THOUGHTS FROM THE MAN CAVE
Lessons from the Lathe Chuck D’Arezzo creates beauty and meaning in his one-of-a-kind wood turnings and sculptures
Cornelius resident’s work has appeared in galleries all across the United States.
by Mike Savicki | photography courtesy of Chuck D’Arezzo
He has the hands of a surgeon—calm, steady, precise, and deliberate. His mind sees the possibility in a block of wood just like a painter envisions a dream on a white canvas. He is as much a craftsman as a tradesman, a thinker as much as a creator.
and cherishes the relationships he has formed alongside these artists, sculptors, writers, tapestry makers, architects, chefs, stained glass creators, and all-around art lovers. Living and working in Bailey’s Glen keeps him invigorated and is his family.
The process begins with an idea, a rough sketch. That’s how he has done it for more than 60 years. He sketches and draws nightly, sometimes it is a new design while other times it is a revision or modification. His mind is always moving.
D’Arezzo, now 82, grew up as a jewelry apprentice near his boyhood home in Cranston, Rhode Island. Both sets of his grandparents came from Italy, bringing the strong work ethics they passed down to their younger generations. He spent hours designing, shaping, and practicing in his mother’s basement so he could master the fine motor skills that he knew would keep him employed as a teen. While serving in the military out of high school, he valued the chances he had to discover and explore art works first in the Far East then across Europe while he worked on forward radar, missiles, and early computer technology. Images from The Louvre and galleries across Belgium became his mental keepsakes. He retired as a professor and dean after 34 years at Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI), helping to take it from a small, local institution to New England’s largest community college network. His efforts earned Emeritus recognition. And along the way, he discovered woodworking, turning, and sculpting while building a home in New Hampshire.
Then he selects the wood. The idea dictates the form. Oftentimes it might be a piece of otherwise forgotten maple or oak. A damaged or distressed section of a tree. For years he traveled with a chainsaw. Now he values wood that he finds or discovers, wood that is given to him. In each green sample he observes the size, the shape, the growth patterns, the age, the lines. The actual process then begins with green wood on a lathe. Very thin pieces. He gives himself three attempts, shining a light through as he removes an inch or less at a time. He watches how the wood behaves, how the light refracts, moves, and changes. Sometimes the wood behaves differently than even he imagines so he sets it aside and begins again with another. He turns and sculpts daily. Sometimes it is for just a couple hours, other times it is for much, much, much longer. An afternoon into an evening. Maybe longer. He rarely misses a day. Skillfully wielding tools, some as small as a dentist’s drill bit and others more than 100 years old passed down through generations, he has the patience, the care, the dedication, and the passion to turn otherwise forgotten blocks of wood into one-of-a-kind works of art. Bowls. Balls. Containers. Cylinders. Sculptures. Art pieces. A wooden umbrella. A freestanding Native American. For decades, Chuck D’Arezzo’s work appeared in galleries, first across New England in New Hampshire and Maine then along Virginia’s Blue Ridge. But, of late, since moving to Bailey’s Glen with his wife, Julia, seven years ago, he has found that sharing his work with many of his artisan neighbors and new friends brings more satisfaction and joy than a new gallery or guild might otherwise provide. He values 26
LAKE NORMAN CURRENTS | APRIL 2021
“If you have the opportunity to do something, do something,” D’Arezzo tells me as we sit together in his shop shortly before he is to begin an afternoon of turning. “We take the gifts that we are given, we make them ours, then we work to make something we can give to others.” And as he shows me the tools of his craft—the jeweler’s saw, the hammers, the chisels, the knives, even the drill bits—he adds, “I have memories in these tools every time I touch them. I think of the people, the places, the times, that have brought me to now and I realize how fortunate I am to be able to create. To me, we are all products of the lives we live and we owe it to those we love to make the most of it all. We shouldn’t take our talents for granted. We should do as much as we can.” There is a special beauty in Chuck D’Arezzo, not simply in his works but also in his mind, too. To see his work is special. To share his time is extraordinary.
