SAC's Gallery - Society of Arts & Crafts

Roger Smith was born in Wilcox County, Alabama on January 13, 1840 and raised in north Lowndes County. I married Mary Edna Ward and we have one son, one daughter, three grandsons, one great grandson and one great granddaughter.

I graduated from Hayneville High School in 1958, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Dip/TH) in 1979, Wallace State (AS) in 1985 and Athens (BS/Ed) in 1987.

I have been interested in woodworking since high school, but a new world opened for me in 2002. I bought a lathe to turn a pedestal leg for a chess table I was building for my grandson. The next year, I searched the Internet for turned objects from wood and found many amazing works of art that stimulated my interest.

I began to turn in earnest in 2004. I turned mainly bowls, Christmas ornaments, honey dippers, etc. for the next couple of years. During that time I joined the Alabama Woodturners Association and the American Association of Woodturners. I was able to improve my skills from watching the demonstrations at these meetings.

In the fall of 2006 I attended John C. Campbell folk school in North Carolina and studied turning hollow forms (vases) with Larry Hasiak for a week. In the spring of 2007, I attended the David Ellsworth's School of Wood Turning, and again concentrated on hollow forms.

My current work is influence by both the Navaho and Pueblo Indian pottery. I also create a lot of natural edge objects such as bowls with the bark on the rim and wing edge burl platters. Most of my wood is obtained locally from trees downed by storms of cleared for construction. I like using woods that have character (color, grain, voids and inclusions) and only using a finish that accentuates the beauty that is already there.

My future plans include refining my current skills and explore some new horizons such as inside-out turnings. I am also experimenting with pyrography and wood carving.

RODGER SMITH

Artist