A pedestal by Leonard Fieber won UP Second Wave's Northern Exposure media award.
Fieber also creates an array of furniture that treads between art and function.
The winner of the Upper Peninsula Second Wave Media Award for 2014 at the Northern Exposure exhibit in Escanaba is a Manistique artist who creates furniture designs based on wood already shaped by nature.
This Manistique artist creates artistic, contemporary furnishing and accessories--and some recent works is fashioned from sticks and wood he gathers in the Upper Michigan woods.
That's unique enough, right? Wait for it …
Fieber chooses that rustic material very carefully--from wood chewed by beavers first before being used to build anything. Yes. Beavers--once they gnaw off the outside of the aspen, maple and pine, it's primed.
"My most recent work, Beaver Chew Furniture, is a collaboration between the beaver and me, along with some design input from my wife, Martha," Fieber says, via his website. "Beaver Chew Furniture is made from the sticks left behind after the beaver has eaten the bark and leaves." Fiber's wife, Martha Fieber, is a textile artist.
With each very different slice of nature that he uses to create lamps, benches, desks, chairs, tables and wall art, no piece is ever just like another. As he collects his materials, Fieber begins the artwork--in his head.
"Many works actually begin in the canoe in some remote area of Michigan's Upper Peninsula," the artisan says. "As I collect the sticks, I am visualizing how these found objects will create my next piece"
Fieber's woodworking passion is about four decades old, having first put his natural skills to use under the expert tutelage of his cabinetmaker father.
Being an outdoorsman didn't hurt, either.
"My love of the outdoors and the materials found there, have led me to use beaver sticks for my latest work," he says. "A hand-constructed, original furniture item in your home can only enhance your comfort and provide your space with a connection to nature."
People are taking note of his nature-based creations.
In December, our own Upper Peninsula's Second Wave, one of several media sponsors, selected Fieber's untitled pedestal, as its winner at the 2014 Northern Exposure XXI exhibit, which is an annual event run by the William Bonifas Fine Arts Center in Escanaba.
A roster of other accolades and awards Fieber has collected from other exhibits--located in Michigan, New York, Chicago, Wyoming and Wisconsin--is listed on his website.
Kelle Barr is a veteran reporter from Southwest Michigan who enjoys baseball, unique art, sitting on furniture created from unique sticks and sipping Faygo through red licorice straws. Follow her on Twitter: @BarrKelle
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