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Lawrence Favorite in his studio, c. 2017
Photo source and © Alamance News
The Sonoran Desert Ironwood Tree (Olneya tesota)
Photo source and © Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
A beautiful contemporary sculptural vase of Sonoran Desert Ironwood elaborately inlaid with a Zuni-style silver bear figure and abstract turquoise panels by Lawrence Favorite
In our forty or so years in business, this is the latest of our very tiny number of “Favorite” pieces, only the fourth
piece of contemporary wood artist Lawrence Favorite’s (b.1940's) extraordinary wood sculptures that we have ever
had. Favorite’s pieces aren’t easy to come by because they aren't easy to make and he doesn’t make very many.
Lawrence Favorite began his artistic career in Arizona in the late 1970's working with local materials; Sonoran Desert Ironwood, turquoise and occasionally silver and other stones. He has since relocated to North Carolina, but continues to work in his Southwestern idiom with exclusively Southwestern materials.
This sculptural vase is a remarkably sophisticated and difficult to make piece. First off, Sonoran Desert Ironwood, Favorite’s material of choice from which he makes all of his pieces, is one of the hardest, densest and most difficult woods to work with. It is one of the heaviest woods in the world and unlike most woods will not float on water, sinking instead due to its extreme weight. It is also extremely durable and can last up to 1,600 years. Lawrence Favorite’s elaborate stone inlay work is also extremely painstaking and precise sometimes involving hundreds of tiny pieces of
stone. Favorite uses a jeweler’s loupe to place the tiny inlay pieces into the wood which he says he grinds up to an extreme fineness using an old garbage disposal.
The vase’s shape is just stunning with a sloping curvilinear form which beautifully highlights the complex grain
of the ironwood. The vase rises up to a narrow thin neck and small spout. One side of the vase is decorated with
a beautifully inlaid Zuni Pueblo style profiled silver "Heartline" bear figure which is itself inlaid with a turquoise
"Heartline", the vessel’s other side features an extraordinarily elaborate large abstract inlay curvilinear composition
composed of perhaps two to three hundred very tiny pieces of turquoise which beautifully emphasizes the shape
and height of the vessel and the grain of the wood. Scattered about the entire vessel are around ten very narrow
“strands” of additional turquoise inlay which give the effect of softly falling rain. The color contrasts between the
deep, dark reddish-brown of the ironwood and the bright, highly-polished silver bear and the vibrant sky blue of the
turquoise areas is exceptionally vivid and extremely beautiful.
“It’s very time consuming, the wood is extremely hard; normal woodworking
tools won’t cut it. Other woods are soft, I wanted something that would last.”
-Lawrence Favorite
Taken altogether, the decorative composition of the silver and turquoise inlays is visually striking and absolutely stunning. In a final and inspired decorative touch, Favorite has placed a small area of a much lighter part of the wood
at one side of the vase and the extreme contrast and sharp juxtaposition between this lighter blond wood color and the primary deep brown of the desert ironwood is simply marvelous and puts the proverbial "cherry" on the top of the artistic sundae so to speak.
This particular combination of ironwood, silver and turquoise material and colors has long fascinated great Southwestern jewelry artists such as world-renowned Hopi jeweler, Charles Loloma (1921-1991) and the outstanding
Navajo silversmith, Kenneth Begay (1913-1977) both of whom worked extensively with ironwood, silver and turquoise
in combination. We should also take a moment to mention the remarkable overall polishing on the vessel; the entire surface is satiny and incredibly smooth and a joy to touch.
This vase is the largest of the four Favorite vases we have had, measuring a very impressive 17 3/8" in height and is 7"
wide at its widest point and 2 1/2" in depth at its deepest point. It weighs an impressive five pounds, nine ounces, just over five and one-half pounds pounds; a testament to the density and weight of the Desert Ironwood. The vase is in excellent original condition and it is properly signed “L. Favorite” on the bottom.
This marvelous sculptural vase is a modern, classic, exotic combination of beautiful and unique Southwestern materials, textures and colors all contained in a wonderful and unique organic shape. It would look just as impressive and perfectly at home in a Modernist Mies van ver Rohe high-rise apartment in Chicago or New York as it would in a modest adobe home
in Santa Fe, Tucson or Santa Barbara.
Price $2,450
