Al Stirt American (b.1946) Osage Orange, 1998 studio turned and carved footed wood bowl signed under base. From The Smithsonian American Art Museum: Alan Stirt describes himself as a self-taught woodturner. His work has been collected by the American Craft Museum in New York City; Arizona State University; the Fine Arts Museum of the South, in Mobile, Alabama; and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. His work was featured in a 1993 book from the University of Washington Press titled Tales and Traditions: Storytelling in Twentieth-Century American Craft. Stirt has given workshops at the Arrowmont School and the Haystack School and has given demonstrations in Great Britain and New Zealand. He was profiled on Vermont Educational Television in 1986. White House Collection of American Crafts exhibition (Washington D.C.: National Museum of American Art, 1995) Al Stirt’s first studio was in the dressing room of a friend’s leather shop in New Hampshire, where he turned small bowls and candlesticks to sell at craft shows. He moved to rural Vermont in 1975 and opened a true studio, harvesting the local wood for his creations. Stirt studied various pottery forms while learning to turn wood, and the classical silhouettes and simple detail in his objects reveal the unique pattern in each piece of wood. 3 1/4"H x 6"D