Whimsy in Wood

by Dave Weinstein

Michael Cullen breaks out in a hearty laugh carrying his mosquito table, with its glowing wings and piercing blue eyes.

He was raised in Oakland, studied engineering at UC Santa Barbara, and followed in the footsteps of his father by working at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Sure, he decamped to rural Massachusetts to learn woodworking after suffering a precocious midlife crisis in his twenties, and then worked in a studio down the street from Harvard. But for the past 20-plus years, Michael Cullen has been releasing to the world tables and benches, chests and casework, and ‘fantasy objects,’ working in a series of repurposed buildings characteristic of Petaluma, the former ‘egg capitol of the world.’

“I went from a chicken coop to a chicken slaughterhouse, and now I’m in an egg-sorting facility,” Cullen says. It doesn’t get more local than that.

Why then do colleagues still think of him as an East Coast woodworker? “They can see it in the work,” Cullen says.

There is a good deal to see in Cullen’s work, which some fans of studio furniture believe is among the best and most individualistic coming out of the United States. Cullen is known for his use of color—something not all woodworkers approve of; for his carving and patterning; his touch of whimsy; and, in a way, his modernity.

“It doesn’t have the looseness that you’ll see” in much California studio furniture, nor the “softness,” Cullen says, adding, “There’s always this kind of formality to my work.”

What makes Cullen’s work so special, says Jon Binzen, senior editor at Fine Woodworking magazine and a woodworker himself, is its variety.

“It’s not common to find somebody who’s so good, going in so many different directions, and being so good in them,” Binzen says. Cullen constructs cabinets that are often painted with casein, a milk-based paint that uses natural pigment. “That’s kind of my signature,” he says. “The effect is a soft, almost muted palette,” Bebe Johnson says of Cullen’s use of casein. “A quietude that is introduced with the milk paint, and transparency. You can see under the color. There’s not the opacity of latex.”

There are other furniture makers who carve and also paint their work, she says, but Cullen’s work remains distinctive.

“Today,” says Ned Cooke, Jr., professor of American Decorative Arts at Yale University, “studio furniture making, while emphasizing technical virtuosity, is more open to color and mixing materials. Some work that used color and mixed media in the 1980s  pushed too hard. Now [furniture makers] are pulling back from that.”

“That’s where Michael’s work is,” says Cooke, who curated an exhibition that included two of Cullen’s pieces. “I feel Michael’s work is relatively quiet and thoughtful. There’s a serenity to it, where the form and textures all work together.”

Johnson, too, feels the work’s serenity. “There’s a friendliness and scale to his work that I like a lot,” she says. “It’s work one can easily incorporate into one’s life and live with quite contentedly.”

THIS ARTICLE IS EXCERPTED. TO READ IN ITS ENTIRITY:

https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/whimsy-wood

Profile: Michael Cullen

by Woodworker West Magazine

He had forgone a promising career in engineering to assume an artistic lifestyle and has since become among America’s finest furniture craftsmen.

“I always found the arts as a counterbalance to my heavy course load in science and math,” recounts Michael. “At U.C. Santa Barbara, there were periods that I spent more time in the sculpture studio than I did in my engineering classes.” So it was natural that when he found no passion for his engineering job, he turned to artistic pursuits.

In a way, sawdust was always in Michael’s blood.

Both his grandfather and great grandfathers had been cabinetmakers and furniture makers, and as a kid in Oakland, he hung around woodshops and collected wood samples from MacBeath Hardwood.

Around 1983, his interest in woodworking was rekindled. “Seeing pictures of the artistic pieces of Judy Kensley McKie and Wendell Castle made me realize that furniture was merely functional sculpture. I could combine my love for working with my hands, my engineering background, and my interest in art.” When he found that
his creativity was limited by his technical knowledge, he entered the two-year program at the Leeds Design Workshop in Easthampton, MA to learn the skills of a craftsman.

Headed by David Powell, a graduate of the Barnsley Workshops and the Royal College of Art in England, Leeds emphasized traditional methods and design. “It gave me the techniques to go anywhere in terms of design. At the same time, I was exposed to other woodworkers on the East Coast, who were employing paint, dyes, and texture. These methods and ideas were infectious. I soon started experimenting with the use of bleach and color, and it made sense. If done correctly, color can set off wood like nothing else.” He further expanded his skill repertoire working two years with Jamie Robertson of the Emily Street Workshop, who utilized bent laminations and veneers.

COMMISSIONS

Today, his work is divided between commissions and speculative pieces, depending on the economic climate. “During the high-flying 90’s, I sold well in the galleries, but as the recession began, I have relied more on commissions.” Commissions provide a healthy challenge, according to Michael. “It’s demanding to meet the functional and visual requirements of a client. Unlike speculative work where I have complete free reign, with commissions I need to intimately understand the needs of my client, bringing their ideas together with my own, and ultimately, creating a piece that works for both of us.”

His work is shown in such books as Taunton’s The Custom Furniture Source Book: A Guide to 125 Craftsmen.

TEACHING

Teaching is another passion for Michael. “It keeps me on my toes, as well as maintaining my fundamental skills. It’s probably the only time that I flatten a board by hand these days.” For four years, he led the Woodworking program at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, where he reinvigorated the program. Only demands on his furniture production made him step down, replaced by John Grew-Sheridan who “is taking the program to the next level.”

Michael continues to accept apprentices into his shop, as part of the Baulines Craft Guild Program. “I take my apprentices through the same rigorous and demanding training that I received at Leeds.” His relationship with his current apprentice, David Hirsch, was the subject of a recent feature in the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, Michael enjoys writing and is a frequent contributor of technical and design articles for Woodwork Magazine.

THIS ARTICLE IS EXCERPTED. TO READ IN ITS ENTIRITY:

Woodworker West Magazine – Michael-Cullen.pdf