Date: Fri 17-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Illustration: C

Location: A-9

Quick Words:

McAvoy-Bruen-woodworker-artist

Full Text:

Sharing The Creative Life: An Artist & Woodworker Blend Talents

(with photos)

By Andrea Zimmermann

When two creative people like Jenni Bruen and Gregory McAvoy of Newtown share

a life, the result is more than just good conversation and mutual admiration.

It is something that extends beyond the spoken word; it encourages honest

assessment, redefinition and expansion of current boundaries, and the ability

to successfully revisit and reshape areas of work formerly abandoned.

It is the mysterious energy of artists.

Jenni, who is primarily a self-taught artist, creates a mood through

decorative art on walls, floors and furniture, and in the fine art of her

watercolors and murals. She sold her first piece of work 20 years ago at a

Newtown High School art show, and has since established a business working

directly for homeowners or in conjunction with interior designers. Most of her

work takes her to the lower Fairfield County area.

Gregory has blended a fine arts education and museum conservatorship into

artistic expression through woodwork. Disliking anything that is contrived, he

apprenticed to learn his trade. He has exhibited his museum-quality furniture,

created commissioned pieces, applied his skills to building custom cabinets,

and has even re-planked the decking on ships.

Both artists were doing okay before they met. But now they are better focused,

much more inspired, and enjoying a new form of expression by collaborating on

individual pieces and on a new line of painted furniture.

Jenni's Natural Gift

"I have been an artist all my life," says Jenni Bruen. "When I was a kid I

loved to draw and paint, and always had watercolor sets."

She created abstracts, landscapes and still lifes. "I never put people in any

work I do [for myself] because I love nature - nature is my thing. My father

and grandfather used to take me on walks to teach me about wildflowers. I

always felt very close to the earth and wanted to touch the plants," she said.

To this day, Jenni says she will pull her car to the side of the road, get out

and run her hands over a beautiful bush.

She gained a lot of confidence as an artist under the tutelage of NHS art

teacher Joyce Hannah. "She really helped me a lot, pushed me and taught me a

lot," said Jenni. After selling her first piece, a watercolor of dandelions,

she won honorable mention in a SCAN exhibit. She then won a scholarship to the

Atlanta College of Art, but returned to Newtown after one year to continue

developing her own distinct style and exhibit in one-man shows.

A big fan of artist Georgia O'Keefe's, Jenni also admires the impressionists

for their use of colors, softness and play of light. "I've always been a very

visual person, looking into colors and forms and shapes," she said. But she

never attempted to copy other artists because she enjoyed developing her own

style.

Her career was well under way, when "all of a sudden local fine arts weren't

selling as much - prints became a big thing." She decided she needed to change

her format as good business sense, but also because she needed to "frontier

out" as an artist.

"In the arts you always change. You need the creative challenge to keep going,

to keep happy, and to keep aware ," she said.

Decorative art had become popular, so the artist pursued the embellishment of

furniture and walls. "It is not `fine art,' like a mural would be, but more

decorative," explained Jenni, who has always been interested in interior

design.

So she went from working by herself, on paper, doing whatever she chose, to

working with people - "hashing out" ideas, and executing them so the client

was "visually happy" in his own home.

"Making something look really good - an idterior - really urns me on," said

Jenni, who describes herself as a romanticist. "Even if I [just] rag the wall

or give it texture, I think, `Wow, I've transformed the room.'"

During the initial consultation, Jenni listens carefully to what the

homeowners would like, and then guides them with ideas of color and design,

and just how much of those should be implemented in a specific space. She goes

back to her studio and designs sample boards of the space, murals, or

furniture embellishment.

"I don't just do basic sponging - I try to come up with a very artful design.

I do all the basic faux and texturing type finishes, a lot of walls and

floors," she said. "If you're good you really have to develop a lot of

different ways to do this. It's a development of style and color, etc. - not

just slam bang , get it up."

Jenni uses water-based paints - latex or acrylic - that are non-toxic, and not

volatile to the environment. Painted surfaces can be washed and are extremely

durable. "I have developed a painting technique with water-based paints, that

others can only do with oils," she said. "Things get done a lot quicker

because it dries faster."

Jenni said she does everything "from A to Z." For instance, she will paint a

garden on a door, paint a design on the furniture or walls to match a fabric,

or rejuvenate an old piece of furniture or a new unfinished one with simple

design, scrolls or florals. "People may want to `zip up' a room with a piece

that is just the right coloring or design," said Jenni. One of her recent

designs, a jardiniere, can be seen in the entrance of The Fashion Exchange in

Newtown.

Many of her commissions are to paint the bedrooms of and/or furniture for

children. Nursery rhyme and Disney characters, clouds and celestial bodies, or

bows and ribbons are popular, she said. One of her favorite pieces was a mural

in a child's bathroom that wrapped around from stars and moons against colors

of dark plum and midnight blue, to a dawn of purple and peach, to a full sun

and blue sky.

