Why Make? Podcast

This video episode is part of a new experiment in creating a visual podcast series.Where we color in what our guests are talking about with images of their work and images of work that inspired them. This first episode is from of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator. The full conversation can be found in episodes 48 and 49 below

Why Make Podcast, Wendy Maruyama Episode Part II Transcript

Time Code

00:00 Robb Helmkamp

Hello and welcome to Why Make, where we talk to makers from different disciplines about what inspires them to make.With your hosts Robb Helmkamp and. 

Erik Wolken

Erik Wolken. If you would like to learn more about the makers we interview on Why Make please go our website why-make.com

Robb Helmkamp

And please help support the Why Make podcast and Why Make productions by making a tax refundable donation to us on Fractured Atlas.

Erik Wolken

Fractured Atlas is our new non profit fiscal sponsor which allows us to access a wide range of funding possibilities including funding available only for non-profits

Robb Helmkamp

Visit  https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-why-make-project or go to the donate to Why Make page on Why-Make.com

01:03 Robb Helmkamp

Welcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part two of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama.

Erik Wolken

Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy’s work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species

Robb Helmkamp

As we discuss later in the podcast Wendy was born with significant hearing loss and cerebral palsy and at her request, to aid our listeners, we have included a full transcript of our conversation on our web page for this episode which can be found on the podcast page of why-make.com It can also be found in the episode notes on Apple podcasts

Erik Wolken

Please join us and take a listen to our wide ranging discussion with one of the more amazing artists in the woodworking field, Wendy Maruyama.

02:06 Erik Wolken

Moving along Wendy, let's talk about the next phase of your work. Because the next phase of your work use do start to tackle some of your identities in your bodies of work in Turning Japanese, Simple Pleasures and Indulgences & Men in Kimonos you do start to sort of not only address your heritage, but really start to use narrative in your work. What was what was behind all of that? I mean, what do you think was the inspiration behind that? The whole thing that started with Turning Japanese and Men in Kimonos exploring your cultural identity.

02:42 Wendy Maruyama

I think the Turning Japanese series the Men in Kimono riff came from my first trip to Japan could be in '92 maybe I can't remember but I'd never been to Japan until the early 90's and like anybody else I was just amazed by what I was seeing over there especially the craft scene. There is such a strong craft heritage in Japan not only with woodworking, ceramics of different styles at the same time some of the fields like textiles really evolved into the modern times to use the unusual fibers and metal in weaving. And then of course, going to downtown Tokyo in the Shibuya District dominated with all this neon stuff, it was very much like Blade Runner if you've seen the movie Blade Runner? It was clearly based on Tokyo. And so there are these two very different aspects of Japan, the old and the very, very, very new high tech side of it. There is a little bit of conflict to you know, I'd be riding on the subway and you can see these Japanese business men reading these pornographic cartoons it was called Manga.  I think it was it all these lady with big boobs, it's all cartoons. It was such a flurry of images and so I think some of that was mostly my personal response to what I saw in Japan and I realized that I didn't fit even though I was Japanese American. Japanese descent. I did not fit into that whole culture, I mean, even if I tried. I mean, I'm kind of proud of it from a distance but I realized I don't think like that. So, maybe that was kind of a mixture of sadness and relief in a way. It is a very patriarchal society so there was that and it was kinda just a response to my experiences going to Japan.

05:44 Erik Wolken

And the other interesting thing about that body of work is you begin to introduce using video and still images into it too. And you're really starting to truly experiment with your craft and and I thought that was absolutely wonderful. You know, you reached outside the box, which I think is what we all aim to do as artists. When you first started using video and still images? And where did that come from?

