Mel Lindquist (born Melvin Benjamin Lindquist, July 5, 1911 – November 24, 2000) was an American engineer and renowned pioneer of the American Studio Wood Turning movement.

Career

Foundational to the studio woodturning movement, Mel Lindquist applied his master machinist techniques and background in engineering, pioneering hollowing techniques called "blind boring", or "blind turning", widely used today. In addition to his numerous technical innovations, Mel Lindquist is also widely credited for developing an aesthetic foundation for the studio woodturning movement based on translating ancient ceramic ideals into the medium of wood, incorporating bark inclusions and imperfections as decorative elements within the turning integral to design. Mel Lindquist discovered spalted wood on his land in the upstate New York Adirondacks in the 1950s and together with his son Mark Lindquist, popularized its use as a material for woodturning and woodworking. Mel Lindquist is widely credited as being the first to seriously explore the use of spalted wood for

wood turning Woodturning is the craft of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a simple mechanism that can generate a variety of forms. The operator ...

, and his son Mark wrote groundbreaking essays in journals of the 1970s. The effect was widespread according to Fine Woodworking: "...Melvin and Mark Lindquist unleashed spalted wood upon the world...." In 1981, Mel and his son Mark initiated the wood turning program at the

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts is an Arts and Crafts center in the U.S. city of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The oldest craft school in Tennessee, Arrowmont offers workshops in arts and crafts such as painting, woodworking, drawing, glass, photog ...

, TN, and in October 1985, Mel won the first award honoring the pillars of the studio woodturning movement at the national conference: ''Woodturning: Vision and Concept'' at Arrowmont School, TN. Lindquist signed his work with a simple script "L" including the date and type of wood from the early 1950s until 1980. After 1980 he signed his work with an incised script signature "Mel Lindquist" on the bottoms of his pieces. Mel Lindquist's work can be found in numerous public and private collections in the US and abroad, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, TX, and the White House Collection of American Crafts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindquist, Mel 1911 births 2000 deaths People from Kingsburg, California People from Schenectady, New York Artists from San Jose, California American woodcarvers 20th-century American sculptors American male sculptors Woodturners Sculptors from California 20th-century American male artists