Brian Horais: Not Everything (turned on a lathe) Has to be Round
April 2-30, 2021
Brian Horais: Not Everything (turned on a lathe) Has to be Round
Opening reception: Friday, April 2, 5:00-8:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 9 AM – 5 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Monday, April 5.
Turning a round bowl is a skill many woodturners develop early in their careers, after which point many seek additional techniques to expand their skills and keep their creative energies alive. Off-Center (or Multi-Axis) turning offers such an opportunity, and this exhibition displays three variations of multi-axis turning: 3-axis Twist, Half Twist and Therming. Brian Horais will display items turned on a lathe as well as explanatory charts. Inspiration for these unique techniques comes from two well-known woodturners: Art Liestman and Barbara Dill.
My woodturning focuses on creating non-round works of art on the lathe. Wood turning traditionally creates round objects, such as bowls, vases and platters. The rotational motion of a lathe invites the creation of round shapes because of how the equipment is designed and operates. Mother Nature seldom creates objects that are truly round, so why should all turnings be round? This exhibit explores a number of approaches for creating non-round objects on a lathe using techniques that have historical roots and ones that are more recent in their origins. The turnings made possible by these non-standard lathe techniques suggest organic shapes, gracefully curved objects and complex intersections of multiple curved surfaces.
Brian Horais, a woodturner since 2010, lives in Knoxville. His focus is on turning non-round multi-axis works of art. His twisted segmented works have been jury-selected multiple times for the East Tennessee Master Woodworkers Show and for “Arts in the Airport” exhibitions at McGhee Tyson Airport in Knoxville. He has published multiple articles in the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) magazine, ‘American Woodturner’, and the British woodturning magazine, ‘Woodturner’. Horais was a demonstrator at the 2019 AAW National Woodturning Symposium in Raleigh, NC.