06:11 Wendy Maruyama

I'm trying to think. Trying to remember if the Tasmanian Tiger piece was first, I think it was. But anyway, in the Turning Japanese series I started using photo's because I went to a flea market in Kyoto. It's one best thing about Japan! It's amazing what you can find at the flea market. Some love it. If you ever go to Japan, make sure that you go into a big flea market either in Kyoto or Tokyo. The stuff that you find is amazing, but anyway, I came across a box of old black and white photographs of Kabuki actors. And I found out later that in Kabuki theater, women were not allowed to perform. I don't know if that is the case now? But women were not allowed to perform in Kabuki and so the female characters in a Kabuki play were always played by  men who were expert at mimicking the feminine movement of women in the story. So all these men I mean all these women in kimono were actually men and they were quite beautiful and alluring and I was just kind of fascinated by that, how these beautiful, these men were. And they were prettier than I was and I thought it be kinda fun to use some of these images. At the same time, I'm a big Japanese sci-fi fan I think that was because that was the first time I saw Japanese people in a movie. It was in a Godzilla movie where you see all these Japanese people running from Godzilla. In one of the Godzilla movies there's these twin fairies (the Shobijin).  I don't know if you remember they were sidekicks to Mothra, who was another monster. So I wanted to create this sort of these twin geisha women in the image of this. Oh I don't know, it's amazing about Photoshop, I was taking Photoshop class, and it's amazing how you can make fantastical images using Photoshop. So that was an opportunity to experiment with different media. I tend to jump around from, you know, from subject to subject cause that's the way my life goes.  I'm not one to stay with one idea for 40 years, I think I would be bored to death. So it's important for me to just kind of reflect my life through my work. And so hopefully you get an idea what I've been going through by seeing my work in a linear pattern.

09:41 Erik Wolken

Yes, you definitely see a progression of your work, because then the next body of work you move on to is Executive Order 9066. And the Tag Project. And of course this is referring to, and I'm going to use the correct terminology. This is referring to the incarceration and or imprisonment of the Japanese people on the West Coast of America during World War Two. Just to give you an idea of the scope of this project, and Wendy you can go on to talk about it more, but there were 120,000 Japanese, people of Japanese heritage, imprisoned during EO 9066. And the Tag Project, you printed out a replica of the original tags, these people wore as they were sent to their prison camps. 120,000 tags, that is a mind boggling number.

10:38 Wendy Maruyama

That's a lot of tags. I started this the body of work when I was an artist in residency at SUNY New York, SUNY Purchase that is State University of New York Purchase. I knew that I needed to do this work, but I wasn't really ready until then. I mean it's a really hard topic because my mother's side of the family was deeply impacted by Executive Order 9066 because they were in Los Angeles at the time when Pearl Harbor was bombed and all that happen. But what struck me and kind o

Why Make Podcast, Wendy Maruyama Episode Part 1 Transcript

  Time Code

00:00 Robb Helmkamp

Hello and welcome to Why Make, where we talk to makers from different disciplines about what inspires them to make.With your hosts Robb Helmkamp and,  

Erik Wolken

Erik Wolken. If you would like to learn more about the makers we interview on Why Make please go our website why-make.com

Robb Helmkamp

And please help support the Why Make podcast and Why Make productions by making a tax refundable donation to us on Fractured Atlas.

Erik Wolken

Fractured Atlas is our new non profit fiscal sponsor which allows us to access a wide range of funding possibilities including funding available only for non-profits

Robb Helmkamp

Visit  https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-why-make-project or go to the donate to Why Make page on Why-Make.com

01:01 Robb Helmkamp

Welcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part one of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama.

Erik Wolken

Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy’s work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered species.

Robb Helmkamp

As we discuss later in the podcast Wendy was born with significant hearing loss and cerebral palsy and at her request, to aid our listeners, we have included a full transcript of our conversation on our web page for this episode which can be found on the podcast page of why-make.com It can also be found in the episode notes on Apple podcasts

Erik Wolken

Please join us and take a listen to our wide ranging discussion with one of the more amazing artists in the woodworking field, Wendy Maruyama.

02:03  Erik Wolken

Okay, are we ready to have a very serious conversation about nothing?

Wendy Maruyama

Oh, yeah that will be fine by my book.

Erik Wolken

We'd like to welcome Wendy Maruyama to the Why Make? Podcast.

Robb Helmkamp

Welcome Wendy. Welcome to Why Make!

