Gary Rogowski
Gary Rogowski is a furniture maker. After picking up his degree from college, he found an old wooden plane and a chunk of fir outside his house. He wondered what he could do with these things that a PhD in Literature wouldn’t provide. Fifty years later, he is known internationally as a teacher, lecturer, author, and designer. He started showing work in galleries in the late 70s in Oregon and then nationwide, building custom-made furniture for public and private commissions for 25 years, including Taunton Press, Oregon State Archives, and Temple Beth Israel. His work was shown in the 1989 Biennial Art Festival at the Portland Art Museum. In 1991, he won the Oregon Arts Fellowship in Crafts
Gary was a Contributing Editor for Fine Woodworking Magazine for fourteen years, with numerous articles, videos, and two books on woodworking, including The Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery (Taunton Press, 2002). His latest book is called Handmade, Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction (Linden Press, 2017). It is a narrative on creativity and practice, on the value of failure and forgiveness in our work. In this time of attention disorder, the book argues that for individuals and for societies to remain creative, we must stay engaged with the physical world as a means of thinking more clearly.
In 1997, Gary founded The Northwest Woodworking Studio, a School for Woodworkers, where he is the Director. In 2015, he started and ran a non-profit to mentor high school students at the bench called WIN Oregon. In 2020, during the pandemic, the Studio shut its doors and moved to online classes. The two-year Mastery Program has grown in its Online format and mentors students from around the country. His teaching and lecturing work has brought him to dozens of schools and guilds across the States and Europe, including the École Boulle in Paris, Dictum in Germany, and Handverkshúsid, Iceland.
His podcast Splinters is a practical and amusing look at time spent at the bench. It can be found on all the major podcast providers: