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The Kentucky Cycle - The Benches.
Whidbey Island Center for the Arts invited local woodworkers to participate in building Appalachian benches for the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Kentucky Cycle.

The benches will be available for purchase through a Silent Auction (Apr 09 - 24) in the WICA Lobby.



The Artists.

Dave Anderson is a retired veterinarian, builder and operator of Island Greens Golf Course, and very part-time rustic woodworker. “I’ve always been fascinated by the variety of grain texture and color of northwest woods. My latest favorite is spalted alder from which I’ve recently made tables, chairs and benches for family.”

Kermit Chamberlin is a retired educator living in Freeland. He works part-time for David Gray Furnituremakers. His interests center around Arts and Crafts and primitive colonial furniture, and makes garden benches and sea chests from time to time.

Tom Fisher, of Thomas Fisher Fine Woodworking, has been in business for 25 years on Whidbey Island, providing furniture and cabinets that highlight the native timber on the island.

Pat McVay’s history in the arts goes back 30 years to Paris, where he began his career by repairing furniture. Pat was given a small shop, a few tools and lots of paint used to hide mistakes. There was a blue period, a red period and a white period and soon, people began asking him to create new furniture. Then came work in porcelain tile, and after moving to the Olympic Peninsula, his attraction to the natural forms of the forest led him into wood carving. Currently, most of his work is large-scale carvings from already-downed trees, using everything from a chain saw to fine chisels. His whimsical and even comical sense is often the basis of unique carvings of people and animals. Many of his works are visible in public spaces up and down the West Coast. He was a founding member of the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association and the Cascade Wood Sculptors Guild. Visit Pat’s website HERE.

John C. Shinneman writes, “Hi! I’m John C. Shinneman - Furniture Designer/Maker. As owner of JCS Woodworking Studio in Freeland, I have been providing Whidbey Island with fine furniture, cabinetry, and architectural woodwork since 1986. The benches I have provided for The Kentucky Cycle are constructed of locally-grown Fir and Eastern Black Cherry.”

Marcia Wiley discovered the joys of woodworking in the 1970’s upon purchasing her first home. With Dad as mentor, lots of skills were learned and home improvement projects completed. Over the past 35+ years, she has designed and built a variety of woodcraft, home improvement, and cabinet and furniture projects. And the sawdust keeps flying around the workshop in Langley.

Craig Yamamoto was educated as an industrial designer and began his career designing cars for Ford Motor Company. He moved on to designing interiors for Boeing airplanes and then on to developing medical electronics at Physio-Control in Redmond, WA, where he ended his corporate career as Director of New Product Development. He retired to Whidbey Island in 2001 and began building custom furniture in 2003. He is self-taught and his woodworking can be seen on his website HERE.






special thanks
Ron Atlee; Gay Bitts; Patrick Bitts; Todd Bitts; The Everett Daily Herald; FightDesigner.com; Fine Balance Imaging Studios; Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island and Maureen MacDonald; David Gignac; Caitlin Goldbaum; The Inn at Langley, Paul and Pam Schell; Langley United Methodist Church; Robert Schekkan; Sound Publishing; Claudia Walker; Whidbey Daily; Whidbey Institute; Denis Zimmerman