Wendy Maruyama

Thank you! Thank you for having me, you guys.

Erik Wolken

The question we always start the podcast with is: What is your first memory of making something?

02:00 Wendy Maruyama

Well, you know, I can remember when I was maybe four or five years old, my mom used to bring home these little art kits, craft kits, maybe not coloring books. But things that you had to like put together. And I remember very distinctly a paper cutout book where we had to fold them and they were sort of kinetic. I remember I was more interested in the whole fabrication process verses drawing and painting. Although I did draw and paint when I was little, but I preferred punching holes in paper and you know that sort of thing.  So I would say that would be my earliest recollection of making stuff.

Erik Wolken

Right. So you are an active maker. You liked to be involved in the making. You weren't a passive maker.

03:47 Wendy Maruyama

Right. Got to be more than just a piece of paper and crayons. I want to ...Even if it meant crumpling paper up or stabbing a piece of paper with a dowel rod, or...

Robb Helmkamp

Not just making marks but making holes in things too, changing the shape of it.

Wendy Maruyama

Ripping things apart. I remember needle craft stuff too. Like working with yarn and string.  And of course you know back in the 50s the kinds of toys one would get would be very much based on gender and I never got the little hammers and the screwdriver kits for kids, you know. I got the sewing kit and the dolls and that kind of thing. So hopefully that changed a little bit now, but I do remember that pretty clearly because I would go to my cousin's house. I had male cousins and they all had the really cool cars (coins?). That wasn't made available to me because I guess mom felt like I needed more of a  Homemaking Type Kit.

Erik Wolken

What was your first introduction and attraction to furniture and woodworking when did that come?

05:12 Wendy Maruyama

Well, you… if you want the earliest: I remember in 6th grade camp, we got sent away to some mountain retreat. When we were all in 6th grade and I really kind of hated it because I hate camping and I hate hiking. I am just not into the outdoor scene. But the most fun things I remember… we had to find a piece of wood in the woods and bring it back to craft room and sand it. Make it all pretty and put oil on it. And I remember the transformation of the wood once I sanded it and made it all pretty and put oil on it, kind of magical. I think my mom still has this piece of wood somewhere. I think I saw it on her dresser a couple of years ago. But anyway, so that would be my earliest memory. But then my first piece of furniture happened when I was 19. I was taking a craft class at a junior college that was in San Diego called Southwestern College and they had an excellent craft program. And this would be the 70s and craft was really enjoying a huge revival at that time and so I was taking jewelry and ceramics. The craft class, we didn't really have a woodworking program, but we had a craft class, which introduced us to all sorts of things, like batik and textiles. And so that we did a little bit of ceramics and weaving and then woodworking was the final project and I was really intrigued by the fact that, you know, I was able to use the machines. And the other good thing was that the woman that was teaching class also made furniture. So kind of like wow, you know, Joanne can work in wood! You know, I'm going to learn how to work in wood. So anyway... I made a three legged chair that was really kind of organic, kind of poorly made, but I didn't know what I was doing. We didn't have any machines for doing mortise and tenon and she (Joanne) didn't use joinery in her work. It was kind of a California thing. We used a lot of dowels you know, and I think that was inspired by Sam Maloof who used a lot of dowels to fabricate his furniture and the dowels were decorative of course too. You know were you use contrasting woods with dowels. And back in those days, we were using a lot of leather so I had leather seat and it was uh pretty hippy influenced work. And its funny because I have the chair in my studio now and I want to replace the seat and maybe clean it up a little bit, you know. But anyway, that was my first piece of furniture. That would be 1971 maybe seven? Yeah '71.

Robb Helmkamp

That's great that you still have it.

Erik Wolken

You'll have to send us a picture of that piece.  And if it was truly hippie Wendy, you would have macramé the seat

Wendy Maruyama

Oh, maybe.

