| Kelly Dunn |
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Kelly Dunn was born into an artistic family: His father was an
artist, carpenter and fighter pilot; his mother a musician, artist and
floral designer. His brother was an artist, musician and school teacher. His younger sister stayed active in crafts. His older sister is still active in crafts. With creative influences around him, Kelly built tree houses as a child, had his first poem published at age 16, and won his first award for sculpture at age 18. In the early 70s, Kelly owned and operated a craft gallery in Colorado. Later in the decade, he moved to Waimea on the Big Island where he studied woodturning with the late Larry Trombly and began building furniture. In the mid-80s, he worked as foreman for the Palo Alto designer Bob Waterman, building one-of-a-kind furniture and design prototypes. He used that opportunity to study with some of the best woodturners in the field. Kelly moved back to the Big Island in the late 80s and now lives with his wife and daughter in a house he designed and built himself. Kelly has won and continues to win awards in the Hawaii Woodworker’s Guild shows and Hawaii Forest Industries Association shows. His work is in the collections of museums and corporate collections as well as a few notables such as Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Mick Jagger, Bill Walton, Shelley Fabares, and Lauren Bacall. Kelly works on a Oneway lathe. He can turn a piece more than 40 inches wide.He begins with a raw log and a chainsaw. While the piece spins on the lathe, he assesses the grain pattern and the wood, deciding what to expose and what to remove to make it an aesthetically pleasing piece. He says form is everything.The oiling process for Norfolk Island pine bowls is long with many processes to get the deep color and translucent effect. Kelly works in woods grown on the Big Island. Kelly has a deep respect for the traditional Hawaiian Calabash forms and uses woods such as Milo, Koa and Kou among others in his Calabash series. He hopes to always grow as his talent and curiosity lets him. |
