Katie Hudnall: Longest Distance Between Two Points
The Museum for Art in Wood hosts Katie Hudnall, a fine furniture maker with a background in art and illustration.
Mar 14, 2025
I recently had the privilege of visiting the Museum of Art in Wood, located in Philadelphia’s Old City neighborhood. I’ve been there several times over the past two years, but this visit was special. Katie Hudnall’s work has been an inspiration to me for years, and I got to meet Katie for coffee at a little cafe next door before we walked through her show. We chatted about the challenges of creating kinetic furniture, her love for screws over wood glue, and the logistics of moving her large pieces and installing them in the museum.
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Katie’s ability to blend heart, vision, and technicality into her pieces is apparent in all her work, but this cabinet really tied the show together. The largest piece of the show, “A Cabinet for Lost and Found Things” is a collection of drawers that house objects found on walks in Philadelphia, Madison, Milwaukee, and other cities. Strings are attached to the drawers, and when one of the drawers is opened, the string lifts the fin of the sail that is mounted to the wall behind it. Katie explained that the spring tension allowed only a certain length of string and an exact 8 in. of travel to allow the mechanism to work properly. From the execution of joinery to the hand-painted eyes, which were revealed underneath each sail, her work is both distinct and finely executed. The pieces housed in the cabinets are an homage to her childhood hobby of beachcombing the shores of Madison. All five individual cabinets are named after women in her family. The large cabinets are Ruby, Pearl, and Opal, and the two connecting cabinets are Dot and Bet.
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I was pleased to find hints of a similar labeling system in her other pieces, like Symbiosis #4: Drawings & Drawers, where I found matching numbers that aligned the “billboards” to their respective drawers. Even the makers marks show evidence of a strong background in illustration; every single detail is intentional.
After browsing the show, I sat in and listened to Katie’s in-depth conversation about the exhibition, where she explained the concepts behind her body of work, shared where she gathers inspiration, and reflected on the personal triumphs reflected through her pieces and perspective. I had a hard time putting my finger on the exact words for the feelings evoked in understanding the narrative and dedication behind her work when a woman in the crowd raised her hand: “I want to compliment your work, but I also want to tell you I’m grateful for your generosity.” Katie Hudnall’s work is something you must see in person to completely appreciate, though I hope I can provide just a peek into how wonderful it is. I knew the exact words upon leaving: grateful and inspired.
Comments
I have a new woodworking hero and her name is Katie Hudnall.
In 1973, I was in third grade. That was the year I was introduced to woodworking by making a pinewood derby car and also a sandpiper. I also spent two weeks that year with the chickenpox … in my room, listening to am radio and imaging and making all sorts of whimsical things that could be actuated by strings pulled from my bed: opening a door, a drawer, a toy soldier running down a zip line.
Thank you, Katie, for realizing such incredible, dream-inspired artwork in wood that instantly brought me back to this time! Reminders that it’s OK, maybe even preferable, for our woodworking (and ourselves) to just be.
Interesting work if your into modern art, but I fail to see why this is in Fine Woodworking. Perhaps a art website would be a better fit.
Katie used wood and crafted it with her hands. All done with great accuracy. In my eyes, it most certainly belongs here.
It looks like fine woodworking to me.
Just goes to show the limitless (and wackiness) of the human imagination.
This is great! As an amateur, I sometimes struggle to find a new project, as we have pretty much all the furniture we need. But the itch to make lovely bits of hardwood do something new hasn't diminished. Drawers that open drawings? Little propellors? Hmm... gets me thinking. Thanks for including this!
Love it! How fun to open drawers and see eyes look at you. Fine woodworking at it's funnest. What an incredibly talented lady.
"...We stopped and tables and chairs... Now what do we need furniture for?" Wow! Wonderfully fresh ideas. Very, very interesting. Thank you for blogging this.
a small ask: add a Byline, for articles in the first-person, "I recently had the privilege of visiting the Museum of Art in Wood... " - a reader may be curious, who is I?
Haha, thanks for the reminder, it was me!
No amount of my imagination could ever conceive any of this, nor do I want it to and now I realize I don't have to, because artists like Katie are doing it for me....thank God.
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