55+
woodworking
Going With the Grain
Lamp shade created by Chuck Willard. The wood came from an old oak tree that once was at a family home in Canandaigua.
Woodworker becomes one with his medium By Ernst Lamothe Jr.
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an Wiedrick-Kozlowski’s family has always had an iconic 300-year-old oak tree on their property on Canandaigua Lake. It had a beautiful big hole in it, and with the backdrop of the water, everyone stopped to look at it. Unfortunately, it went down in a storm a couple of years ago and they were all heartbroken. They didn’t know what to do, so she grabbed some wood and remembered a man by the name of Chuck Willard that she met. “Chuck is an incredible artist and I first saw him at the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s Holiday Bazaar,” said Wiedrick-Kozlowski of Greece. “He made such wonderful lampshades and lamps out of wood in such beautiful shapes that followed the grain of the wood, like watching a creek meander through the woods. Very few artists can make the wood into such beautiful shapes where you see the grain of the wood, but it lets light through at the same time.” Growing up on a farm and making items from wood just became part of Willard’s life. It wasn’t something he felt would ever be a profession; at most maybe a hobby. After retirement, that has changed as Willard has slowly decorated many Upstate New York homes with some of his fine-crafted wooden lamps and crafts. “I just viewed it as something that kept the day going on the farm. I would have never saw it as something I would be doing as much as I May / June - 55 PLUS
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