Evelyn Jacob
SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

RANCIS LEMIEUX

can’t understand why

peopie are willing to
spend exorbitant sums ona
car that will last five, maybe
10 years, but only peanuts
ona hand-made chair or
bed that should fast a life-
time.

“Sometimes,” the dark-haired
chattel-maker says, ‘I think peo-
ple just don’t value furniture.
Homes these days are just real
estate ~ most people don’t think
of where they live as anything
permanent,

“A lot of commercial fur-
niture,”” he continues, “is in-
crediably ugly and makes poor use
of the material.

“But unlike Europeans, who
grow up with hand-made things,
people here have no art heritage;
they grew up with the Eaton’s cat-
alogue. It’s unfortunate because
what it’s done is made them {cel

- intimidated by things that require
them to appreciate the design.”

Lemieux’s lean, angular furniture
— some of which is currently on
display at the Seymour Art
Gallery’s Design for Living Exhibit
~ doesn’t require you appreciate
its design, it demands it.

His sharp planes, smooth curves,
well-defined lines and slopes make
for stylishly urbane pieces of func-
tional art in the tradition of Frank
Lloyd Wright and Shaker Fur-
niture, which rejected ornamenta- .
tion in favor of simple, strong,
plain joined furniture.

Working mainly with domestic
hardwoods, Lemieux’s finishings
range from cool teal blue and
warm canary yellow paint to a
steely looking graphite. And
though he generally shuns expen-
sive wood, he loves using exotic

Suchen ran rey pag meee ne ee ete

NEWS photo Mei! Lucente

ARTIST-CRAFTSMAN Francis Lemieux's grili-like minimalist furniture is currently on display at the
Seymour Art Galiery as part of the Design for Living exhibit.

hits of timber for added detail, like
ebony for cabinet handles and.
door knobs.

Style is so important that,
depending on the piece of fur-
niture, it often takes precedence
over both comfort and practicality.

A medieval-inspired high-backed
stained hardwood chair, tor ex-
ample, isn’t for the tender-skinn-
ed: more than 100 tiny wooden
spikes protrude sideways from
slender slats that form the chair's
back, But as an objet d'art itisa
stunning piece of craftsmanship.

“Comfort is really important
when it comes to a chair. Then
again I've also made things that
are really uncomfortable but look
great,’ Lemieux says sheepishly.

Lemieux says his designs don’t
differ much from arts and crafts-
style furniture, the late 19th cen-
tury school that revived an interest
in simple, hand-made furnishings.

“There's a lot of attention to
proportion but it’s not excessive. |

don’t have an obsession with ex-

ing a docent is fun, educational
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pensive exotic wood.”

And for good reason. People
could never afford it at the prices
he would have to charge.

As it stands now, Lemieux is in a
bind because if he wholesales to
retail outlets the stores’ mark-up
would effectively double the price
of his furniture.

{t's a constant battle not to pro-
duce wark that is ridiculously ex-
pensive, he says (he recently
started manufacturing accessories

for under $100; his latest invention
is a wooden zig-zag-shaped com-
pact disc rack).

Which is why, for the last 10
years or so, he's been something
of a one-man band, making and
selling furniture to customers di-
rectly from his 2,500 square foot
East Esolanade Street studio which
he shares with three millworkers.

But if you go, don’t expect to
find a showroom. The day of our
interview, chairs were crammed

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&4 A lot of
commercial furniture
is incredibly ugly and
makes poor use of the

material. 99

— Francis Lemieux

into overhead shelves and the odd
cabinet hidden in the back room
beneath large sheets of plastic,

Lemieux admits the lack of
showroom space has made it that
much more difficult to sell his
work. Up to this point, he has had
to rely mainly on word-of-mouth
customer recommendations and
the exposure he has garnered from
gallery and museum exhibits, in-
cluding the Toronto Virtu Design ©
Competition and the Canadian
Craft Museum’s inaugural show.

(Among his more elaborate
projects was the completion, on
and off over five years, of all the
interior furnishings of a West Van-
couver mansion),

Despite the inhospitable climate
for the custom-made market,
Lemieux has held his ground fo
10 years. ;

And as the economy lurches out’
of recession, he can look forward
to people forsaking their orange
plastic Dairyland crates for real
furniture again.

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