Integral

A great deal of my work is being done with a CNC machine — a big dumb robot holding a router that does exactly what I tell it to. This tool represents a confluence of so many of my accumulated skills and interests, as well as a seamless integration of agrarian, industrial, and informational technologies. When I am programming my machine to do its work, it sort of feels like I’m teaching a robot to do mudras. It certainly feels that way while watching it do its thing — sacred movements and rituals performed with repeatable precision, down to the thousandth of an inch. This is why I named my studio Vision Logix Woodworks — because my process brings together both hemispheres of art and engineering, symbolism and science, semiotics and robotics. My goal is essentially to take these many illustrations and diagrams that have generated so much meaning for us, to make them as beautiful as possible, and to give people an opportunity to bring a unique piece of integral art into their homes. When it comes to my actual creative process, there is a subtle feeling of pulling something “down” out of abstract ideation, and through multiple increasingly-dense layers — meaning, math, measurement, emotion, sensuality, etc. So there is definitely a feeling of embodiment happening, in my own body as well as in the artifact

itself. I’m tempted to say it makes the idea more “real” for me, but that’s not quite right — it just makes it more visible and visceral. Taking it into the muscle. I use a very wide variety of rare, exotic, and ethically-sourced woods in my art. Working with these different materials has dramatically deepened my appreciation for wood itself. Trees are some of the most fascinating and fundamental organisms on this planet (see below for some fun facts about trees you can share at your next Zoom party!) Every unique tree has a unique story, and that story is encoded into the physical structure

of the tree itself. Every year the tree’s growth and struggles and successes are documented, each new cycle transcending and including the last. We can see the story in the grain, in the rings, and in the flesh of the wood. When we cut into a fallen tree, we are cutting into that story. And when we do, we see a unique thumbprint cross-section of that tree’s life and history — all those knots and patterns and colors are communicating to us in a language we cannot possibly understand, but whose beauty and wisdom continues to speak to us. When I am working on a piece, what I am actually doing is imprinting my idea or vision into the meat of an organism that has its own unique history and story to tell, which I need to enfold into the story of whatever piece it is that I am trying to create. There’s a strange intersection where the story I am “pulling down” meets the story of the wood itself, which is “reaching up” to meet the idea and the design. One story is flowing down from the vision — out of the casual, into the subtle, and into the gross. And the other is flowing up from the medium itself — out of the gross, into the subtle, and then into the causal. These two stories need to be able to harmonize, intertwine, and complement each other. Which is why finding the perfect piece of wood for the piece I am working on is such a fun, fulfilling, and often challenging part of the process. Thank you for taking a look at my Vision Logix gallery. And if there are any pieces here that you would like to commission (or any other ideas for that matter!), you can feel free to contact me at corey@integrallife.com.