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| January 14, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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‘l H
Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021 — Shelton-Mason County Journal Page A—33
A sampling of Hoodsport woodworking artist Phil Day’s creations.
Photos courtesy of Phil
Artist: ‘... have to be precise because wood... stayS alive’
continued from page A-31
understanding of contract work was
not quite as finely tuned as his in-
stinctive sense of how to shape wood.
“It’s also hard to compete with all
the professional people who go into
furniture-making as a hobby, all the
doctors and lawyers, because making
money from that artwork is not their .
thing,” Day said, before wryly allud-
ing to the Dire Straits song “Galle-
ria,” and its‘depiction of how fickle
fame can be in the art field. “Some—
one paints an empty canvas,'and
critics go wild. A banana duct-taped
to a canvas makes all sorts of money.
Meanwhile, I’ve known dozens of
people who are genuine maestros at
what they do, and they never rose ’
above where they started from.”
Day said he is content with where
he is, although he admits it helps
that, within the past dozen or so
years, he’s finally started earning
enough to make a modest living from
his lathe-turned art.
“I’ve turned boxes, bowls and
' other vessels, evoking styles ranging
from Egyptian to Southwestern Ana-
sazi pottery,” Day said. .
“You have to be precise because
wood, as a medium, stays alive even.
after you’ve carved it. It expands and
contracts with humidity, so if I’ve
~Ihade someone a box, it might not fit
together entirely right if it’s stored
too close to your fireplace. And if
you move to a different climate, like
Spokane, that’s going to affect it as
well.”
‘Day appreciates the creative chal-
lenges afforded by lathe-turning,
which forces woodworkers to think
in three dimensions even as they’re
measuring and cutting wood seg-
ments along two~dimensional axes,
in no small part because the final re—
sults are so often worth all the effort.
“You can evoke a sense of awe,
and make people happy just because
it looks so beautiful,” said Day,
whose wife Luella posts pictures of .
his art on Facebook. “All art should
stir something inside of you, and
make you feel taken with it, whether
it’s a painting, a sculpture, even-a
car.” .
As a creator of art, Day ad-
mits that he derives significant
satisfaction simply from “not muck-
ing it up,” as well as from coming up
with “something uncommon, that
you don’t see every day.”
And for at least the past eight
years, Day has seen Luella as an
essential partner in helping his art
blossom,
“She’s more computer and in»
ternet-literate than me,” Day said.
“She insisted we get married be-
fore I turned 60, and aldng with my
parents —— including my mom, who
passed away this past May ~— my
wife has set the table for me to have
a great life.”
If you’re interested in one of
Day’s pieces or commissioning him
to produce a new piece, call him at
360-877-6764.