Paris and learned to channel my interest in sculpture into furniture making. I learned through discovery. All my brothers are scientists, so going to a decorative art school probably seemed more in keeping with their serious pursuits than attending a fine art school like Les Beaux Arts. I believe that the lack of traditional training made me more open minded - I found answers to many design questions just by working with the material. I'm not limited by the vocabulary learned at a specific school. Neither am I motivated to produce “collections,” or something that is simply beautiful, elegant, chic, and seductive: I want the gesture to be the soul of the piece. However, design almost erases the gesture, and it generally doesn’t create emotion beyond its functionality. But that's been my desire from the very beginning: to express and create emotion. Furniture has proven a is a desk but it also points to an experience one can have with space, something more mysterious. Where do you find the emotion? I am interested in movement. When I'm on the beach, I am always building sculptures with drift wood, and I have often incorporated found wood in my work. Eventually the sculptures evolved and I discovered my original vocabulary for the big mobiles. Those gestures entered into various pieces of furniture, and I keep exploring the possibilities of that vocabulary. The Meanders are all about a gesture that is controlled and turned loose at the same time. Can you talk about the tension between simple wood and perfect lacquer, about these two esthetic worlds colliding and creating an unusual hybrid? Lacquer is very tactile, and that makes it interesting to me. It integrates well with my work because its application is not mechanical. I use a patina on the MDF to give that modest
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surprisingly useful vehicle to fulfill that desire. La Secrétaire