Robert Erickson (born Lincoln, Nebraska 1947) is an American furniture designer and woodworker in Nevada City, California. He is a studio maker, who custom designs chairs and other furniture. His work is in several U.S. national collections.

Career

After leaving University of Nebraska with an English degree in 1969, Erickson traveled to

Druid Heights Druid Heights was a bohemian community in Marin County, California, USA, founded in 1954 by poet Elsa Gidlow, her partner Isabel Quallo, and carpenter Roger Somers. The community was a popular retreat for various countercultural movements and ...

in Marin County, California to study with furniture makers Ed Stiles and Roger Somers. In the summer of 1970, Erickson was employed by

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning poet

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

, said to be inspiration for

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

's ''

The Dharma Bums ''The Dharma Bums'' is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The basis for the novel's semi-fictional accounts are events occurring years after the events of ''On the Road''. The main characters are the narrator Ray Smith, based on ...

''. His role was to help hand-build a Japanese and Native American-inspired home in Nevada County, California. Erickson Woodworking was established next to Snyder's property the same year when he bought a plot of land to build his workshop, and he also sold his first chair. The wood shop has operated in this location since that time – now with the addition of solar power and phone lines. Most of Erickson's chairs incorporate the "contoured floating back" design, which he began incorporating into his chairs in 1974. Robert Erickson is married to Liese Greensfelder, a science writer who also helps to manage the business. Their son Tor is now a full partner in the business of Erickson Woodworking.

Permanent collections

His work is part of the permanent collection of the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Racine Museum of Art.

References

http://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/57188

Career

Permanent collections

References

Further reading