E-mail and telephone interview with Christian Burchard beginning March 4, 2004. Interview by Connie Mississippi CM: Would you discuss your family upbringing in Germany? CB: I grew up in the country in the northern part of Germany close to Hamburg. My father was a lawyer and worked in the same office his father worked in. After high school I "escaped" to Australia and New Zealand for a year and traveled through Asia as well. When I returned and decided to apprentice to a furniture maker, I was promptly booted out of the family. They considered that the totally wrong profession. My dream was to learn something which I could support myself with anywhere in the world; the life of an independent craftsman definitely appealed to me, as I had always been into making things with my hands. I attended art school in Boston and Vancouver and that is when I began to use the lathe. Later I supported my family by building houses and making furniture, further learning lathe techniques on the side. Over time I got more serious about using the lathe. I liked the freedom that the lathe offered, its physicality, the immediacy of its use and the speed with which ideas could be realized. As time went on, I explored its sculptural possibilities as well. CM: Please talk about how your life affects your work and vice versa, in both the present and the past. CB: As a child I couldn't sit still. I had a great need to explore every question, try out a lot of things: What happens if? So it followed that early on in my work I jumped around a lot, was influenced by so much and so many, that it took me a while to find my own center. I am driven, definitely, to prove myself, to be accepted, to connect with the world through my work. Some influences were conscious, like studying Northwest Coast Indian art while going to school in Vancouver. I like parts of the Japanese aesthetic, which can be seen in many ways in my work. Watching my children growing up, living as a family, plays a great part in my work; relationships, within a piece or within a grouping of pieces or within a family all display tension, struggle, connection, and balance. I am always thinking about my work, solving or creating problems, sometimes even dreaming my work. Over the years the work has helped me grow and to be in touch with myself. I think making art is not so much about talent, but about hard work, solving problems, getting knocked down, standing back up, failing again and again, standing back up. It is all learning. I have always worked in series, usually more than one at a time, but they always have connections between them. The contrast and tension between the man made world and the straight line, and the natural world and the crooked line have always fascinated me. I am looking for this tension, throwing things off balance, and finally seeking harmony. The human figure also plays a strong part in my work, often abstract, often through gesture, always leaving a lot unsaid. Working as a craftsman/artist helped me find a place in this world, a way to connect, realizing that I have something valuable to offer, to touch others through the spirit in the work. CM: You have such a diversity of styles in your body of work over the years. Discuss some of your influences. CB: I have always loved the work of Michael Peterson, Todd Hoyer, and Stoney Lamar. I believe we all share some of the same concerns in the world. I do owe David Ellsworth a great deal; he was my first teacher and a strong influence, even before I met him. CM: Discuss the relationship between work created to sell vs. work created for your own exploration of an idea without commercial concerns. CB: This is a tough one. You've got to be always on the ball. No security, just hoping that you are good enough!! You can't relax. Even if a series is selling well, you already need to work on new ideas. You can't afford to be stagnant and lazy. It is really hard when you make pieces that you really like, but nobody buys them and you have to stop working in that direction. It's time to move on. However, I have never been able to make work that I thought might be popular. I invariably would fall on my face. I have to make pieces that I really like, that I feel need to be made. I need to be excited about what I do, and hopefully I will be able to communicate that. I am not good at production work; I don't have the patience for it, but if a series sells well, I will stick with it, until something new evolves. I often get back to older series and start anew, applying what I have learned in the meantime. The pressure to produce is intense. You can never make a family budget, it is so unpredictable. It's hard on a marriage. But I seem to work fairly well under pressure, it does get my creative juices flowing. I often get my best ideas a few weeks before a show. CM: Your madrone basket series has been very well received by collectors. Discuss the inspiration for this series and its maturation. CB: The baskets really take their inspiration first from an exploration of the material that I use, madrone burl. Madrone has so much a mind of its own that you have to stay very simple, The series is also influenced by Native American baskets as well as the glass of Dale Chihuly. I think that their beauty lies in their simplicity, their textures, their gentleness of form. CM: You received a grant to work with high school students in shop class in an Ashland city high school. Discuss how the students are doing and what you expect from this program. CB: I have learned a lot through all of these years of teaching. Besides getting me out of the shop, which can get pretty lonely, it helped me to learn how to communicate my ideas, share my enthusiasm, and when working with the kids, show them how to make things. Also, I show them that making a living at craft is a possible alternative. In the program that I am doing at Ashland High School, I meet a lot of kids who don't quite fit into the system. Their brains are wired a little differently. They are good with their hands and with creative ideas, and it is such a treat for me when I can reach them and get them excited, see their pride in what they can do. I am working with a guy right now whose parents just got him a small lathe. He is spending all of his extra time in the shop, and I can see him grow . In an interview with a local paper, he said that it was this program that kept him from droppin out of high school. CM: What do you see in your future regarding wood turning? CB: More exploration, more maturity, more stretching, and for the work, more large sculptural forms. But in actual life I don't have a clue!!!

[Biography] [About] [Resume] [Gallery Links] [E-Mail] [Interview]
[Early Work] [Sculptural Work] [Wall Sculptures] [Figurative Work] [Spherical Work] [Canyon Walls]
[Books] [Baskets & Gourds] [Vehicular Forms] [Old Sculptural Work] [Collaborative Work] [The Process]