OK you asked for it...

"Why stools" or what I did for the last 69 years. (It won't take that long).

When I was in my twenties, abstract art was hitting big time .
I never got it, I looked at oil slicks, water patterns, Yamaguchi, Moore, all my friends (painters) work, el Greco, Kandinsky, on and on and more.
I stood on my head, I looked through my arm pit, I squeshed my eyes really tight, and pretty much came up with, "I dun know, maybe?" I never saw IT. Whatever the heck I mean by that.
Sometimes the stuff was put together real nice and I liked it, but mostly not. When I opened my shop in New York I liked furniture, but it was mostly a way to earn a living. However,at one point I came in contact with Shaker furniture. Bingo!! I started studying and going to museums. Those kids could make FURNITURE.
OK keep thinking that and zoom ahead a few decades. I've seen a lot of Japanese pottery (Hamada), I still don't understand his stuff, but I do understand WHAT he was trying to do. There are universal things that run through each society, it is best described as functional craft, water pitchers, cups, axes, knives, fishing lures, tables, and stools.

heh, heh, see I trapped you.

Ok what I finally decided was that there are forms and shapes that are beautiful and that you can use. I don't like to attach burl to a piece to make it look better, most carving leaves me chilled. But if you can put four drawers into a carcass in such a way that it is pleasing and doesn't hurt your eyes, wowser! "When you sit on a rock is it a chair?" my philosophy prof. once said. Now he was making a bigger point about definitions, but I thought, hum, maybe. Anyhow, I looked at what we sit on, I don't feel a need to do chairs. I looked at french peasant stools, Irish Creepies (that's really what they call them) Mexican, Qualamotlan, Chinese, Japanese, Martha and the Vandells, and said,"I like stools."

Each one I make is different.

THEY ARE HEAVY.

I make them from hardwood and they are thick and strong (not unlike my head). I use only domestic hardwood acquired within 250-300 miles of here. I shop small one man sawmills for bargains and buy in small quantities. Some stools have four legs and four rungs, some four legs and two rungs, some three legs and three rungs some four legs and no rungs I think hard about them late at night when the BBC talks to me. I like their form. I am making a few with seats like flower petals. Some are small for KIDS some are larger, my line known as "The Big Keester". I try to make sure each one is at least nice to look at when you're not sitting on it.
Want to put your Bible/Koran/Gita on the stool, a plant, a stuffed animal, do you want to drive it in the Mardi Gras parade? I don't care. I'm making some that you can sit on while meditating. All I ask is that you never use one to brain your lover or your kid. I'm open to negotiation on self defense. I still can't decide whether I'll make sets of four or more.

My head is starting to get tired now, so I'm gonna go out in the shop.