Pike Basking

Donald Fortescue takes a very different approach to woodworking from most other makers. He constructed "Pike Basking" from rings of plywood, first plotting out their dimensions on paper.

After an assistant cut the rings, Fortescue glued them together in section, which he turned on a lathe to refine their shape, and finally assembled, sanded, and polished the sculpture.

Instead of responding to and working around the idiosyncrasies of wood in its natural state, he chose a kind of wood that humans have modified and standardized.

Laminated plywood is made by gluing together layers of wood with the grain of each layer running perpendicular to the last to strengthen the form.

When using plywood, one does not need to factor in the direction of the grain as with natural wood, or its expansion and contraction with changes in humidity.

Fortescue thinks about wood like a scientist and an engineer, which is not surprising given his training. He holds a BS in botany and worked in that field before becoming interested in woodworking and earning further degrees in design and sculpture.

Most recently, he earned a PhD in sculpture that focused on the parallels in the practice of science and art. During artist residences in the Arctic and Antarctic, he created musical instruments and sound sculptures that translated data generated by physicists into sounds.