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PrintWESTERN DESIGN CONFERENCE best of show 2010—Brad Greenwood
Finely worked wooden art
For me, working with wood is tangible and real,” says Brad Greenwood, who has been building and designing furniture for twenty-five years. Both tangible and real, “The Yellowstone Desk” earned Brad the Best of Show award at the 2010 Western Design Conference. The piece is made of black walnut, sycamore, elm, beef wood, eucalyptus, mulberry, white oak twigs, and buckthorn bark; hidden inside the desk’s front drawer is a regional map of Yellowstone.
As a boy, Brad discovered he liked working with his hands, and remembers watching his dad “play” in his shop, carving wood decoys. As a teenager, Brad attended industrial arts classes in high school. Starting at the age of fifteen and until his mid-twenties, he worked in his father’s auto-body shop, painting and doing restoration.
“I did not like the repetitiveness of the work,” he admits. Fortunately, he started taking furniture-making classes in college, eventually making it his life’s work. Brad’s creations have been featured in many publications, including American Cowboy, House Beautiful, Western Art and Architecture, and Sierra Heritage magazines.
Teton Home and Living caught up with Brad by phone at his studio in Beckwourth, in Northern California.
Tell us about your education and early career.
When I started at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, I was really fortunate to take furniture design and sculpture from Michael Cooper, who taught at De Anza for thirty-four years. I took classes like drawing and sculpture, as well as furniture making. I really enjoyed the model-making.
I sold my first furniture piece in 1986, to an interior design center in San Francisco. This sale blossomed into a business relationship with the design center for many years. By the end, we had furniture in five of their showrooms.
What was your first big show?
The American Craft Council show in the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco—I did really well at that show. Our first year at the Western Design Conference was in 1999, in Cody, Wyoming, and this last year was my first time showing in Jackson at the Western Design Conference.
How do you describe your art?
I call it “sophisticated rustic.” It combines aspects of Black Forest style with some Adirondack feel and proportions. I want my furniture to take you back in time. I choose to use mostly California hardwoods that have been downed due to natural causes—walnut trees that have stopped producing, or storm-damaged oaks are typically what I prefer. I enjoy knowing that I can recycle wood often destined for the chipper and give it another chance to bring forth its natural beauty once again.
What inspires you?
Antique furniture, well-done craftsmanship, raw materials, metal, and junk yards! Things that spark an idea and mechanical movements—I love to create a trick or a secret in my furniture.
Can you describe the inspiration behind “The Yellowstone Desk,” your 2010 Best of Show winner?
Yellowstone National Park is one of my favorite vacation spots. I worked in Canyon Village and love the park style of furniture. The desk is now at Trailside Gallery in Jackson.
What are you currently working on?
Right now I’m working on a console table, three end tables, and finishing up two coffee tables. These pieces will go to Park City, Bozeman, and Washington, D.C. One thing I know from sending work all over the country—shipping is nerve-racking!
What project do you want to do next?
I want to start a diorama-themed piece of furniture, an art piece. As far as other art shows go, I’m busy right now, so I don’t have any plans for them soon.
What does your studio look like?
It’s an old 1880s cattle, alfalfa, wheat, and dairy ranch in Sierra Valley, with lots of old junk, up against national forest. We live in an open valley with some big cottonwoods and sagebrush. I work in a thirty-by-fifty-foot maintenance building with a loft; it’s a wooden structure. I commute a hundred yards. I like standing by the woodstove thinking about my projects. And I use the old junk in my work.
What makes you proud?
First, my family: Lorraine, my wife of twenty-four years, who has always encouraged me, and our four sons, Jesse, Jared, Landon, and Luke. My boys help me in the shop sometimes.
Completing a project—the final outcome. Also, taking people back in time and giving them an authentic old-time feel—those matter, too. My personal motto is “Love what you do. It shows.” And I believe that.
