No Fulfillment Without Frustration

Artist Lynn Szymanski, seen in her Rollinsford studio at right, creates one-of-a-kind furniture as well as sculpture. Seen here is a side table she crafted in 2018 from limed oak and mahogany.

Beauty and function combine.

Lynn Szymanski is trained as a fine furniture maker, but her creations are often as poetic and beautiful as they are practical. An artist, designer and educator, Szymanski creates sculpture, signs and wall work, as well as one-of-a-kind furniture that becomes the focus in any space.

“My work straddles both furniture and sculpture,” Szymanski says from her workshop alongside the Salmon Falls River. “It’s guided by these two pillars that are somewhat at opposite ends.”

Szymanski earned her Master of Fine Arts in furniture design at San Diego State University. She’s the 2009 recipient of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Artist Advancement Grant, and she served two terms on The Furniture Society board of trustees. As an educator and administrator, Szymanski has lent her expertise to programs at the University of New Hampshire as well as Becker College and Fitchburg State in Massachusetts. Plus, she ran the wood department at the Worcester Crafts Center.

She is also a member of the prestigious New Hampshire Furniture Masters—a group of professional furniture makers dedicated to preserving the craft and its long-held traditions. It’s there that Szymanski is working to expand the group’s prison outreach program at the New Hampshire Correctional Facility for Women in Concord. Szymanski and fellow New Hampshire Furniture Master Leah Woods have developed a curriculum and are poised to launch the effort.

A skilled maker who has been shaping, carving and creating stunning works for more than 30 years, Szymanski finds reward in the effort as much as in the achievement. Some days in the shop are fulfilling, while others can be maddening. But the shop is where Szymanski finds peace.

New Hampshire Home [NHH]: How did you find your way to your craft?


Lynn Szymanski [LS]: I have always been interested in art and craft since I was a child. I remember there was a craft store near our house, and my mom would take me to buy supplies so I’d have what I needed to work on projects during the week. I remember always feeling comfortable drawing and making things. My grandpa was a woodworker, too. He had already retired by the time I became active in woodworking, but seeing him make and repair things throughout my life was very informative.

NHH: How does your furniture and art work satisfy your creative side?


LS: Lots of things. No. 1, there’s always something to learn. No. 2, there’s something very tangible about it. When you go into the wood shop, the outcome of your day is very much dependent on one’s self. That self-reliance is important to me. It’s always fresh, and you’re always learning something. Some days in the wood shop, everything goes well. Other days, it doesn’t. But over the years, it’s become apparent to me that the effort I put into my work is proportionate to what I get out of it. That self-reliance and straightforwardness is immensely satisfying.

NHH: Is there a particular item that best represents your skills?


LS: Usually as soon as I make something and it finds a home someplace, I forget about it and I’m on to the next piece.

NHH: Tell us about your time at the Vitra Design Museum in France.


LS: That was an amazing experience. I went as part of a summer craft program, sponsored by the Vitra Design Museum, which is most famous for miniature replicas of modernist furniture. They have a summer program at this castle called Domaine de Boisbuchet. Designers from all over the world convene to teach two-week workshops. I took a workshop with David Trowbridge, who is a woodworker/designer from New Zealand. There were between eight and 10 of us in his class, and we just made things all day. And there were amazing French lunches—French food and French wine. The Vitra Design Museum’s program is very similar to some we have here in the United States. Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, in Deer Isle, Maine, is probably the closest to us.

NHH: What do you think you gained during your time in France?


LS: It was interesting to me to have a European perspective on how they look at design and making things. Although, it was not just European. Instructors the Campana brothers are Brazilian designers, there were Swedish designers, and David Trubridge is from New Zealand, of course. The program presented a more international way of looking at things. Seeing through an international lens was really interesting.

NHH: Is there a difference in how you prepare to create furniture as opposed to sculpture, signs and wall work?


LS: I definitely plan out my work before I actually touch any material. I make sketches, drawings and plans. I make maquettes and models a lot. I make lists. I work off of to-do lists that map out which steps I’m going to take in what order and when. It’s all very planned out. And especially with furniture, I try not to deviate too much from that initial plan. But with sculpture and other work, I’m a lot looser, so if I make a mistake or there’s a little serendipity, I let that inform the final product.

NHH: Was there anyone who influenced you or acted as a mentor?


LS: Three people: the first person is Wendy Maruyama, who was my professor at San Diego State in grad school.

She’s really amazing. I admire her, and I was inspired by her as a maker, designer, arts advocator, person and friend. I still feel really close with her and could reach out to her.

The second is Keith Mason, a woodworking teacher at Laney College in Oakland, California. I learned how to be an educator from him, and I admire the way he made learning woodworking accessible to everybody.

The third person is Gail Fredell, a woodworker in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. She’s the first female woodworker I met. During a slide presentation of her work, I thought it was stunning, and the way she talked about her work was different than how I had heard anyone talk about work before. It was inspired by nature and her environment, and as she talked about her inspiration, you could actually see it in the piece.

There are many more—and in the New Hampshire Furniture Masters, as well. What I like about being a woodworker is this sense of belonging: I’m part of a community that has tradition, and how we’re all working toward a similar goal.

NHH: How often do you encounter other women in the furniture-making world?


LS: A lot. Maybe 20 years ago, when I was in grad school, my program was 50-50. But these days, some of the most prestigious woodworking programs are run by women. People I feel closest to, even though I may not know them personally very well, I know them as a woodworker. When I do meet them, I feel an instant rapport with them. Wendy (Maruyama) and Gail (Fredell) are two of the women at the forefront of that.

NHH: What is your workshop like?


LS: It’s in Rollinsford in the Salmon Falls Mills. The mill is right on the Salmon Falls River, and when windows are open, I can hear the river roaring. I share the space with three other woodworkers. One room is the machine room, which has the table saw, the jointer, planer, most of the big equipment with a dust collection system. The other room is the bench room, where each of us has a workbench and storage area for hand tools. I love being in that space.

One of my shop mates is an instructor at the North Bennet Street School in Boston, so he has a lot of 18th- and 19th-century furniture reproductions.

I love the variety of work that happens in that space.

NHH: What is a typical day in the workshop like for you?


LS: I do have a day job, so my time in the woodshop has to be efficient. I plan everything out ahead of time, so I usually have my to-do list. I think ahead of time, ‘If I knock these things off my to-do list, that would be great.’ Sometimes I’m able to do that, sometimes I’m not able to do that. Sometimes the day is very fulfilling, other days it’s frustrating. But that’s what’s cool about being in the shop—you can’t have the fulfillment without the frustration. It’s taken me a long time to learn that.

NHH: What are you working on with the New Hampshire Furniture Masters?


LS: I’ve been working with Leah Woods, who is another member of the Furniture Masters, on a prison outreach program at the state prison for women. We’re getting the woodworking program up and running there, as the group has done for the men’s prison. Now we’re just trying to figure out if we can do something remotely. The support from the community for that program has been enormous.

We have enough funding to buy all the tools, we have enough to have guest instructors. We just need to get in there.

NHH: What is the most rewarding part of your process?


LS: There’s a book by Mathew Crawford called “Shop Class as Soulcraft.” He says craft contains three essential ingredients for having a fulfilling life: autonomy, mastery and belonging. Those three areas really resonate for me. NHH

RESOURCE

Lynn Szymanski • lynnszymanski.com