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Meet the Artist: Furniture maker, Cindy Vargas  Making
Furniture Dance
As a young girl, Cindy Vargas was a dance student who
dreamed of one day becoming a dancer or choreographer. While she pursued dance
into her early 20s, Vargas has since found a different -- albeit unusual -- way
to express her creative passion of movement and music: furniture making.
Cabinet is made with mahogany and silk.
| "I
really wanted to be a dancer, but ultimately pursued a more academic course of
study at the University of Minnesota," Cindy said. "After several years
working as an administrator, I decided to return to school to study the visual
arts and woodworking." The
42-year-old Vargas, whose work has been displayed in exhibitions and galleries
throughout the country, draws on her background in dance when she designs furniture.
Much of her work is sculptural, using form and gesture to create unique, evocative
pieces.
Into the Dance is made with Mahogany, Fabric
41" x 70" x
25"
| "There's
such a connection between the human form and furniture," Cindy said. "I
love exploring line and shape, and the relationships they create within a space."
The
sculptural style of the Los Angeles-based Vargas is clearly evident in two sets
of dance-inspired chairs she designed, Into the Dance and We Bop, Bebop.
We Bop Bebop is made with Koto, Fabric 39" x 23" x 25"
| Into
the Dance is in the style of Art Deco-era furniture, and is made of mahogany with
fine upholstery fabrics. Inspired by "big band music, the foxtrot, tuxedos
and ball gowns, Into the Dance is a tribute to this fabulous era," Cindy
said. "It was a challenge to capture the gesture and movement. I spent a
lot of time working on how to convey she was leading him."
Quilt
Cabinet
Another defining element in much of Vargas'
work is her use of fiber arts. She often combines wood with hand-dyed, hand-printed
textiles, such as the impressive Cabinet, mahogany and silk. The chest of drawers
has a hand-dyed silk facade, with about 20 different color swatches pieced together.
| We
Bop, Bebop takes its cues from the 1950s boomerang shape that was popular in furniture
and modern art. The upholstery and shapes of the chairs are dynamic and evocative
of jazz music and Latin dance. "I think of these chairs as two women out
for a night of dancing and laughing," Cindy said. "They have big, sensuous
legs. It's very feminine." The
dance-inspired chairs are "very eye-catching and very unusual," Cindy
said. "I get a great response when I show them. One of the biggest thrills
for me is when I'm doing a show and someone is walking toward my booth and they're
laughing at what they see. Little kids come up and say, 'Look, Mommy, dancing
chairs!' It's very gratifying." Working
in the fiber arts is "really a nice contrast to woodworking," Cindy
said. "Woodworking is very noisy and dusty, and physically taxing. The fabric
work is very relaxing and quiet. I like combining the two."
Vargas first
got her start in woodworking while growing up in a suburb of Minneapolis. "My
father is an architectural draftsman, and his dad before him was a carpenter,
so we had a tradition of woodworking and design in the family," she said.
In eighth
grade, in the mid-1970s, Cindy enrolled in shop classes, which was somewhat groundbreaking
at the time. "That was the first year they started letting girls take shop
classes," Cindy said. "I and two other girls took woodworking and architectural
drafting. It was kind of intimidating, but it was also rewarding. I was inclined
to do something out of the ordinary." Continue
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