After 37 years as an industrial designer in the Detroit area, Curt Bailey retired and began a new career as an artist and furniture designer. Working in his studio on Lake Michigan in Fennville, Bailey uses found wood, from beach driftwood to discarded pallets to road detritus, and builds unique furniture pieces and other wooden items. His studio will open to viewers during the Blue Coast Artists tour in October.
“Industrial design is an art major when you get a bachelor’s of fine arts,” Bailey says. “The first two years of art school at most colleges are the same for all art, whether you are doing fine art or industrial design. It’s all closely related. I’ve always had a passion for art in high school, which is one of the reasons I went into industrial design.”
Differences between industrial design and fine arts began to show up, however, after his decades in the former. He had little room for creativity or following his own ideas. Bailey had to design as directed.
“You’re designing things for what they like, even if that means that you don’t particularly like it,” he says.
Now with a studio and shop near Royal Oak, Michigan, Bailey often travels across the state to his lake house in Fennville to work on his furniture and other art projects. His goal became to always build from found wood. Finding driftwood along the beach was easy enough, but he would also travel the area to see what wooden items others may be tossing or giving away. Pallets became a favorite item. Then, he let the wood itself inspire him.
“I take it back to the shop, lay it on the bench and start looking at it,” Bailey says. “Sometimes what I’m really intrigued by is what I call the ugly side, the part that has been out in the weather. There is a lot of stuff that washes up on the beach that has this beautiful, weathered appearance. It’s bleached by the sun, the grain gets opened up by all the drying and getting wet, and that is the part I’m sometimes looking for. Then I say, what can I do with that?”
What Bailey does with that is to build tables, chairs, benches, and all kinds of wooden items. At times, he simply arranges pieces into a kind of painting and frames it. Other times, he uses paint to create realistic paintings. Bailey’s studio will be open to public view with all items available for sale on the Blue Coast Artists tour, October 3rd and 4th, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. He is located at 1638 Blue Star Hwy, Fennville.
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