Artist Spotlight: Adam Cremona

STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY RYAN RUSHING AND TROY DUNNAGAN

Connecticut native Adam Cremona never intended to make furniture, or to live in Nashville. After high school he put college on hold to travel the world,snowboard and make music.

“I lived in Thailand for a little bit andjust wanted to experience things otherthan education — a different kind ofeducation,” he says.

He went back to college at age 27 for anundergrad degree at Savannah Collegeof Art and Design in 2003. There, he gothis BSA in painting and met his wife,Sera. In 2008 they moved to Brooklyntogether, where they both worked ingalleries while trying to make a living doing art,waiting tables and producing music.

They ended up in Nashville because of family,deciding to moveafter visiting theirnephewsso often.

“People were reallyapproachable downhere versus up inNew York,” he says.“And even thoughI had connectionsup there, I wasmaking way moreconnections downhere. I was just ahamster in a wheelup there.”

They moved into an apartment on Fatherland Street— right behind Far East where the Hatcheries are now — and it was in Nashville that he was drawn to creating furniture.

“My father is 84 now, but he was an architect in New York and always had projects for us to do around the house — building decks and things like that, swinging a hammer. But I’d never been drawn to furniture,” he says.

He started making stuff on the tailgate of his pickup truck, though, and word of mouth began to spread. The couple then moved to Hermitage, and he got some woodworking tools to expand his operation to fill his two-car garage. After software company Force X showcased some of his custom work, demand exploded enough to where he was able to move into a commercial space.

“I had waited tables for 20-plus years, so I was kind of dead on the inside. I knew that I needed to do something creative,” he says. “This was an opportunity, and I jumped on it — took a leap of faith, because really I had nothing else to lose. And now it’s become a huge passion.”

Adam Cremona

Cremona has local sources for dimensional lumber and has cultivated relationships all over the country for the live-edge material. And if live edge is what a client wants, part of his lead time includes the sourcing — sometimes up to five weeks. It’s important to Cremona that he finds the right material, and if the wood hasn’t been in a kiln yet, it needs to be. So more time is added for drying.

He does some residential work, but he’s drawn to commercial clients because of the challenge of expressing his emotion and creativity within the realm of professionalism — such as a liveedge table that includes a metallic blue epoxy resin river in the middle.

He’s currently working on a build for Microsoft in Chicago out of his space in Hermitage, and he just finished a big table for Universal Music Group.

“The most successful projects are the ones that are a collaboration among everybody,” he says. “I love being able to present an idea and run with it and have all the artistic license, but I also love working with architects — they are really great thinkers and have wonderful ideas.”