Robert A. Hitzig:
I believe that wood is art -- its natural grain patterns are beautiful in their own right and can be appreciated for its aesthetic value alone. Wood does not have to do "anything". It inspires me to find ways to accentuate its inherent qualities. I look at wood as a subject of art rather than as a medium for creating art. As part of that pursuit, I add interesting sculptural elements in an attempt to engage the viewer and cause them to contemplate what they are looking at. By adding color and minimalist variations to the form, viewers are forced to look at wood differently. In the end, I hope this change in perspective challenges their understanding of our relationship with wood and, perhaps in some small way, with the world around us.
Robert is a self-taught artist who developed his woodworking skills while constructing furniture as a hobbyist. As his work progressed, he became more and more focused on accentuating the natural beauty of the wood, emphasizing the grain patterns and figure. Slowly, he realized that the furniture distracted from the beauty of wood and that by creating non-functional pieces he could express what attracted him to working with wood.
Robert arrived at his path of fine art through a circuitous route. Although he has always enjoyed studying art, his last art class was in the eighth grade. His education was focused more on the sciences. Robert has an undergraduate degree in Geology and History from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and a graduate degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Following graduate school, Robert spent three years working in West Africa, Senegal and Benin, as an agro-forester/forester with the Peace Corps. After returning to the United States, he worked for ten years with the Environmental Protection Agency in their Underground Storage Tank and Superfund divisions in Washington, DC.
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Exhibits and Juried Shows
October 2010, Paradise City Art Festival, Northampton, MA
September 2010, Art Hop, Burlington, VT
June to October 2010, Exposed!, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
May 2010, Paradise City Arts Festival, Philadelphia, MA
April 2010, CraftBoston, Boston, MA
March 2010, Paradise City Arts Festival, Marlborough, MA
October 2009, Paradise City Arts Festival, Northampton, MA
September 2009, Art Hop, Burlington, VT
May 2009, Paradise City Arts Festival, Northampton, MA
May 2009 Baltimore Fine Furnishings and Fine Craft Show, Baltimore, MD
August 2008 Vermont Artisan Design and Gallery 2, Brattleboro, VT
June to October 2008, Montpelier SculptCycle 2008, Montpelier, VT
June 2008 Art's Alive, Bulington, VT
October 2007 Providence Fine Furnishings and Fine Crafts Show, Providence, RI
September through December 2007 Burlington International Airport, Burlington, VT
August 2007 Paint the Gallery Red, Studio Place Arts, Barre, VT
July/August 2007, Double Vision: Cristine Cambrea and Robert Hitzig, The Lazy Pear
Gallery, Montpelier, VT
October 2006 Providence Fine Furnishings and Fine Crafts Show, Providence, RI
September 2006 Art in the Round Barn, Waitsfield, VT
September 2006 Art Hop, Burlington, VT
June 2006 Art's Alive, Burlington, VT
November 2005 to January 2010 The Lazy Pear Gallery, Montpelier,VT.
Collections
City of Newburyport, MA
Awards and Grants
2010 Vermont Arts Council grant
2009, Art Hop, Burlington, VT, 1st Place, Juried by Sarah Chaffee, Director, McGowan Fine Art, Concord, NH
2008, Volunteer of the Year for work in organizing Montpelier SculptCycle 2008 and Montpelier Art Walks, Green Mountain Awards presented by Vermont Division for Historic Preservation
Education
1986 BA Geology and History, Miami University (Oxford, OH)
1988 MSPH Environmental Sciences, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
How do you get your colors?
I seal the wood surface with many coats of clear shellac before painting with tinted shellac. It is not a stain. By rework and mixing the colors as I build them up, natural looking color gradations can be created.
How do you get the high gloss finish?
I use a technique of applying shellac called “french polish”. It involves rubbing the surface with a ball of cloth filled with shellac, alcohol, and oil. When done correctly, a microscopic layer of shellac is laid on the surface as the alcohol dissolves the previous layer. The technique was developed by a Frenchman in the early 1800’s and was widely used on furniture into the early 1900’s. However, due to the laborious process it has been widely discarded in the furniture world for easier finishes like sprayed on lacquer, polyurethane, and rubbed on oil finishes. It is still used by specialty finishers on very high end furniture, typically 19th century reproductions. Ironically, although a french polish is very difficult to create, it is much easier to repair than other wood finishes.
Do you use aniline dyes?
No, I use modern lightfast dyes made under the brand TransTint. They have very accurate primary colors and they retain their color much better than traditional wood dyes.
What is shellac?
Shellac is a natural resin secreted by the lac bug on tree bark in southeast Asia. It is edible and is even used as a covering for candy and pills. Unlike other wood finishes which cure after they are applied, shellac retains an ability to dissolve in its solvent (alcohol), allowing it to be reworked and repaired as new layers bind with existing layers as one single layer. In addition, its unique clarity creates a magnifying glass on the surface of wood, making every grain highly visible.
How many coats do you apply?
It is impossible to say for a number of reasons –
- The process is done in stages over an extended period of time.
- I rubout and remove layers before applying new ones.
- I don’t use the same concentration of shellac through the process so one layer may be several times thicker than another.
- Each pass with the cloth in the french polishing process is technically a layer (on a microscopic level) and there may be many dozens (hundreds?) of passes.
- Different sections of a painting may have different numbers of layers.
On the back sides I may apply 3 to 5 coats of heavy shellac.
How long does it take to make one piece?
I need a minimum of 3 weeks but most take many months. Depending on the size, I can usually work on 3 to 8 pieces simultaneously.
How does one care for a shellac painting? How durable is it?
Shellac paintings are comparable to encaustic (wax) paintings in terms of durability. There are no special actions that need to be undertaken to care for it. Occasional dusting with a feather dusting is all it should need. The polish and colors are extremely archival, but as with any painting, it should not be placed in direct sunlight. In addition, shellac will soften at high temperatures so things placed on top of them can leave impressions in warm weather. When transporting shellac painting, I like to wrap them in flannel sheets, however, when shipping them in summer months I crate them so that nothing is touching the shellac. The high gloss french polish finish is extremely archival and should never need to be retouched but if damage does occur to the surface, I can repair it fairly easily (scratched wood is more problematic but still repairable). In addition, if I am not available, a furniture restorer competent in french polishing can also repair the surface.
Can you make me a table (or other functional object)?
Theoretically yes, but . . . I believe that wood is art and that it should be appreciated for what it is rather than what it can “do.” I would rather spend my time making fine art than functional objects.
What art school did you go to? Where did you learn this technique?
I am a self-taught artist. I started making furniture as a hobbyist in the mid-90’s but slowly became more interested in the natural beauty of the wood than the functional things I could create with it. The technique is based in traditional woodworking methods that I learned from many years of reading Fine Woodworking and Woodwork magazines as well as several years belonging to a woodworkers club in Springfield,VA. Although I have not taken a formal art class (since 8th grade) I am constantly studying art informally.
Is your work in any major museums or collections?
Not yet, but I’m always preparing for a MoMA retrospective.
Copyright(c) 2009 Robert Hitzig. All rights reserved.