Bowen Center welcomes local wood turner Doug King

By Michele Hester

Local wood tuner Doug King displays a few of his favorite works of art at the Bowen Center for the Arts. King’s Artwork in the Round Woodturning Exhibit will be on display through February.

The rural art of wood turning is resurfacing at the Bowen Center for the Arts throughout the month of February as the center honors the work of local wood turner Doug King.

Although King says he not a professional artist, his collection of handcrafted wood bowls and ornaments draws a crowd of enthusiasts into the center at each showing. “We’ve shown his work here before,” said Stacey Leonardt, Bowen Center for the Arts Director. “Wood turning is actually still very popular in this area and across the south.”

Woodturning is a form of woodworking that is used to create wooden objects such as bowls or table legs on a lathe, a machine tool which spins a block of material, in this case wood, so that when abrasive, cutting or deformation tools are applied to the block, it can be shaped to produce an object with rotational symmetry.

Woodturning differs from most other forms of woodworking in that the wood is moving while a relatively stationary tool is used to cut and shape it. Many intricate shapes and designs can be made by turning wood.

King, a custom furniture craftsman by trait, learned woodturning in high school. “I took woodshop because I didn’t want to take any real courses,” he said. That rebellion turned into artistry and King soon learned to create bowls with his hands and a wood lathe. “I began with bowls because they were relatively easy,” he said. Later he advanced to creating ornaments, boxes and cylindrical, vase-like pieces, which he said are quite possibly the most difficult to work with.

King is very much an advocate for preserving the natural heritage of woodturning and uses only wood he finds locally when houses are cleared for development. He takes the seasoned wood and creates his art which is often based on Native and rural Americana. “The wood in itself is beautiful,” he said. And the beautiful works of art he creates is stunning, although he still claims he is not a professional artist.

“Some artists, painters, look at woodturning as crafting, not art,” King said. “I say, if I like it then it’s art. If someone else likes it, that’s good too.”

Doug King’s Artwork in the Round Woodturning Exhibit will be on display through February at the Bowen Center for the Arts. King will also be in attendance during the center’s Friday, Feb. 17 showing from 5 – 7 p.m. For more information, contact the Dawson County Arts Council at (706) 216-ARTS.