ARTIST: Anna Gregory

from Kentucky Homes & Gardens July/August 2022

The Perfect Place to Call Home

ARTIST

Creating an Outdoor Escape From Inside aWorkshop

By Heather N. Russell-Simmons Photography Courtesy of Anna Gregory

Anna Gregory, a Kentucky woodworker and designer, learned an invaluable lesson of the craft from her father. “He taught me to be a great problem-solver,” she said. “In woodworking, you can’t get frustrated. You have to figure out how to fix mistakes.”

Gregory grew up on the Elkhorn Creek in Georgetown, Ky. There, on the family property, her father turned an old hay barn into a woodshop where he built custom cabinetry. Gregory recalled being about 11 years old when she built her first project under her father’s supervision—a small bookcase that still sits in her childhood bedroom. She also worked in the woodshop. “When I was little, he paid me to sweep the sawdust. So much sawdust!” she laughed.

Although she swore she’d never become a woodworker, Gregory now works side-by-side with her father in that very woodshop. With a background in furniture, custom cabinetry, retail design/build and installation art, she started Anna Gregory Design in 2017 and began focusing on small batch home goods and sculpture as well as art installation and retail display. “His cabinetry takes up a lot of the shop at the moment, but I have a nice little nook,” she said.

An avid traveler who always brings field guidebooks to learn about the wildlife in places she visits, Gregory strives to create work that can inspire an inside refuge with the sense of escaping to the outdoors. That inspiration is evident in the extraordinary execution of her wildly popular wooden sculptures, including prickly pear cacti, rubber trees and monsteras. When describing the creation of a recent work of art, “I knew I wanted to make a bird of paradise,” Gregory recalled. “Something dramatic with a big leaf structure and curved stems.” She chose maple wood and for the stems she placed dowels in a steam box for about 45 minutes, making the wood more pliable. The dowels were then carefully bent to a pre-made form and set to dry for a few days. “That’s where the design comes from,” she said. “Even when you take the steamed wood from a form, it has a little bit of a mind of its own about what shape it’s going to be.” Once Gregory saw the height and bend, she built in the composition, a balance of the leaves. Those leaves were milled from flat boards and sanded into a thin layer. The leaves, stem and base were then connected through simple joinery.

“My design technique is about distilling,” explained Gregory. “Subtracting what needs to be subtracted to get where I need to get.”

Together with David Kenton Kring, a Lexington-based figurative sculptor and potter, Gregory co-founded Crafted Social in 2019. With the idea of quality over quantity, Crafted Social features regional artists, crafts people, designers and functional artists through curated markets, exhibitions and other events. “Kentucky has such a rich tradition of craftsmanship and design,” Gregory said of their inspiration to promote contemporary functional design and traditional craft design. Crafted Social events honor that rich tradition by encouraging a thriving and inspiring artist/maker community.

In addition to commissions and custom pieces, readers can purchase Gregory’s work through shop updates posted at www.annagregorydesign.com and Instagram @anna.gregory.design

Visit Anna’s booth at this summer’s Woodland Art Fair in Lexington.

More information about Crafted Social can be found at online at www.craftedsocialky.com and on Instagram @crafted_social

Gregory primarily works with five different woods: ash, cherry, maple, oak and walnut; all southeastern woods readily available in Kentucky. “Cherry is my favorite to work with because it has so many distinct characteristics,” she said. “It smells good when cut on table saw; sands beautifully; pops when you apply a wax or oil finish.” And while all wood will react when exposed to sunlight over a long period of time, Gregory finds the way cherry wood becomes darker with a pink-red hue to be particularly beautiful.