Peter Falk

Peter Falk’s love of the outdoors and working with wood began at an early age.

“Spending time in the workshop began before my school years,” he says.  “Some of my earliest boyhood memories are at the workbench with my brother, carving dugout canoes for our GI Joes.”

His woodworking skills grew under his dad’s tutelage, and developed further through Indiana 4-H.  Mentored by local craftsmen, Peter later worked for an historical carpenter in Boston, and received instruction on design and sculpting with hand tools from a master carver/wood sculptor.

Today, from his Carroll County rural studio, Peter draws upon the landscape and native Indiana trees for inspiration and raw materials to build his furniture or create his artwork.

“While a painter uses oils and pigments to create a picture, as a wood artist I ‘paint’ with wood,” Peter explains.  “A tremendous variety of color, lines and patterns are naturally possible with the species and grains of wood.”

After selecting the rough wood, Peter is “very deliberate” about making the individual pieces he cuts from the board, making sure they match and flow from one section to the next.  His work includes furniture, children’s furniture, wooden trivets, boxes, trays, and chests.

Peter says his work is distinguished because:

1. His unique blending of the attributes of wood, its grains and colors.
2. His unique style of carving and incorporation of marquetry.
3. His work reflects the richness of a three-dimensional perspective in leaving open spaces and adding depth.
4. His work reflects inspiration drawn from his surrounding environment.

“My art is inspired by the creation around me,” he says.  “It might be a sunrise, the plowed fields, the ripples in water from a drop of rain. In my work, I am inspired by the lightness and flow of the open spaces around my home.”