Madera Fine Decorative Furnishings is where your ideas become a reality. Carlos Taylor-Swanson has 25 years experience building objects of lasting beauty and utility. From high-end cabinetry to yacht interiors to fine custom furniture, Taylor-Swanson has the creative vision and technical know-how to complete your project. Explore our website, get to know our work, and give us a call or email. We look forward to working with you.
Finding meaningfulness in the work of two phenomenal South Sound painters.
We are excited to present Apopheniafeaturing the paintings of Dale Witherow and Angel (Fred) Matamoros. Apophenia opens with an artists’ reception Thursday August 21 5:00 – 8:00 pm.The show will run through September 27.
Witherow’s work is rooted in the landscape.Retired after 30 years as an Associate Professor of Art on the east coast, he often floats between abstracts and the representational.His canvases are rich with symbolism from life itself. Witherow’s palette is deep, earthy colors inspired from the Northeast, the Northwest and Mexico where he received his MFA in 1964.
Costa Rican born Angel (Fred) Matamoros is best known locally as the award-winning graphic artist for The News Tribune.These free-flowing and expressive abstract paintings are a departure from the detailed aspects of his day job. His canvases are inspired by memories and emotions recreated using color, texture and the occasional line of type or collage element.(Check this out!)
In addition to these two fine painters, the ceramic art of Anne Reilly will also be featured. Reilly works in both sculptural and functional stoneware. The pieces featured in Apophenia are from a series entitled Warriors and are large-scale sculptural assemblages inspired from her Australian roots.
Images of several pieces in the show can be seen on our gallery page. We will post more soon with details and prices, too!
This fall we will be hosting re-Art ‘08. A juried group show about re-USING, re-NEWING and re-THINKING our throw-away minded culture. As Americans, we produce on average 4 ½ pounds of garbage each day and for every can of trash we haul out to the curb, 70 cans of waste were produced “upstream” to make the junk we are throwing away.[1] It’s time to re-CONFIGURE our mindset, to re-EVALUATE our priorities! And we believe ART is the best way to START!
Art will be for sale with a portion of proceeds going to local organizations focused on fostering sustainability and healthy, lasting prosperity grounded in community.
The show will be juried by 3 individuals well versed in Tacoma’ s art community. We are asking artists to submit multiple entries by Saturday September 20. (Please use reasonable judgment regarding the quantity of entries. One of the goals of re-ART ‘08 is to explore the vast spectrum of creative talent of our community.) More information to come!
Keeping up with the times and keeping YOU informed is what this new “What’s Happening” blog will be about. We’ll tell you about current and upcoming gallery shows, pass along interesting news about our artists and even share some details about exciting projects underway in the wood shop! Plus, we want to know your thoughts, too. So please feel free to use the comment feature. We are excited to have this opportunity connect with you.
Yet another door project has come and gone through the shop. This one was for 4 custom entry doors all from solid Jatoba (Brazilian Cherry) for a new home under construction in Port Orchard. All had full-length insulated windows and 3 had full width transoms above.
Here’s a great shot of Steve putting the final touch on the double doors in the master bed room to be.
Madera’s craftsman extraordinaire, Steve Lawler, has launched his own new line of custom furniture made from 100% recycled plywood. The first available piece in Steve’s “Re-Ply” line, a coffee table, is now on display in the gallery, and is available for $1,250.
It’s been a few months, but I’d like to share The News Tribune article about Madera that came out in last November. It was pure fortune that the article was published the same day we hosted an open house in conjunction with Tacoma Art @ Work Month. It was quite a turnout!
One of our current projects of interest is a unique entry door for this condo project (Stadium 302) in the Stadium district of Tacoma. The door is 42″ wide be 98″ tall and 2 1/4″ thick! The design calls for a frame of “blackened” stainless steel and 3/8″ horizontal metal accents across the face. It has been great collaborating with US Sheet Metal on the project. Here’s a shot of Madera’s Steve Lawler doing the final clean up of the slots for the horizontal steel reveals.
And here is Madera’s Matt Tribe and me checking the fit of the latch and strike in the solid walnut jamb. The face of the door is 1/16″ bleached walnut veneer and the jamb is bleached solid walnut (it measures 2 1/2″ thick by 5″ wide!)
And as usual Jason Stensby did a fabulous job with the finish. He sealed and filled the grain with multiple coats of epoxy for weather resistance. A couple coats of a “dull rub” top coat finished it off perfectly.
The door will be installed as soon as the metalwork is complete. It’ll have to be soon since the condo is to be featured on KIRO! We’ll get some more pictures.
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