Illustrate Omaha | collecting creatives

Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Education: Creighton University, 2003: B.A.,
English – Creative Writing/Co-Major (Minor),
Graphic Design (according to my transcript, anyway)
Employment: Owner and Sole Proprietor of MeasureCutCut Studio
& Program Specialist for ServeNebraska.
Websites: measurecutcut.com & share-a-chair.com

Peter Cales takes woodworking to new heights with work that is functional and beautiful. You can’t help but enjoy the interesting combination of pattern and unique forms. Peter isn’t constrained by his medium and it shows! We hope you enjoy the Artist Spotlight of Peter Cales!

I live and work in Omaha as a furniture designer and artist. Depending on when this is published, I may or may not be married to Niz Proskocil, who is a freelance writer. We have a dog named Hazel. The three of us live in a tree house in Benson. My main creative interests are in chair design and fabrication, and relational aesthetics. I have an ongoing project called Share-a-Chair. Share-a-Chair attempts to use furniture and other objects as vehicles to explore rituals of exchange, consumption, sharing, giving, and, ultimately, developing relationships among individuals.

How did you realize you wanted to be an artist and woodworker?
My dad has been a hobbyist woodworker since before I was born, so I grew up around his shop. I used to watch him do projects sometimes, but never did much with it myself. While I was in college I took a lot of art classes, but none of the mediums really caught on. One summer I worked on a couple projects with my dad and became interested in it again. I finished my English degree at Creighton, and then started working part-time for Littleton Alston, a bronze sculptor. Within a year of graduating, I realized I was finding a lot more fulfillment in the dusty, unventilated and poorly lit space Littleton had provided me with as a shop than I had been sitting in the comfort of my apartment trying to edit and write short stories.

How would you describe your style or approach to your work?
Usually when someone asks me to describe my design process or approach I say it’s “organic”. That’s a pretty loaded term, and in the sense of architecture and design, it’s a misnomer. What I mean to say is that I sort of let my process unfold. For most of the pieces I’ve done, I’ve just started with a simple sketch, if even that. Most of the time I just picture a finished piece in my mind and then I build until the thing I’ve made matches the image in my mind. I’ve never used a professional design program like CAD or anything, and wouldn’t even know how if I had to. In that sense, it’s probably not surprising that I don’t do a lot of larger commercial jobs. I prefer to make one-of-a-kind pieces. When I work with clients, I really enjoy building a relationship with them as I’m designing and building a piece. I want them to have an opportunity to develop a strong understanding of who I am, and I want to have the same opportunity with them because when I hand over a piece to someone, I feel like I’m handing over part of myself.

How do you find the right balance between function and form in your chairs?
A good illustration of this is a double chair I made called “Conflict Resolution”. People sometimes refer to this as a “courting” chair – an old style that invited a couple to exchange romantic gestures during the courting period of their relationship. My version was inspired by a couple I knew that seemed to be having communication problems. The idea behind it, therefore, was to create something that would force two people to share an uncomfortably close proximity to one another and work out their conflict. So in that sense, the discomfort was the most important function provided by the chair. I can (and have) made very simple, comfortable chairs that are just chairs, but they usually aren’t as fun for me.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve received lots of great advice, mostly from my family and friends, I’m sure. I guess the thing that sticks with me most is that there’s no replacement for hard work. I know most of the successes I’ve had are the result of working hard and staying dedicated to something more so than having a lot of natural talent. You can have connections, natural gifts and all sorts of other extraneous attributes, but hard work trumps all of those things. Accordingly, it’s my goal to work harder than everyone else. Similarly, I think I’ve learned from a lot of people that cleverness isn’t a substitute for creativity or innovation.

What is your best way to break out of a creative rut?
The work I do is more significant to me than to just repeat processes or follow a prescribed plans, so I don’t fall into creative ruts very often. When I do, I like to challenge myself by asking questions like, “What else can this do?” or “What else can I make this out of?” If I continue to ask myself those kinds of questions as a designer, I’ll continue to push myself to learn new things and be more innovative.

Interested in learning more about Peter Cales? Check out his 5 in 5 video at Silicon Prairie News.

This entry was posted on 09/28/09 at 9:11 am and is filed under General, Spotlight. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.