The synergy of about 30 local artisans working in close proximity in the Alameda Point Studios is practical and profoundly meaningful.
Located at the decommissioned former Naval Air Station Alameda, Building 14 has become a 47,000-square-foot facility offering a space where furniture craftspeople, cabinetmakers, sculptors, a luthier (a maker of stringed musical instruments), a piano restoration expert, Lionel prewar trains guru, a tiny home builder and other artisans share large-scale machinery and volumes of knowledge gleaned from decades of hands-on practice.
In addition to spaces for individual resident businesses, membership options include one for young people fresh out of art or trade schools hoping to access professional fabrication tools ranging from a 36-inch band saw to a belt sander that’s just as wide to a spray booth, a heated drying room and more.
Many of the artists share some common denominators: making things by hand, primarily using recycled, found or reclaimed materials; and relying whenever possible on local sources for materials or specialized fabrication services. Custom furniture designer and sculptor JP Frary, in addition to basing his practice at the studio, is the facility’s manager.
“The greatest part is 30 different people, all with unique skills and histories,” Frary said in a recent interview. “We can ask each other for help and get it. I’ve learned from Adrien Segal, a fantastic sculptor, not just her woodworking practices but how she handles her business and decisions about what projects to do. That’s the joy — we’re always learning.”
Frary says he discovered his professional path as a furniture artist in his late 20s after working in office settings for law firms and political figures. He say he put himself through college working construction and, while doing a project’s plumbing, offered to make a needed window seat.
“It was white oak, really heavy, and the design was terrible,” he admits. “I started going to the library and looking at books on furniture. I was uneducated, and I’d just got an idea, then set out to try to make it.”
Most of Frary’s work is made with salvaged or found materials, a practice he says he stumbled upon because he was poor.
“I couldn’t afford fancy wood, so I’d use leftover pieces. There’s love discovered because the wood comes from somewhere else and already has a life cycle.”
The green aspect of his work was initially situational and has become a marvelous, now-essential bonus. Frary’s Turned Barnwood Pendants are made from a 100-year-old cracked and pitted beam found in a barn in Napa. Other favorite woods are mostly local: Monterey Cypress that smells like cinnamon and offers gorgeous orange and tan tones; California Black Walnut with dark, swirling, green-streaked grain; and Madrone, which might twist long after a piece is finished.
“I made a hallway table, and two years after I made it, it twisted because the client moved it over a heat vent. When you work with wild wood, you have to take care. I don’t use exotic woods from other countries. You don’t know if they’re harvested responsibly. If they’ve cut down a rare tree, like a rosewood, that troubles my soul. There aren’t enough of those trees left.”
Respect for a material’s history and environmental context also prevail in the aforementioned Segal’s sculptures, furniture and public art. Her monumental “Tidal Arch” in Alameda was inspired by daily tidal charts and the island’s changing sea level.
Similarly, natural forces that create gravitational pull on a landscape are reflected in “Molalla River Meander,” a mesmerizing, undulating piece based on Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) maps of the Oregon river’s changing shapes over a five-year period.
“My curiosity comes from standing on the edge of the ocean and thinking about natural forces that are historical, cyclical,” Segal says. “I find nature grounding when life today can be so complicated. I dig in, cull a nugget of time, and make a representation of natural patterns.”
Another work, “Remnant (bench),” is bold, muscular, and magically sculpted like an embrace.
“The client’s only requirement was that it include a sculptural seating element,” she said. “I acquired a salvaged Redwood log once used for a logging road. It made me think of lost forests and the dark history of humans destroying our natural environment. By using a small piece of that old-growth forest, the artwork became something that bridges the gap and brings the poetic edge of its history to the public.”
Segal says working in proximity with other artists allows her the benefit of shared tools, philosophies, knowledge, and logistical help like legal and tax factors, or fabrications such as the custom-packed concrete used for “Tidal Wave.”
“We have such a bounty of thriving, specialized, inspiring self-employed people in the Bay Area,” Segal says. “It all helps me to make my work.”
Designer Kate Greenberg’s furniture, objects and lighting appear to defy the laws of materials science. Working with metal, glass, wood, latex and soft media, solid steel or pure latex might curve and drape like melted butter to form a bench, a dining chair with only one armrest and a low, supportive back cushion invites long, comfortable sits.
Greenberg says she is highly attuned to the spatial environment and purpose of each piece. Will it live in someone’s home, an exhibition or outside?
“A handmade piece can relate to something bigger,” says Greenberg. “Even if it moves on to another owner or place, it has a special beginning, a story.
“When I first started thinking about furniture and design, I didn’t want to just satisfy types like cabinets or chairs. I work around concept first then weave in function. The one-arm chair is an example. I have people over for long dinners and standard chairs are limiting. The one-arm chair encourages your body to take a more casual, relaxed posture.”
Other pieces such as “Twin Chair” have similar fluid capabilities. Greenberg designed the piece so one person can sit in the chair and the other person can sit on the floor and lean back. With their heads on the same level, it represents balance between “twinned” individuals.
The chair is made with three free chairs she found through Craiglist. Sawing and grinding off parts of them, she crated a 3-D collage that maintains their natural shapes and details.
Like Frary and Segal, Greenberg occasionally outsources segments of her fabrication processes. By relying on local people and resources for services, materials and knowledge, the work of all three artists underscores the value of cross-collaborations and the unique environment found at Alameda Point Studios. For more information online visit alamedapointstudios.com.
For more details about JP Frary, Adrien Segal, Kate Greenberg and their work, visit jpfrary.com, adriensegal.com or kategreenberg.studio.
Lou Fancher is a freelance writer. Reach her at lou@johnsonandfancher.com.