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In the garage-turned-workshop off his 1920s Phoenix cottage, furniture designer Kevin Irvin makes the utilitarian beautiful, one cut at a time. Irvin’s hand-hewn cabinets, tables, benches, consoles and storage boxes are simple shapes with eyecatching design elements that elevate them from pure functionality to works of art. Irvin is truly the “artist next door,” and appropriately so. Growing up in tiny Fort Branch, Indiana—population
2,500—he
didn’t know anyone who called themselves an artist, but he certainly knew many people who could make things with their hands. “I always loved to draw, and I have a particular interest in mechanical drawing,” says Irvin, “but the closest thing to art that I was exposed to were billboards. I would have liked to take art classes in high school, but in those days, the message was that business was my path.” At the University of Southern Indiana, an art degree wasn’t offered, but he did sign up for an introductory art class. That first day, he thought he’d accidentally wandered into a wood shop class. As it turns out, that Design and Materials class was about to change his perspective and his life path. The professor, John McNaughton, showed slides of his work—fantastical furniture that was more sculptural than utilitarian.
apri l 2018
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