Brian Newell

Though Brian Newell has been working with wood since he was a child, his love of the work has remained constant. “I try to make something beautiful that people like and that does not require an owner’s manual. My pieces should be simple enough for anyone to respond to and understand. I want people to look at my pieces and feel connected to something, and if that is different for each person, so much the better. If everyone has the same visceral reaction to a piece, and it reminds everyone of the same thing, then that’s a total failure.” Newell lives and works in Fort Bragg, Calif., where he has renovated a large dairy barn into his shop space and is working on turning the old milk house into living space.