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He is only 30-years old. Yet he has assisted
David Ellsworth at Arrowmont, been a Graduate Teaching Assistant
at Colorado State University, birthed and breathed life into
his own prospering company, (the Rescued Wood Bowl Company),
and developed, organized and taught a woodworking program for
men in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (the Eagles Club
Respite Program). He has been a demonstrator at the AAW Symposium
in Charlotte (2000), Akron (1998) and San Antonio (1997), Texas
Turn or Two (2000), Rocky Mountain Woodturners Symposium (1999)
and the Utah Symposium (1999).
And at these symposia he has taught his vessel within a vessel
technique; surface treatments including sand blasting and dying;
and green wood turning everything you ever want to know. And
since one of his undergraduate majors was photography he has
taught "Photographing Your Own Work/Setting up Your Own
Photography Studio."
In his spare time he has been graduated from Colorado State University
with a degree in fine arts; and pursued and dropped out of a
master's program in teaching, since the replacement of woodworking
with computer activities would have left him with nothing he
wanted to teach; married and sired three beautiful children,
Kailee, Sienna and Treden. He was there for each birth and each
is reflected in his work.
I could go on with this litany of where he has gone with wood
turning. Suffice it to say his work is in 50 galleries, including
del Mano; has appeared at SOFA New York and Chicago, and is in
the Bohlen collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He is
also in many private collections.
Functional and Sculptural
Let's talk about his work. As an overview
he creates both "functional" and "sculptural"
pieces. It would be easy to say that the "functional"
pieces, sold through his Rescued Wood Bowl Company are pretty
straightforward, but they are not. They are carved, painted,
textured, sculpted ... even though they are "functional."
Within the framework of his "sculptural" pieces there
are six separate bodies of work, four of which he is actively
producing and selling, two of which are in developmental stages.
First, the "functional" series.
Rescued wood is what he uses, rescued from the tree surgeons
or the landfill ... taken down due to old age, urban development,
and snow and wind storms. Among the woods he finds are silver
maple, box elder, honey locust, elm, ash, walnut and ailanthus.
In addition to rescuing these trees, he has rescued a 1961 truck
with a crane on the bed to pick them up.
From truck to studio is routine, if you're
used to schlepping the wet logs around the foothills of the Rockies.
Chainsaw, bandsaw, wet turned - nothing new here. Into the kilns,
he's built two with very large capacities. They dry in a month
to about 7 % moisture content or so. Re-mounted on the lathe
they finish-turned into virtually generic, and very comfortable
shapes, sanded to 320 grit, reverse turned and sanded again using
a vacuum chuck that he built.
After that they go in one of two directions.
The first is to the mineral oil bath where they are soaked overnight.
If on the second path, they are painted or carved or both and
marketed as "Hand Crafted for Daily Use." The oil process
takes place last. These products are bowls of varying sizes ranging
from 10-to-16-in., platters in three sizes, and hollow forms
in three styles. The newest among the bowls is the `Mountain
Series." They are quite striking.
Vessel Within a Vessel
But it is Bosch's sculptural work, and
within that context, the "vessel within a vessel" concept
that brought him to our spotlight at the 1997 AAW symposium in
San Antonio.
The idea, of course, was to create the
illusion of one form emerging from another. The technique came
out of working with and studying under Lee Carter at Colorado
State University. He taught and I think still teaches "bending"
techniques. Lee, now an AAW board member, is retired from Colorado
State University and conducts private workshops in all phases
of woodtuming including "36 ways to chuck a piece of wood
on the lathe."
Talking about the process, Trent says,
"The first step is to create the outer hollow form. Once
I have achieved exactly the shape I want, I remove it from the
lathe and carve and sand to create the "opening up from
within" feeling. When I am pleased with the form of the
outer vessel, the surface texture is created. This is done by
a number of techniques from carving to indenting the wood. I
do whatever is necessary to give the effect that I am looking
for.
`Once I have the outer form, I'm able to
visualize what the insert will look like. The insert is about
2-in.-larger than the opening in the hollow form. It is turned
very thin, 1/16-in. or so. The insert is then boiled to plasticise
the wood, which allows me to bend the piece enough to insert
it into the vessel. Once in the vessel, I use a balloon to hold
it up against the inside of the vessel. When the insert is dry,
I can then glue it into place and remove the balloon giving me
the seamless effect of a vessel within a vessel."
Gimmick or Innovation?
I've heard someone say, someone who has
not yet created an innovation of this magnitude in turning, "It's
re ally just a gimmick, this insert deal." Yes, I guess
that's true. So is the pneumatic tire, the word processor and
the airplane. This is not a gimmick. This is a breakthrough,
an adaptation of a technique from another discipline. We don't
yet know where it will go or lead us. But we owe Trent our thanks
for coming up with it and our thanks for his willingness to share
with us how he does it. What we don't owe him is a jealous put
down.
Of the six bodies of "sculptural"
work, the first is the Vessel of Illusion. In these pieces he
uses two widely diver gent types of wood for contrast and tension.
The Kailee Series is an extension of the Vessel of Illusion series.
However here we see more. We see the process of creation, the
emergence from within of something new, clean, innocent. The
texture and coloration on the outside of the vessel represents
the mother, a little spent and worn from the gestation and birthing
process. It was inspired by the birth of Kailee~ his oldest daughter.
And this series will evolve and grow as Kailee evolves and grows.
The Sienna Series has the outward appearance of a vessel within
a vessel. It is not. It is one piece of wood, turned, hollowed,
carved and textured. It is clearly Bosch expressing himself as
he expressed himself in the Vessel of Illusion series. Here he
has named the body of work after his second daughter, Sienna.
And here the exterior is less beaten, less distorted. More a
weathered appearance, created by sand blasting. The pieces seem
to flow languidly with the grain. Sienna's birth was easier than
Kailee's.
This series too will be ongoing just as Sienna will be emerging
through life's passages. The Carved Rim Series attempts to lead
the eye out of the center opening to the edge of the rim and
from there out into the surrounding area. This surrounding area
is as much a part of the sculpture as the space within a vessel
or bowl is a part of the sculpture.
The Wonder of Creation
All four of these series are indelibly
Bosch. They are elegant, full of tension, and filled with the
wonder of creation. The developmental ones, Vortex and Treden
hold nothing but promise.
More about Trent. He is male-model handsome,
6-ft. 4-in. tall and at peace with himself. He's ambitious, fi
nancially ambitious. He has the temerity to think that a wood
turner can make a living, a really good living and more, from
turning wood. I made my living in marketing, so I challenged
him to explain how he could do that as we drove to the Denver
airport in a swirling snowstorm. He convinced me and I'm not
easy.
As I said at the outset, the most striking thing about Trent
Bosch is that he is going to get there. And he's going to do
it honestly and decently. Trent is an artist willing to put out
there for all of us to see "his expression of his world."
He is also an inspiration.
Ken Keoughan is a writer and turner
in Friendship, ME, and a contributing editor for American Woodturner
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