Business is so good, the artist has never had to advertise for her custom

design. She works quickly and charges a flat fee for a day's work. Not only

does Jenni paint designs on walls, floors and furniture, but she also helps

people with coloration for different rooms, constructs topiaries in painted

pots, and creates cache pots with dry flower arrangements. She teaches classes

in all the decorative arts, finishes for walls, and brush stroke work; this

spring she will begin to offer watercolor classes.

Gregory's Talents

A dry sense of humor and carefully selected words are benchmarks of a verbal

exchange with Gregory McAvoy. His woodwork, however, speaks for itself.

The path that brought him to his 18-year career as an artist working in wood

is full of unexpected turns. He attended Becker Junior College, then received

a degree at New York Institute of Photography. He then received a full work

fellowship at the University of Bridgeport where he began work on an MFA.

Gregory's fine art studies focused on sculpture and ceramics.

While in college, he had worked for a contractor; later, he taught ninth grade

arts in the Valley area. He was then conservator at a museum until the time a

new administration asserted its bent for more technology rather than fine

arts, he said.

"Then I had to get work and get going - I wasn't at school, I was living out

in the world," said Gregory. So for 3« years he was a woodworking apprentice

to Bob Abbott, a craftsman who did work in the area for builder Ted

Dachenhausen. At this time he created doors, kitchens, panelled walls, wall

units and other pieces.

"I didn't want to be [a hack carpenter], driving a pick-up truck, with a

hammer and saw, experimenting on other people's houses," he said. "I wanted to

learn the right way of doing things."

If you study something really complex, you might find it is actually 20 or 50

very fundamental components that can be broken down into a manageable size,

said Gregory. "You also have to figure out what goes first, then second - like

chess. You need to understand methods and techniques, and learn what tooling

is," he added. "A lot of that comes with time and experience."

Although he had a good business, what Gregory really wanted to do was to focus

on "higher end" furniture. "I gave up the business of fine carpentry and

cabinet work and started doing museum-quality pieces, and had museum shows,"

said the artist. He exhibited his work at Silvermine, the Brookfield Craft

Center, and marketed his work in the SoHo section of Manhattan. Pieces ranged

in price from $5,000 to $10,000.

He worked with designers in Manhattan but eventually found the commute between

the city and Newtown too time-consuming and stressful. This is when he and

Jenni crossed paths.

"She said French country was really `happening.' And I thought, `Yeah, right

,'" remembered Gregory. "I told her she just wanted to be in the `art world,'

and she told me that I was a snot." But Gregory really liked Jenni's "stuff"

and began creating pieces of furniture in that style.

"It was just the opposite of the Colonial or Shaker furniture I had been

doing. Here I am doing French Country - en avance in design. Not what was ,

but what is going to be ," said the artist. "I married everything I knew into

it" and was surprised to discover the new work as satisfying and challenging

as doing "something with 500 dovetails."

Jenni also encouraged Gregory to reconsider a career in fine carpentry. When

he made the decision to return to this work, he was amused by the reception he

received. "At first [the contractors] think I'm a `girly-man,' that I only do

`artwork,'" he laughed. "But then they'd see I could do geometry and compound

angles - that I was really a traditional woodworker."

Gregory says he can "do anything, from the most complex framing to finer

details, radiuses and ellipses." He reworks old doors and windows or salvaged

mantels and round-topped French doors that people bring him, and blends these

into a client's home. Lately, he's been doing a lot of work in fundamentals

and carpentry, he said, but is then asked to come back to create custom

shelving or mantels.

"Before, I was isolated - sitting in my shop and working myself into a corner.

Now I've widened my market base," said the craftsman, who now works in

Newtown, New Canaan, Greenwich and Westport.

The woodworker uses all woods. He said some clients prefer poplar, pine, birch

or maple because they will paint it; others want walnut, cherry or teak.

"I try to illuminate that using teak is part of deforestation. Some decide not

to use the wood but find a substitute that indigenous," said Gregory. Those

who still want to use teak wood are encouraged by the craftsman to make a

donation to a charitable foundation to save the rain forest.

"We're lucky in the Northeast to still have real wood to work with," he said,

citing the increased use of flake board and veneers in southern states.

Anything you can create in wood using machinery, you should be able to do by

hand. And a true craftsman knows when a piece is right.

"You can close your eyes, run your hands across it and know if it's made

right," said Gregory, who teaches small classes in the methods and techniques

of furniture making. "The way it sounds - when paring it with a chisel, the

saw cutting the wood, opening the drawer... It involves being tuned in and

focused - on the alluvial side of it, to the practical side that your stock is

fitted properly."

A Creative Collaboration

This spring, Jenni and Gregory will unveil a new line of painted furniture.

Traditional style poplar and pine furniture will include small cabinets, a

two-door console, and blanket chests painted with European motifs. Pieces will

be offered in different specialized finishes. A "sculpturesque" piece that

will be offered is an urn-based trestle table.

The couple also often works together on restoration of fine furniture. But

whether they are collaborating or working separately, both agree, "There's a

dynamic going on between us."

To find out about classes, or for an appointment to see the artists' works,

call Jenni Bruen at 426-3624, or Greg McAvoy at 426-3604.