MICHAEL WALKER – ARTIST STATEMENT
From my first hammer at three, the simple mechanics of objects have fascinated me. It is as if there is a cry from the object itself that ignites a fervent desire, driving me to solve, to simplify. It is a problem I grab onto like a shark at feeding and cannot release until the appetite is satiated.
Why I centered on the folding knife is a question that still mystifies me. The form lends itself to mechanical and industrial design, craftsmanship and in the end, art. The combination compels me to embrace the form.
I love making the tools and redesigning the old machinery in my shop, re-purposing them into what I need to render the knife. So, the knife begins in the tools and machinery and ends in the skill of my hands and experience.
What keeps it all fresh is that I really don't know what the end product is going to look like until it is finished. The process is organic, fighting beneath my hands and will until it emerges whole. When I tire of this, I make a sculpture or two and then I am ready to do battle again.
Summing it up takes just five words....I like to make things
It was the mid-70's when I found myself living at 9000 feet in a geodesic dome I built in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. I was carving out a living making jewelry and selling firewood. So when the knife bug bit, I built a small log cabin workshop, 8 by 16 feet, over the summers of '78 and '79 and moved in my silver-smithing tools and a small belt grinder. On January 1, 1980, I walked into the studio, built a fire in the woodstove, and said, "Today I am a knifemaker".
My work was guided solely by trial and error and eventually, I had ten straight knives. I fully enjoyed the knife-making process, but doing the leather scabbards for those 10 knives was not enjoyable at all. So, from that point on, I made only folding knives.
Trial and error is a very slow learning process, but it does breed innovation and discovery. Fast forward 38 years, and I still rely on trial and error to build that next new locking system, to create from a new material, and to inspire a new design. The excitement of the unknown discovery is what keeps me going today.