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Mark Sfirri | Squiggle Figure

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Mark Sfirri | Squiggle Figure
Mark Sfirri | Squiggle Figure, 2007
New Hope, Pennsylvania
Mahogany, ash, paint
16.25 x 4 x 4 inches

Artist Statement: In 1992 I came up with what I call a squiggle form that I used in the handle of one of my baseball bats in my series Rejects from the Bat Factory. I was then experimenting with it and thought what if I only turned the shape on one side and made the other side a simple curve. The result looked a lot like an abstracted figure and then spent nearly all of 1997 making figural forms that started out as symmetrical smaller figures which quickly evolved into larger forms that also became asymmetrical with the body twisting and the head tilting. In 2007, I decided to come full circle with making a figure using the squiggle form. This is one of two that I made of that design.

Artist Biography: Mark Sfirri received his BFA and MFA in furniture design at Rhode Island School of Design. He works mostly in wood and incorporates lathe-turned forms, often turned on multiple axes, in his work. He has lectured and demonstrated his techniques throughout North America and Europe, as well as in Australia, New Zealand. His work is included in the permanent collections of twenty-eight public institutions.

Sfirri is professor emeritus at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania where he ran the Fine Woodworking Program from 1981 to 2017. He has received two national awards: the “Distinguished Educator Award” in 2010 from the Renwick Alliance of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institutions and, in 2012, the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Collectors of Wood Art.


www.marksfirri.com