private collection
This is a corner cabinet. The marquetry is quite simple, using just ebony and holly on a ground of figured avodire. My intent was to have the ebony look like calligraphic brush strokes.
My gallery representation in New York used to be in Soho. Soho was a grittier place back then and one day when I was visiting there was a rat in the gutter outside the gallery. “Life is a rat race.” I thought it to be a bit of a metaphor for urban life (and perhaps my career). So when i got back to the studio I thought I might make a piece with rats.
Hubris… I thought I could make anything and sell it back then.
It turned out to be a difficult sell. Sophisticated New Yorkers didn’t want to look at rats in their apartments and apparently they didn’t get the joke.
About a year later I popped into the gallery and it just so happened that the gallery director was showing the piece to potential buyers. I strolled up behind and overheard him refer to the animals as “gerbils”. Apparently an easier sell than rats.