"I think this is stunning work, quite extraordinary to look into, the rippled edge, the pattern inside and outside, it all just sings."
– Steven Hogbin
describing the Cosmic Burst Pattern Bowl
at the 2007 AAW Symposium Gallery Critique
Yale Acquires Cosmic Burst
The largest of the "Cosmic Burst" pattern bowl series was acquired by Yale University Art Gallery in July 2011. The rose-engined turned bowl measures nearly 10 inches diameter and was created from a single piece of endgrain Osage Orange heartwood. Visit Yale University Art Gallery website
AAW Anniversary Book Feature
Salesin's work is featured in a new book, Woodturning Today, a Dramatic Evolution, celebrating the American Association of Woodturners 25th Anniversary. Sneak peak (PDF)
Symposium Presenter
The 25th annual American Association of Woodturners' symposium featured rose engine demonstrations and lectures as well as trade show booths featuring ornamental turning equipment. Salesin presented a lecture entitled "A Decade of Turning Boxes" detailing tips, tricks & traps from his ornamental box-making experience and demonstrated how tools, technique, and artistry impact results.
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OTI Master's Cup award
Salesin received the Master's Cup award at the biannual Ornamental Turners International symposium, held in San Jose in September 2010. His entry was the recently completed Pagoda Box, which features five separate boxes from the combination of 21 different parts, all hand turned using an ornamental lathe and rose engine lathe.
Feature in wood art book
Several of Salesin's pieces are included in Wood Art Today 2, a new book of current trends in international woodworking which explores the artists' inspirations and techniques. Available summer 2009. More: Shiffer website | Amazon.com
Studio Made at the MAH
Santa Cruz Woodworkers exhibit Studio Made at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History ran from July through November 2011. Salesin was one of ten artists showcased. In the Santa Cruz Sentinel review, Wallace Baine wrote, "Salesin may end up as the exhibit's most compelling artist with his wide-ranging collections of miniatures made from seed pods and palm nuts.... Salesin easily has the most individual pieces on display, several dozen at least, the smallest of which is fingertip-sized. But what he may be most remembered for is his series of three pattern bowls and 16 mandala cups, each characterized by their simple shapes and their exquisitely precise patterns of geometric divots, reaching a vanishing point at the bottom. The patterns in the cups and bowls are so hypnotizing, you may lose the sense that you're looking at wood." In Lisa Jenson's Online Express, she proclaimed, "Salesin's incredibly intricate and diverse pieces, ranging from fingernail-size to about and inch or two high, may be the most breathtaking objects in the show."
AAW symposium selection
From over 1500 pieces at the American Association of Woodturner's 2011 Symposium Instant Gallery, Salesin's Cosmic Burst pattern bowl, along with approximately 20 other artist's pieces, was selected for critique. Luminary turner and teacher David Ellsworth along with collectors Jane & Arthur Mason selected and discussed the work. Among the comments, included "He’s given us a hint on the outside of the rim, as to what to anticipate potentially on the inside, even though we don’t know until we get there. It’s kind of like the right dress on the right person at the right time." Read transcription of critique
Box show award
Salesin's "Lighthouse Box" received third place award in Northwest Fine Woodworking's "30th Annual Box & Container Show" (2009) Seattle show. View event page.
Woodturning magazine feature
The June 2010 issue of American Woodturner magazine includes the article "Educational Opportunity Grant Auction – Hartford Symposium" in which Salesin's work is shown among several turners whose work was selected for the live auction portion of the fundraising event.
Lighthouse boxes feature
The Summer 2010 issue of Ornamental Turners International magazine featured Salesin's lighthouse boxes on the cover and additional detail photos inside.
Transcription of discussion of Salesin's Cosmic Burst pattern bowl at the 2011 AAW instant gallery critique
Jane Mason: Can you show the inside more? Thank you.
David Ellsworth: And the bottom please? That’s perfect. Thanks.
Arthur Mason: This is really incredible the way it inside looks. The work is just superb and the visual effect is really working well. And it’s a functional piece that’s beautiful at the same time using wood and material in a design I love. You see a piece that rewards the material.
Jane Mason: I just love the movement inside, and the way he did the sculpture like that.
David Ellsworth: We’ve spoken of Joshua’s pieces before and I keep coming back to this wonderful feeling of continuum, the repetitive elements, the beauty of this. This is a real type-A piece. I couldn’t possibly come off with this type of a texture. I mean we have the technology to do this, but to use the technology in the manner in which he has done is more than just decoration. It’s drawing your eye down into something that creates an enormous amount of visual excitement for you. And that’s—you know we were talking about this earlier—how do objects, how does art, how does it emotionally move us. And here’s something that may not grab us right at the moment when we look up because all the stuff is down inside of it. We have to get beyond the shape and beyond the scale of the piece to really experience the emotional elements that he’s bringing off through the techniques that he’s using. I thought the fact that he did a little bit on the bottom is even more exciting. He didn’t just leave the bottom as a bottom. He decorated the bottom as well. And that was fun for me.
Jane Mason: Also, his ability to catch light, and to handle light. Here he’s in control of where the light is.
David Ellsworth: Yeah, I agree. He’s given us a hint on the outside of the rim, as to what to anticipate potentially on the inside, even though we don’t know until we get there. It’s kind of like the right dress on the right person at the right time.
