Mike Sorge
This user has not added any information to their profile yet.
Creative Woodturning, an amazing medium and enjoyable art. Trees are magnificent, often living beyond several human lifetimes. When a tree dies its inherent natural beauty can be an ongoing voice. My methods sculpting Cascading Diamonds, Kissing Fish, Manta Rays, Spirit Birds, Trillium Boxes, Capturing Spheres and other original forms on the lathe combine playful exploration with patient, focused tool application, striving to reveal the inherent beauty of fallen trees in elegant, engaging and inspirational ways. My studio is an exhilarating zen zone inspired by personal studies, ancient and contemporary, in the brilliant cosmos, the positive potential of humanity and the beauty of nature.
website: www.mikesorge.com
Early inspiration: Growing up in the San Gabriel Mountains of California, Mike's family explored the mountains, deserts, forests, and spent countless glorious days on, in and under the Pacific waves. This foundation, a love of nature, along with his Dad's influence as a high school industrial arts teacher lead to an appreciation of trees, their inherent natural beauty, and eventually to the art of sculptural woodturning.
Design Influence: Mike's work is inspired by a curious love of nature, humanity and the cosmos enhanced through personal study - searching, reading, selecting and memorizing virtuous wisdom quotes from all cultures, ancient and contemporary. An appreciation for the inimitable power of imagination inspires the Spirit Birds. A fascination with the beauty and energy of the cosmos inspires turning and including large spheres in sculptural cairn structures. A reverence for all of life inspires creating other winged forms such as Cascading Diamonds, Trillium Wisdom Boxes, and the Manta Rays. I also enjoy creating winged utilitarian bowls, capturing marbles under lids, and turning elegant Burl and Natural Edge Art Bowls. Simply, I enjoy woodturning while striving for originality, elegant forms, mastery of technique, and engaging inspiration.
Beginnings: Mike is primarily self-taught. In the fall of 2009, following a career in national sales and marketing, Mike took a weekend intro class in woodturning, loved it, set up his lathe studio, joined Central Ohio Woodturners, and turned over 1000 bowls his first year while experimenting with large non-round shapes and natural edge forms. Upon seeing Mike’s large winged diamond forms COW asked Mike to provide his first educational woodturning demonstration, after which two experienced turners said, “Mike, we’re concerned, we think you’re turning these large crazy shapes because you don’t know what you’re not supposed to be doing.” Subsequently, Mike has demonstrated and taught for dozens of AAW chapter clubs, from Baltimore to Seattle, from Detroit to Atlanta and in between.
Awards/Exhibitions: Mike has won numerous awards including International Arts & Craft Design Award top 25, and participated in various exhibitions including this year’s Black Rock Center for The Arts “Fiber & Turned Wood”, the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s “Focus Exhibition – Fluidity and Geometrics”, and SAAC’s “Speaking with Wood.”