Robert W. Chatelain was born in 1945 in Eagle Pass, Texas and grew up in Findlay, Ohio. He received a BA in Chemistry from Earlham College in 1967 and another in Fine Arts from George Washington University in 1975. He lives with his wife, Dianne, near Camel's Hump in Vermont.

Robert began his professional woodturning career in 1985, he is self-taught. His first turnings endeavored to highlight the natural grain of native and exotic woods in classical forms. He then turned laminated bowls, often combining rigid plastics and different wood species. This mixed-media approach matured to include bowls decorated with metal bands fastened with wooden wedges and bowls with gold or silver leafed collars.

In 1988 Robert began filling small voids (at first) in burl bowls with pigmented epoxy resins, he has been refining this Hybrid Turning technique for 17 years.

Artist's Statement

For inspiration I draw on what I call "the hand of man in nature." My greatest respect is given to craftsmen who integrate the constructed with the natural; a Japanese garden and its borrowed scene, a Wright house tucked beneath the brow of a hill, the manicured way that the Blue Ridge Parkway cuts through the wilderness. My work joins the organic with the synthetic in a manner which although it is not invisible, it is seamless and it is unified by the common chaos of the burl wood and the inlay.

Selected Awards, Exhibitions, and Craft Shows