Chair and The Hammock |
September 20 10:30-12:30
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Benedictine Hospital, Kingston, NY. Creative Workshops for people who have experienced breast cancer. dblaha@benedictine.org Artists Trading Cards and Making Imaginal Tools Baby Grand books, Warwick, NY Book signing Dan's new books The Adirondack Chair and The Hammock |
| 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 |
| July 2009 | Woodlanders Gathering, Mineral Point, WI |
| August 9-14 | The Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY Rustic Intro |
| August 22-24 | Woodlanders Gathering, Warwick, NY |
Recently Finished
- Woodlanders Gatherings, Wisconsin and New York Schedule
- Booksigning on Block Island where the Adirondack Chair book began in 1991.
- Workshop on "Interior Landscapes" part of the Warwick Summer Arts Festival. 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
