Artist’s Statement
There is no real production; only interdependence.
- Alexandra David-Neel
My work begins with the wiggly and the unhewn. The indigenous Vermont hardwoods I use in my furniture are junk to the lumber industry; burls, dog-legs, unmanageable crotches, gnarled branches and center-rotten trunks not valued by commercial mills as saw logs. Local loggers are the chief sources of supply. We provide loggers with another source of income and they provide us with commercially unavailable raw material.
The design process of my furniture begins with the organic life of the tree and has a direct influence on the individual, finished work. Careful design and responsive craftsmanship are crucial to the entire process.
The challenge with such raw materials is to make sense of them within the parameters of a practical, functional piece of furniture. My efforts are directed toward sustaining the material’s singular qualities while working with it to create a unique piece of furniture; both the design and making are thus material-based and interdependent.
I had bought two drums from Karamo Saho in Joli. He had cut them from local trees, and each of them followed the shape of the original trunk, so that they leaned slightly, but in opposite directions. Wherever they were, they would remain a part of the landscape from which they had been taken.
- Mark Hudson, Our Grandmothers’ Drums
David Holzapfel
2802 Route 9 P.O. Box 66
Marlboro, Vermont 05344
802-254-2908
www.holzapfelwoodworking.com
David has been making furniture and objects from the unhewn hardwoods of Vermont for five decades. He has exhibited in gallery and museum shows nationwide though most of his time is spent on private commissions. Publications featuring his work include The Christian Science Monitor, House Beautiful, American Woodworker and Vermont Magazine. He has lead workshops, served as an artist-in-residence for the Vermont Council on the Arts and given slide-lectures at the annual Furniture Society and SOFA Chicago conferences. He’s taught Italian at Marlboro College, sixth graders at the Marlboro School and written articles for Fine Woodworking and Woodwork Magazine. In 2014 he was awarded the Vermont Humanities Council’s Teacher of the Year.
Date of Birth March 10, 1950
Education BA Italian Poetry and Translation
Marlboro College Marlboro, VT 1972
Middlebury College, Italian Language Summer Institute 1975
Honorary Degree : Doctor of Education
Marlboro College 2015
Work Experience
Apprentice: Roy Sheldon’s Fabulous Tables 10/73 - 5/76
Furniture, photography and object maker 6/76 to date
Applewoods Studio established June 1976
Vermont Council on the Arts: Artist in Residence 1980-1984 Educator, Marlboro School 1989 - 2015
Vermont Humanities Council:
Victor Swenson Humanities Educator Award 2014
Career summary
Selected Exhibitions
Of Land and Place VT Center for Photography 2025
Painting the Forest of the Happy Everafter: John Newsome
Cloud Throne included. BMAC 2024
Passaggi Mitchell-Giddings Gallery Brattleboro VT 2016
True to Form Drury Gallery, Marlboro College 2015
DwarfGlitch: 16 x 33 1/3 (installation)
Brattleboro Museum & Arts Center, VT 12/2013 – 3/2014
DwarfGlitch : Opening ceremony
A Candle in the Night. Brattleboro, VT May 2013
“On the Street”
Vermont Center for Photography March 2012
Holt Cemetary: two hours artist’s book 2012
“Low Tech/ No Tech. Plastic, Pinhole and Camera-less Show”
Vermont Center for Photography November 2011
The State of Craft: Fifty Years of Studio Craft in Vermont
Bennington Museum 2010
American Craft Odyssey, Renwick Alliance, DC 2001
The Works Gallery, “Vermont Visions”, Phila. 1998
Drury Gallery Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT 1998
The Bennington Museum, Bennington, VT 1996
Helen Day Art Center Stowe, Vt 1992
Selected lecture/teaching engagements
Remarks VT Humanities Council Conference 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILxIhBKb9SA
“Making it in the Arts” with Michelle Holzapfel 2013
Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center
Granite State Woodworkers, studio tour and demonstration 2011
“David & Michelle Holzapfel, woodworkers”
Bennington Museum. Bennington, VT 2010
“Embracing the Unhewn”, slide lecture w/
Michelle Holzapfel Lexington, MA 2000
“The way we work”, slide lecture given w/
Michelle Holzapfel SOFA, Chicago 1999
“Considering the Unhewn: material based design
and making”, slide lecture given at annual
meeting of Furniture Society, TN 1999
“Breaking Barriers” Conference, Emma Lake
Saskatchewan 1998
Professor of Italian Marlboro College 1989
Selected Publications
“To Look With Care”. Images, text. Vermont Almanac VI 2025
“Spare Time”. poem in Vermont Almanac V 2024
For the Land Publishing.
News and Notes: “ Marlboro Elementary’s David Holzapfel Receives Swenson Award” Vermont Humanities Spring 2015
Vermont Humanities Council Montpelier, VT
“Vermont Humanities Teacher of the Year”. Kelly Salasin
The Cracker Barrel. Vol. XXVI #1 Winter / Spring 2015
“Not Teaching to the Test” Sarah Buckingham
The Commons Vol. IX, #42, Issue # 277 10/22/2014
“From random pixels, abstract photography grows”
Richard Henke. The CommonsVol. VIII, #18, Issue # 201 5/1/2013
“Michelle Holzapfel: A Great American Woodworker, an Artisan’s Life Story,” [sidebar] Spike Carlsen, American Woodworker magazine, Dec./Jan. 2012
“State of Craft: Exploring the Studio Movement in Vermont 1960- 2010” a review by Arlene Distler, American Craft magazine, Oct./Nov. 2010
“State of Craft: The Artisans Speak” by Arlene Distler. So Vermont Arts and Living. Fall / Holiday issue. 2010 “Natural Design” Nisha (Israeli design magazine) April 2008
Cabinets of Curiosities Editor, Judson Randall
Woodturning Center & Furniture Society 2003
The Workshop Scott Gibson, Taunton Press 2003
“A Croatian Story” (author) Woodwork Magazine Dec 1998
“Vermont Made” Vermont Magazine Ju/Ag 1990
1986
“Subtractive Woodworking: Furniture from Logs and Limbs” (authored) Fine Woodworking Magazine #54 Taunton Press 1985
“Furniture and Figures from Bumps on a Log”
Christian Science Monitor Jun 18,1985
Interviews / Blog Posts
Vt Humanities Council. Humanities educator of the year, 2014
http://thisvtlife.com/2015/01/26/david-holzapfel-vermont- humanities-educator-of-the-year/ 2015
Vermont Folklife Center - Greg Sharrow; for “State of Craft,” Vermont Crafts Council. 2009
“Art Inspired by Nature: The Sensual Work of Sculptor and Furniture Maker David Holzapfel...” The Gardener’s Eden.
Michaela Harlow. 11/04/09
http://www.thegardenerseden.com/?s=david+holzapfel
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution 2008
Josephine Shea. Nanette Laitman Documentation Project for Craft & Decorative Arts in America.
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/collections_list.cfm/search_letter/H#ho
Selected Public and Corporate Collections / Clients
Nordstrom Photography Toronto, Canada Museum of Art and Design New York, NY
Hannay Reels Albany, NY
Whoop Inc. New York, NY
The Center for Art in Wood Philadelphia, PA
Juan Montoya Design New York, NY