Moulthrop: A legacy in Wood

“The artistry of Ed Moulthrop has been inherited - and perhaps enhanced - by that of his son Philip and his grandson.” President (13)

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The Moulthrop family of wood turners - patriarch Ed, son Philip, and grandson Matt - shares a deep and abiding respect for their chosen medium as well as a commitment to simplicity of form. Choosing to use wood native to the southeastern United Sates, they create vessels that showcase the individuality and imperfections of each piece within the parameters of classical design and symmetry. Finding hidden grain lines, they produce surface patterns and forms that are reflective of life in balance and in harmony with the environment. Due to the purity and honesty of their art, their work is appreciated by museum curators while remaining accessible to the general public.

Ed Moulthrop: Aesthetic Pioneer

!Ed Moulthrop was an innovator who came along at a point in history when modern art and craft traditions merged. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, he studied architecture at Case Western Reserve University and did graduate studies at Princeton

1 University. One of his heroes was Frank Lloyd Wright, who not only created inspiring architecture but also respected craftsmanship in wood and who used handmade objects in his homes. As part of his education, Ed studied abroad, acquiring knowledge of cathedrals, museums, and other public buildings in Europe. He also won a scholarship that allowed him to spend a summer studying watercolor painting in Fontainebleau. !After graduating from Princeton, Moulthrop moved to to teach architecture at the Institute of Technology, an engineering school that was just starting its industrial arts program. He spent five years at . While there he was able to use the school’s industrial arts shop, and he renewed an interest in woodworking that had begun at age sixteen when he bought a lathe and made dishes and platters as presents for his family. “I love wood, and if something’s made out of wood, that was all it needs to be, and I love it,” he once said. “And I just like to work with wood and with my hands.” (36) !Despite his joy in working with wood, Moulthrop knew that the time was not right to pursue a career in craft. In those days, the late 1930’s and into the 1940’s, homemade crafts were considered inferior to machine-made items. After leaving Georgia Tech, Ed supplied the non-engineering concepts for a large contracting company and worked on projects across the country, one of the last being the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. He continued making bowls and plates for family and friends, all of which he gave away. !Ed’s great innovative breakthrough, a technique he developed that changed woodworking, came about only because of his son Philip’s appendectomy. Ed was in the waiting room at the hospital, and he picked up a Popular Mechanics magazine that had an article about how to keep wood from cracking. During World War II, the U.S. government was creating thousands of gunstocks, a large percentage of which warped and/or cracked. A research project using polyethylene glycol, also known as PEG, was under way in an effort to solve the problem. (43) Ed was intrigued because the bowls he was producing were also cracking, and he was looking for a way to treat wood to prevent this from happening. Ed immersed himself in an exploration of PEG’s usefulness in woodworking. He had vats of PEG in his workshop in which he would soak rough-turned vessels, and after much trial and error, he eventually found the right formula that would allow his vessels to dry quickly and evenly without cracking. Being an architect, he was interested in form and scale, and so he began experimenting with larger and larger forms. As he did so, he found that the lathes and tools he could buy were not large enough. Using his knowledge of engineering regarding machinery and the strength of different materials, Ed created his own lathe to turn his large-scale projects as well as his own turning tools. His tools and methods, as woodworker Mark Lindquist said, were “brilliant feats of engineering...unlike anything ever done in the field.” (45) !Ed continued working as an architect, working from home for a few select clients, but he was also pursuing his art. It wasn’t until 1965 that museums started showing crafts as art objects, and the five and ten dollars that Ed was getting for his pieces at a gallery in Atlanta weren’t enough to send his boys to college. But by 1972 they had both graduated, and Ed Moulthrop became a full-time wood turner. In 1979 one of his works was featured on the cover of American Craft magazine along with an article about the lathes and tools he had created. His esthetically turned vessels were smooth and shiny

2 like glass, a look created by filling any voids in the wood with colored epoxy resin and/or a mixture of glue and sawdust that made the surface absolutely smooth and then applying a special finish that adhered to the treated wood. (49) He finished the wood in a way that made it look like polished marble, therefore appealing to glass collectors who appreciated the sweeping elegance and sculptural transparency of his work. One of his early supporters was President Jimmy Carter, who visited Ed in his studio and purchased his art. !No one else besides Moulthrop created such large-scale forms, one of which was the globe. Ed called it an “ellipsoid - a sphere squeezed from both directions.” He also produced “doughnuts,” essentially solid wooden forms with an indention at the top. Later he started turning large chalices and “Morning Glories,” pieces that had a natural curvature around the sides. (54) Ed Moulthrop was an innovative woodturner, and his son Philip said he “... opened it up and showed this art form to the world. Wood turning wasn’t new, but he worked hard to show this to the world as an art form, and people became aware of it because of him. He’d be happy to see where it’s gone, because he got to see it from the very beginning.” (59) ! One of his contemporaries, Dale Nish, said of Ed Moulthrop: “He stood alone when it came to turning wood vessels of revolutionary size. His turnings had a simplicity of design and exquisite beauty which is displayed in their pure form and shape. They carry no social or moral message unless it is one that says a greater craftsman than himself placed the beauty in the log. Ed felt that the vessel had always been waiting there and that it was his privilege to uncover it.” (54)

