Rago Auctions

Since 1970, American artist J. Paul Fennell has been woodturning with a focus on hollow forms. Fennell grew up on the coast north of Boston and has noted that his “earliest memories of woodworking were that of sawing and nailing scraps of wood cutoffs together in my dad’s basement workshop.” He was fascinated with how things worked and would go on to earn both a BA and MA in Engineering from Ohio State University and the University of Southern California, respectively.

Mostly self-taught, he first began turning wood as a hobby while working as an engineer on the Apollo space program in California in an effort to balance the rigors of engineering with his desire to work with his hands. Fennell developed an impressive body of work focusing on the vessel form, which he explores in a variety of themes including the natural world, patterns, and architecture. For him, the vessel is endlessly intriguing because it is a “common artifact of humanity, timeless and ubiquitous culturally.”

Fennell has been a member of the American Association of Woodturners since 1986 and a member of the Arizona Woodturners Association since 1993, and has demonstrated at numerous symposia and organizations, both local and international. His impeccably designed and exquisitely executed creations have brought him well-deserved recognition both within and outside of the woodturning field, and his work resides in numerous private collections, and several museums, including the Smithsonian, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Philadelphia Art Museum, and the Peabody-Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts.