david Blackburn

fine woodworking

It’s common knowledge that genius often rears its head in youth. Sometimes it looks more like neurons run amuck than organized thought. Or simply the product of intense parental training, discipline enforced by structure, vis-a-vis the so-called Tiger Mother model. But when you’re talking about David Blackburn, you know you’ve met the real thing. So it comes as no surprise to learn that this Ventura-based, award-winning artist has been obsessed with wood for as long as he can remember.

A military brat, Blackburn’s family did the serviceman’s shuffle, moving frequently and living on military bases around the world. From New Orleans to Alaska to Japan, Blackburn spent afternoons and weekends scouting out bits of wood to forge into his latest project, from simple forts to intricate playhouses. Wood, any kind of wood, he tells me, earned a second look: gnarled logs from swamps, forked sticks from the forest, and an occasional piece of lumber scavenged from a public works shed. “Even in Alaska, on a desolate island with no trees, I was a scrounger. I made a two-story fort in third grade,” he chuckles. “Every six months or so the navy would come tear it all down.” To Blackburn, this was another opportunity. A new project to explore.

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