An Interview with Doug Stowe

One of ESSA's Founding Board Members is being honored as the 2009 Arkansas Living Treasure. Doug Stowe is a true artisan, a master of his craft, woodworking, and a dedicated teacher. We are so proud that he has been chosen by the Arkansas Arts Council for this distinction. I had a chance to ask Doug a few questions and he kindly obliged.

Doug, first congratulations on your award! What an honor it must be. Can you tell us how does this award impact you personally as an artist, but also on a broader scale, woodworkers in Arkansas?

Receiving an award of this kind gives pause to reflect. First, no maker is an island unto him or her self, or you can say, it takes a village to make a craftsman. There were people in my very early days that noticed my work and gave me the encouragement to proceed. Friends, family and community, and most specifically the artist community of Eureka Springs are owed the greatest credit for bringing my work to this point of recognition.

Doug in his workshop

It is interesting to me that of the previous winners of this award, several are deeply involved with wood. Robyn Horn is a sculptor and the founder of the organization Collectors of Wood Art. Larry Williams a local friend and honoree who makes hand planes from wood. Leon Niehaus makes baskets from fine strips of white oak. One recipient is a knife maker whose knives most often have wooden handles. And another living treasure, Violet Hensley, makes violins.

All this might lead you to suspect a conspiracy on behalf of wood, but I think the real deal is that wood is so wonderful at connecting us with important values. I remember years ago being at a show watching a local artist sell print after print, and wishing (idly of course) that I could take one of my pieces of furniture and run it through a printing press so you could reproduce it by inserting tabs, a into slot b. But woodworking doesn’t happen that way. Each piece is real, particularly when made from solid wood (not particle board, plywood or veneers). Over the years, it seems inventiveness of concept has become more important than skilled execution, and that is tragic for our culture. Maybe the award will give me a chance to explain a few things.

Doug, I know that you use Arkansas native hardwoods for your furniture and the boxes which you are so well known for. Is the wood you use harvested and milled commercially? And can you enlighten us about the preservation of native woods in our forests in Arkansas?

I get wood from a variety of sources. Some are commercially milled. Some come from trees that are downed by forces of nature in my own community. We have a lot in common with wood, and that commonality is important to our relationship to the environment at large. Just as the story of the tree is recorded and told by its grain, our own stories are told in the things we craft… So we are intimately and profoundly connected, trees, forests, man and community.

We have gotten to the point in our culture that we overlook the forests, regarding them as a commodity, and we have gotten to the point in our culture in which we do the same with people. So, in a sense, what we learn from the forests, is the same important lesson we could be learning from each other.

Also, An African environmentalist, Baba Dioum said, “in order to protect, you must first love, and in order to love, you must first be taught.” In order to preserve the forests of Arkansas, a few woodworkers need to be showing how beautiful and diverse and wonderful the woods are.

On your blog, Wisdom of Hands, you frequently write about the students whom you teach at Clear Spring School and the power of learning while working with hands. As you apply similar lessons to adults at ESSA, do you find that students of these varying ages learn similarly or are there clear differences in the how they approach new challenges?

One thing I heard lately is that adults don’t draw. A thing they tell me is “I don’t have patience for what you do.” But kids and adults are all the same when they allow themselves to become engaged in the shaping of materials… up to a point. One of the challenges is that as we mature, our expectations with regard to results becomes more refined, and greater success is necessary to keep us engaged. Kids are quite happy to get something made and will overlook its shortcomings. An adult looks for a higher level of fit and finish, and will regard his or her efforts as failings if those levels are not easily achieved.

Doug's students at Clear Spring School on a recent project

Put a guitar in the hands of a kid and they will make the most ungodly racket. Put the same guitar in the hands of an adult, and they will make the most ungodly racket, for a few seconds and put the instrument down far too soon to realize its potential. But as Malcolm Gladwell in his recent book and also Richard Sennett describes in “The Craftsman”, there is the 10,000 hour rule. It may or may not take 10,000 hours to actually master something, but it takes a major commitment of time and energy, and adults are much too easily discouraged by their beginning efforts. So they tell me, “I don’t have the patience,” which actually means, “I haven’t given myself the time for that.”

Doug's 2008 class at ESSA with their finished pieces

As one of ESSA’s founding board members, can you tell us about the original vision that the founders had for the school? Have the first goals been realized? And what do you think the future holds not just for ESSA but for arts and craft schools like ours?

As some people have noticed, Eureka Springs is a place that gets into squabbles. I and others wanted Eureka Springs to move in a more positive direction for the arts. The first goal was to have a school that people across the board would see as being non-contentious and worthy of almost universal support and that would bring the arts to the forefront of community direction. There have been a variety of groups working on the same effort and this month, May, is recognized as an important time in which we are all dedicated to the arts.

I think the current economy is a very good thing for the arts. And one of the reasons that I and others suspected that forming a school of the arts would be a good thing is that so many from the baby boom generation put aside those things that have been so fulfilling for others like myself. Being involved start to finish in a creative endeavor and fully responsible for the results is an empowering force. It is something that once experienced you will want to repeat. And sadly, so many people have been diverted by the glitz and glamour of economic opportunities to surrender some of their own creative fulfillment. But that longing, though repressed is there just waiting to be awakened.

Is it too late for some, or just now the beginning? I bet on beginning.

Doug, many people may also know you teach at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Of course they’ve been in existence many years and are well funded. Some have said ESSA might be considered a young Arrowmont. What are the next steps you identify as necessary for ESSA to move closer towards this vision?

Every school faces money challenges and Arrowmont, even though it has been around a great while longer is no exception. Arrowmont was the vision for me when I first started thinking of a school. Others had experience with Penland and Haystack. I was interested in Arrowmont because I had an aunt and uncle whose lives were profoundly affected by their weeks spent learning there, and Arrowmont became the first place in which I had the opportunity to teach. But ESSA is already its very own thing, shaped by the character and interests of the board, and its students. I don’t think it needs to grow up into something else, a mental image of an ideal. It is such a wonderful thing now to have a campus, and to see that our small organization is highly regarded in our community. I see teachers returning to teach and returning students signing up for new classes and new students and teachers drawn into involvement at ESSA, and know we are doing a very good job of slow but steady growth.

And I’d like to know Doug, have you been both a student and a teacher at ESSA? And, what advice would you impart to future students and teachers about getting the most from their ESSA experience?

I haven’t taken any classes, but teaching in the room adjoining Dolf Smith was a class unto itself. What a wonderful thing… something that I hope can be repeated sometime. And what can I suggest for students and teachers? Be open, be uncritical of your own efforts. Play, have fun. Remember that the ability to pay attention is a skill that is greatly diminished in our “I want it all now without effort” society. Slow down and enjoy. And remember that art is not an object, but an experience, that brings us more closely in touch with ourselves. Something you will find at ESSA.

Thanks Doug for sharing your thoughts and congratulations again on your distinction as the 2009 Arkansas Living Treasure.

More interviews and stories about Doug Stowe can be found online at:
Arkansas Arts Online
and KUAF, Ozarks at Large

Doug Stowe is also an exceptional writer on the topic of woodworking. His books and videos can be found at Box Making 101 and he is a Contributing Editor to Woodworking Magazine. If you would like to learn more from Doug or any of our woodworking classes, please visit our schedule at http://www.esartschool.org

All photos are generously provided by Doug Stowe and Wisdom of the Hands. Copyright 2008 and 2009 by Doug Stowe. Used with permission.