09:26 Erik Wolken

Did you know who Sam Maloof was when you were 19

09:30 Wendy Maruyama

On this episode of Why Make we talk with James McNabb a woodworker and artist who grew up in Montville, NJ overlooking New York City. James grew up in a family that was very supportive of his creative endeavors, his mother being a teacher and father a carpenter. Early experiences taking woodworking classes in middle and high school led him to pursue his undergrad in woodworking, at the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology. It was as a graduate student at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, that James discovered the processes and ideas that continue to inform the main body of his work. James currently resides in Philadelphia, PA where he produces one of a kind cityscape-inspired wood sculptures that explore the limitless possibilities of the urban landscape and our human relationship to it. Traditional woodworking techniques are combined with experimental mark making to create his own visions of the urban landscape. Please join us as we take a walk through the endlessly imaginative mind of James McNabb.

On this episode of Why Make? we resume our conversation with Melanie Falick an independent writer, editor, creative consultant and lifelong maker who lives in the Hudson Valley in New York. We continue talking about the creation of her book Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live and also find out more about work on her new book, tentatively titled The Maker’s Way. Melanie enjoys learning by challenging herself with new things and shares with us the struggle she experienced taking a woodworking class with Peter Korn and allowing herself to be present in a clay workshop with Simon Leach. So join us as we dig into the idea of compassionate capitalism, the history of the DIY movement, making for self care and wellness and how making can bring about happiness. Please enjoy the second part of our enriching Why Make? conversation with Melanie Falick.

Why Make Episode 46, Part 1. a podcast conversation with Melanie Falick, an independent writer, editor, creative consultant and lifelong maker .

You can find out more about Melanie at melaniefalick.com and on her Instagram or pick up a copy of Making a Life at great retailers like Indiebound

Portrait photo by Christine Ashburn. Making photos by Rinne Allen and excerpted from Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live by Melanie Falick (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2019.

In this Bonus Make with Zeke Leonard we get into the nitty gritty of the relationship between making objects and musical instruments and being a musician or just making wonderful noises.

On this episode we talk with Zeke Leonard, a Syracuse, NY based educator, designer, musician and maker. Born in Charleston, SC Zeke started out early, getting involved in community theater while growing up in Winston Salem, NC. His interest in acting and set design & construction led him to a degree in Set Design at the NC School of the Arts. Zeke moved to NYC to follow the dream of a career as a theatrical set designer where he eventually became disillusioned with all the waste created by the making of beautiful things. His realization that a whole pallet of plywood ultimately ended up in the trash bin at the end of each season dramatically shifted Zeke's mindset. Following his love of making things by hand and building functional objects Zeke pursued an MFA in Furniture Design at the Rhode Island School of Design and worked as a furniture maker in NYC coop studios until the financial crash of 2008. Zeke now finds his life as an educator in the School of Design at Syracuse University and playing music on his homemade instruments brings him the happiness in community and family he has been searching for. We are music lovers here at Why Make? and we started this conversation with Zeke by trading funny stories about late night encounters at the Galax Fiddlers Convention in Galax, VA years ago… …and the tail end of one of those tall tales is a wonderful beginning for our conversation with Zeke Leonard!

Episode 43 of Why Make? is a Bonus make? We talk with Tom Loeser about the time he spent with Tommy Simpson in 1981 during a 10 day chair making workshop at the now defunct Boston University Program in Artisanry. Tom talks about Tommy’s ability to tell a story through a narrative and his exceptional quality and speed as both a maker and woodworker. So loosen up, get ready to reset your brain and enjoy this Bonus make conversation… Tom talking about Tommy.

On Episode 42 of Why Make? we talk with Tom Loeser, an educator, furniture maker, and box maker who recently retired as the head of the Furniture Design and Woodworking program at UW-Madison where he has taught since 1991.

Tom designs and builds one-of-a-kind, functional and dysfunctional, objects that are often carved and painted. His work is primarily based on and uses the history of design and object-making as a starting point for developing new form and meaning.

We talk with Tom about his exploration and investigation of unconventional furniture forms, including: chests, bandsaw boxes, public seating, and chairs, one example is his Shaker and Memphis inspired Folding Chair.

So get out your colorwheel and a copy of Josef Albers Interaction of Color and enjoy our conversation with Tom Loeser.

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