Local Artist

Robert De Mattei - Turned Wood, Wood Arts

Robert started working with wood in 1965 restoring gunstocks on antique firearms using a small assortment of old hand tools. This started a fascination with wood and by the mid-'70s he was building furniture grade speaker cabinets and added a commercial radial arm saw to his tool collection. Over the years, this morphed into a full woodworking shop, although the radial arm saw was retired and donated to his eldest son a few years ago.

Robert enjoys turning wood where he can merge functionality and art, with an emphasis on the art. His primary inspirations are from nature and the wood itself: "The flow of lines and curves found in nature influences my work but the wood tells me where it wants to go and what it wants to be. Several times the shape I started to make is not the finished shape as the wood color, figure, and texture simply wasn't suited for the original shape. Each layer removed reveals a mystery hidden from the wood above."

By following the wood and merging the interesting lines and curves found in nature, an ordinary object such as a pen becomes something new to behold. He enjoys contrast and bold patterns in his work while releasing the inherent beauty in wood. Robert avoids specialization although he finds the more creative segmented turnings especially interesting. Likewise, he does not limit himself to a couple of types of wood finish; rather he selects a finish best suited to the wood and the object's final purpose.

Robert has always been a creative thinker, often combining new materials, style, and methods to uncover all those mysteries locked inside of all wood. For example, he is currently applying his background in mathematics to develop a multidimensional segmented vase where each segment is defined by a different coordinate system; something he believes has never before been successfully accomplished.

In 1991, Robert graduated from Cogswell Polytechnical College in San Francisco, CA with two degrees in engineering. He has published numerous technical and safety articles and is currently writing a book on multiple dimensional interrupted segmented wood turnings. His past engineering designs cover multiple disciplines: a thermal compensation system for a communication satellite, a cancer treatment instrument in medical electronics, and numerous amplifiers in the professional sound industry; he was also one of the design engineers on the first successful MRI scanner. He is a member of the American Association of Woodturners and the Bay Area Woodturners Association.

Robert lives in San Ramon, California with his wife, Lynn. Lynn is a major supporter of Robert's woodworking; for example, it was she who encouraged him to expand his woodworking and bring his art to the public. His email address is TheWoodpecker@Woodpeckings.com and enjoys hearing from other woodworkers and wood turners.

Contact Information: Robert De Mattei 333 Meadowood Circle San Ramon, CA 94583 Email: TheWoodpecker@Woodpeckings.com Phone: 925-997-0996 Website: www.woodpeckings.com

© copyright 2009 - all rights to the images are retained by the artist