Philip Moulthrop: Tradition & Innovation

!Just as his father before him, Philip Moulthrop is both a trained professional as well as a master woodturner. After law school and a year in Vietnam, Philip tried to choose between practicing law and woodturning and eventually came to the realization that he could do both. In the beginning, he didn’t have any tools or equipment, so he went to his father’s house after work and on weekends and worked there with his father’s lathes. Ed had long ago taught him the basics, and Philip was free to pursue his own designs. His father never directed him to a particular way of doing something, but when asked he would give creative suggestions. As the years went by, Philip and his

3 wife moved from house to house, trying to find space that would house both a family and a workshop. They finally settled on two and one-fourth acres and built a home with a large basement. Philip created an area for cutting and rough-turning “green wood as well ass an area for sanding and finishing pieces. The workshop has a thirty-foot bench for working on multiple pieces at a time as well as a large storage area for cured rough pieces. There’s a huge door which allows Philip to drive up and deliver wood, and there is space outside for storing logs. Many tree cutters in Georgia bring logs to the studio for the Moulthrops to use and are paid handsomely for the best materials. Philip appreciates the beautiful specimens undamaged by insects or the ravages of time, but he also sees the beauty in less visually-appealing pieces, appreciating the character of each individual tree and using its flaws to enhance his design. ! One summer when business was slow, Philip’s law office gave him a half day off. Needless to say, he filled his time by turning vessels. One half day grew to a full day, a full day grew to two and one-half days a week, and, finally, half a week grew to no days in the law office at all. Once he established himself independently of his father, Philip found himself assisting his father with technical matters. Although Philip was an accomplished woodturner, he was not savvy about the business side and, in return, his father introduced him to the world of art galleries and collectors. Soon Philip was discovered, and his career took off. When the G-8 summit met on Sea Island, Philip was asked to create eight pieces as gifts for each attendee. He and his wife were also invited to the for a luncheon when one of Philip’s pieces was given to President George Bush, Sr. as an award. Bush, who owns two of Philip’s bowls, invited Philip to the podium to tell those in attendance how he creates his art. !In 1992 Philip made his own contribution to the world of wooden vessels when he introduced his Mosaic series. Albert LeCoff describes Philip’s process as follows: “Philip starts these works with an existing wooden bowl which serves as a blank, covering the surface with a layer of epoxy mixed with sawdust. He sets cross sections of branches into the epoxy and lets the entire construction dry. Philip then turns the outside profile to a smooth finish and hollows out the interior, eliminating the original blank from the final piece. The natural wood sections create a graphic mosaic against a stark black background in the resulting works.” (84-85) Philip’s goal was to make the background completely disappear so that only the wood was seen and the natural grain could be appreciated. He also has created another series in which he runs long branches vertically. Both techniques are very labor intensive so he does few of them so he won’t burn himself out. !In 1993 President and Mrs. Clinton assembled the first official White House crafts collection, and Ed and Philip were both chosen to have their work represented. The exhibition book, The White House Collection of American Crafts, continues to be used as a benchmark for and a cross-section of crafts in America today. !Today Philip and his son Matt exhibit side by side, just as Philip did with his father. Philip has built on his father’s technique and process, not replicating it but using it as a foundation for his own style and design. He has made his own contributions to the art of woodturning and continues to be sought by collectors and galleries worldwide.

4 Matt Moulthrop: The Legacy Continues

!Matt Moulthrop says, “As a young adult, I learned that the artistry of wood turning comes not from the hand, but from the eye. Being able to ‘see’ the shape of the bowl has been a legacy and a gift I have tried to improve upon with my own vision and version of style, form, and texture. In my quest to create, I strive to blend both tradition and innovation into an art form that honors my legacy and creates a new one.” (95) Matt Moulthrop has learned his art at the knees of both his father and grandfather, a classroom any of us would be privileged to attend. He says his grandfather Ed never thought a question dumb, always took the time to answer and explain, and had great patience with him as he learned. !Like his father and grandfather before him, Matt is a trained professional, having earned an advanced degree from Georgia Tech in business. While in school he worked for both Ed and Philip and helped his grandfather finish what would turn out to be his last pieces. He continues to build on the family legacy and has found great success in galleries and among collectors. He draws constantly on the skills he was taught as a child as well as the practical advice he received about pursuing art as a career. His future and his legacy will certainly be bright.

Wallace, Kevin. Moulthrop: A Legacy in Wood. Crescent Hill Books. 2007.

Docent research paper presented on April 23, 2012 by Anne Lee.

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