Making Meaning
Presented by Laura Mays
Laura Mays is an Irish woodworker, designer, and educator. Since 2011 she has been the program director and Leader Instructor of the Fine Woodworking program at The Krenov School at Mendocino College, formerly the College of the Redwoods in Fort Bragg CA. Mays has a degree in Architecture from University College Dublin and a Higher Certificate in Furniture Design and Manufacture from GMIT Letterfrack. She later Completed the Fine Woodworking program in College of the Redwoods in California and earned an MA in Design at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin.
Mays has exhibited internationally, and has work in private collections in the USA and Ireland as well as in the permanent collection of the National Museum of Ireland.
Mays has been working on a multi-year research project on diversity in the field of woodworking. In 2019 she co-curated Making a Seat at the Table: Women Transform Woodworking, a show at the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia. She is a contributor to the forthcoming book, written by Deirdre Visser titled Joinery, Joists, and Gender: a History of Woodworking for the 21st Century, that will be released by Routledge Press in March 2022.
Interview with Laura Mays
As a follow-up to Laura Mays’ presentation “Making Meaning,” Pierce College students ask questions about her processes, materials, motivations and real-world issues such as sustainability and recycling. Moderated by Pierce College Art Gallery Director Constance Kocs.