Hi, I'm Byron Conn, and I'm from New Jersey. I'm currently a junior in the woodworking furniture design program so my work is pretty complicated not necessarily from visual
standpoint more the the conceptual background and all the processes I go through and it all starts off in my childhood for the most part — whether it's
it's being at the beach a lot growing up surfing with my uncle or just playing games with my family. Family's
really had a big part my background in math and science has
really played influence in that whether it's having complicated geometry or using curves and
in different ways and just really creating a three-dimensional object my artistic influences are less individual people and more nature itself you know like I said I spent a lot of time on the beach growing up over the summer just staring at the waves rolling in and being out there on the waves, it's played a pretty interesting role of how I approach design and use those things and there's so many things out in nature that people try to replicate or kinda go for a similar aesthetic but all you have to do is really look at at certain things in nature and just draw
from that — there's really endless design in nature that's really just unknown As far as people that influence me
obviously my professors here — Rich Tannen and Andy Buck really influence my work pretty directly and they're great, they
really do a lot of great work Richard Newman also, who's a local here,
he taught us for one quarter and he's just there's no better craftsmanship The creative process personally
all comes from inspiration.
It's all… it's very personal to what I'm going
through and my best work is always when I'm happy
and feels like when I'm always by the beach or just somewhere nice but at the end of the day it's really almost a state of mind of what gets that
initial starting point and then once I have that idea it's making all those fine adjustments and
pulling it into this technical side which is the side I like
more That's what I feel my proficiency is,
is more the technical making aspects and wood is such a variable material there's so many
things that can change and go wrong and it doesn't always do what you want
so knowing how to handle that and…
But sometimes the the actual processes making the piece are far more
interesting and I think visually appealing thing the final
piece can be So it's working all that into the final project I'm not sure there's one piece that really
captures who I am as an artist or best
represents me I think the piece I've already touched upon in the reliquary is the closest all the pieces I've done are different phases of things I've explored or ideas I've had our first project was a hand-joinery(?) table
where we couldn't use any power tools and that that I think set the set the standard for me as far as how I
wanted that to play into my work so that definitely represents me well and
that was something that carried into the reliquary making sure that it was really clear that it was made by hand and
everything was was thought through and carefully considered The reliquary, I think, is a good one also the last project I did a dining chair using dovetails to join the seat and back and shaping the surfaces by hand those are things I'm really interested in A new project I've worked on that's
given me quite a challenge was when I
studied abroad last summer in Croatia I focused on the project was city as a site so it was
really open Dubrovnik in Croatia was really just — it was the first time I was in Europe and I
was just culture shocked in a good way I was really taken aback by how much culture there
was and how the relationships people had was so much different than here and what
I was used to so taking my viewpoint and taking their
viewpoint I was able to really relate the two and try to put that into what I came up with as a room divider Also I'm going to ICFF International Contemporary Furniture
Fair in New York City and it's it's a little overwhelming for me
for where I'm at now being a student it's really a lot to take in and be prepared for while I'm
still doing other classes and trying to squeeze in my last project But I think it'll be a great opportunity and it's really going to open my eyes to what's really out there and what it can be I can't really I can't really give that much advice to aspiring artists because I am one so with that being said I think it's really
important — and I've noticed this personally — it's really important to be open and open-minded in particular about experiences you have, the things you do where you are, you know no matter where you are or what you're doing there's always a lot you can learn from it and you're never gonna stop learning,
so it's really just having an open mind and being willing to to put yourself a little bit out of the comfort zone to know where you're going to head