Article by Mark Feuring - October 2010
Ron Dekok is a master craftsman, who has embossed his craft with the trade of woodworking. He spins his parts of wood, builds his cabinets, and shapes his details of craft to a respected manner only a fine artist could tolerate. Ron has work which has encompassed the finest details of sanding, and shaping the wood to a high form of wood art. His cabinets show a great deal of tool use, and a fine skill with those parameters of the trade. Woodworking as a fine art is a high level of practice, like the skills of ceramics. Ron has a unique set of gallery pieces, which show in a fundamental format which define such a literary craft. The plates he has are spun with a high tone of wood, embossed in dark and light colors, with designs and finished with a natural tone of polish, that makes the pieces function as they are used, or just embellished to a high decree, to hang on a wall as a piece of decorative art. Ron makes cabinets that are built with edges that are toned with the inlay of different colors of wood. The look of the cabinets, and the size of the pieces built, could function with the style of multiple woodworks, in any given space of color. Ron Dekok shows his work with a contour of architectural elements, such as landscaping motifs, which are inspired in his pieces, with decorative wood inlaid patterns to show on a vivid detail of carpenter work. In 1994, Ron Dekok was commissioned by the Hillary Rodham Clinton Whitehouse Collection, for his woodwork. Ron Dekok received his BFA, and his MA from the University of Wisconsin, in Madison.
In carpentry the building craft of neatness is a tired, true element of skill and practice. Dekok pieces seem to encompass the top tier of woodworking craft. His pieces are functional, and adaptable, to the realm of what one would consider furniture. His parts and pieces are small, and subtle, while they hold a great deal of talent for the use of materials. Ron has shown the trade of the craft, that his work is above and beyond the use of tools, for his work shows the sculpture, and ease of the lineage of material mapping.
