Resident artist Chuck Henning
Chuck was born and raised in Houghton Lake, MI. He is a journeyman carpenter who mainly worked on building barns. He loves working with his hands and is a master “McGyver.” Now living at Fernwood Farm, he has set up his wood shop in one of the barns. He calls it the “Mole Hole”, when he crawls in he doesn’t wan’t to leave.
Chuck’s love of barns was fostered when he was young and was responsible for the care of the family’s horses which they showed and raced within the mid-west. The loss of the family farms and the demise of the old barns trouble him. He has the desire to bring back the beauty of these fallen structures, by creating pieces of art out of the salvaged wood.
He appreciates the naturalness of wood and works to unleash it’s natural beauty. His cutting boards made from a solid slab of wood are refined, but left with a raw edge which focuses on the nature of the material from which it
is created. Many of his turned pieces are created from reclaimed wood from local orchards which include, pear,
apple and other local woods like tulip poplar.