HFIA 12th Annual Statewide Juried Woodworking Exhibition

Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center 2201 Kalakaua Ave, Honolulu, Hawaii, September 11-19, 2004

The Jurors

Gary Knox Bennett

Garry Knox Bennett is an internationally known furniture maker, currently represented by Leo Kaplan Modern Gallery, NY and the Winfield Gallery in Carmel, CA. Garry has taught and lectured extensively in the US as well as Canada, Australia and the UK. A major retrospective of his work was in at the Museum of Art & Design, NY (formerly the American Craft Museum) January 2001 which included a venue at the Oakland Museum in California. The exhibition was documented with an extensive book on his work: Made Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett. Garry is the 2004 nominee the Award of Distinction from the Furniture Society. Garry’s multi-media work utilizes his training in painting and sculpture. Garry prefers to work alone, building thematic bodies of work in series (lamps, benches, etc) rather than working on commissions.

Bart Potter is one of HFIA’s founding members and has served on its board from its inception in 1989 until the present time Bait had a hand in drafting show rules that reflect HFIA s commitment to ethical forestry and to the artists working in Hawaii’s Wood

Bart opened a small sawmill business on Oahu in 1984 seeking out “politically correct” Hawaii-grown logs from arborists demolition sites and construction projects He currently specializes in producing “tonewood” for guitar and ukulele makers worldwide as well as face veneers for custom applications such as cabinetry furniture and musical instruments.

His own involvement with wood began in 1974 with a year long apprenticeship at George Gilmore’s Guitar and Lute Workshop on Piikoi Street. GLW folded in 1975, and Bart set up his own shop and built guitars and ukulele for the following six years. He also pursued the turning of wood for a number of years and had pieces in HFIA’s Woodshow, the Hawaii Craftsmen show and several galleries and collections.

Bart regards it as a vital ethical task for HFIA to continue balancing conservation, industry and community issues to achieve win-win outcomes that will advance HFIA s mandate to work for the vigor of our forests as well as the health of Hawaii s forest industry

Jack Straka

Big Island resident Jack Straka is a retired wood turner. Straka specialized in bowls using many of the endemic and local woods of the Big Island and has numerous pieces in various collections throughout the country. Straka turned for 25 years before retiring in 2001. He helped form the Big Island Woodturners Club and served as it’s first president He is a past Hawaii’s Woodshow juror as well as a Big Island Woodturner’s Show juror.