Alan Carter

I can trace my current status in life back to the third grade, when they needed trombone players for the grade school band. That started a lifelong interest in music which led ultimately to my graduation from Indiana University with a degree in bass trombone. Not too many people can say that. Upon graduation, with no performing jobs to be found (the Chicago Symphony wasn’t hiring just then) and with a wife and daughter (the world famous Theresa) in tow, I ended up in the management program of K-Mart, about as far away from music as it could be. After 7 years of unloading trucks and cleaning grease traps (I was in management after all), and acquiring a son, Adam, along the way, I decided to become an artist and worked for the next 22 years painting landscapes and the urban environment in a highly realistic style. In 1999 I hit a sort of creative wall and shifted my attention to furniture design. I spent ten years designing and building contemporary furniture and accessories. In 2009, I discovered woodturning. When I was making furniture, I occasionally needed a round handle or something but never got very involved with woodturning. I had become somewhat disenchanted with the furniture business (the economic meltdown didn’t help any) and started thinking about other creative outlets. Around mid 2009 I decided to give turning a try and if I was going to learn how to turn, I was going to really learn. I bought a decent lathe, some tools and sharpening equipment, and a bunch of wood. Since then I’ve immersed myself in this lesser known universe and have begun to build a name for myself as an artist who happens to use woodturned objects in his work. I now have work in a number of galleries, have been, or will be, featured in a variety of woodturning magazines, and travel the country giving demonstrations and classes in the fine art and craft of woodturning. I’ve taken all the lessons I learned from music, painting, and furniture design to help shape the work I now produce.