By Sam Elliott
Furniture maker and woodcarver Peter Falk is the latest Indiana Artisan to bring his work to Carmel on a permanent basis.
Falk, who works out of Falk Wood Studio outside Lafayette near Cutler, has accepted an invitation to join Art Splash Gallery. The gallery, located at 111 W. Main St., Suite 40, in Carmel’s Arts and Design District, will regularly feature selections of Falk’s work among its exhibits.
“I’ll be having on display a chair and a couple different end tables as well as some smaller everyday-use items and some carving and marquetry I have in the form of boxes,” Falk said.
The April edition of the Arts and Design District’s Second Saturday Gallery Walk was Falk’s first event as a member of the Art Splash family. It was a previous installment of the event that led to him joining the gallery.
“It was just about a month ago at the last Gallery Walk there was a vacant space in the district and they asked me to be a part of the Gallery Walk even though I wasn’t a member or had my own gallery there,” Falk said. “That was my first opportunity to be part of the district’s events and that opened the door to being there at Art Splash.”
The work Falk’s bringing to the gallery has been crafted from wood that began its life as trees from the region.
“I’ve been trying to use more local or native wood wherever possible and I’m developing relationships with sawyers or people that have saw mills to cut logs into lumber,” he said.
A recent commission — for two end tables and a coffee table made of cherry and sycamore — aided Falk’s efforts.
“That ended up leading to us getting our own saw mill and I was able to find the trees,” he said. “That was within the past year and I’m excited about moving towards milling more of my own wood so I can have the ability to cut it the certain ways to best reveal the grain. The grain in the wood really is kind of my paint strokes, so to speak.”
Falk’s in-progress projects — and potential future additions to Carmel’s Art Splash Gallery — include a newly designed barstool chair for high kitchen counters.
“That’s in the works,” he said, “ and I’m also thinking about a picnic table and bench.”
