WOOF WORKS STUDIO — Betsy Wolfston & Michael DeHaven
Betsy started Woof Works Studio 30 years ago in the same space she still occupies at 2nd and Blair in Eugene, Oregon. We have 70 years of combined professional artisanship between us in a variety of mediums. Everything we make is by hand - one of a kind - and we strive to express an intuitive, intimate, and contemplative sense in all our work. Our goal is for each piece to create a relationship with its audience through the senses as well as the emotions. We offer them to you as altars of love, memory, and connection.
Betsy Wolfston
she/her/hers
I make Art because it sings open the paths of my true voice of envisioning, repairing, and loving. I am a self taught artist and have been supporting myself through some form of my artwork for the last 30 years. I am an admirer of all fauna that runs, jumps, and flies (hair, fur, feather) and a deep lover of flora - especially the ones I cannot identify (leaf, flower, twig).
My glass is balanced, half full, half empty. I tend to the shadows and to the light.
I have a few vivid memories of the beginnings of my life as an artist. Drawing a landscape masterpiece in crayons for what seemed like hours on the inside of a door, yet being aware of the risk of getting in trouble for it and then having to clean it off. Being chosen to attend the ‘Tam O’Shanter’ Saturday morning Art Classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA. The same art classes that Andy Warhol had attended!
Thank you for your interest and support. It is an honor to spend my life’s vocation as an artist, student and educator.
Woof Works Studio - Clay Betsy Wolfston Resume
Michael DeHaven
he/him/his
I spent my early teenage years growing up in Hawaii. At the time, each eighth grade student was required to take a quarter of the school year course in cooking, a quarter of sewing, a quarter of metal shop and a quarter of wood shop. Being something of a book nerd I was surprised by how much I enjoyed wood shop (followed by sewing as a close second - I guess it was just the fact that my dad had a couple of woodworking machines that I didn’t end up a tailor). I loved the tools and the process - but mostly I loved the wood. I was intrigued I could take a rough board and turn it into a smooth, lustrous yet natural object.
None of those feelings have changed over the last fifty some years. The same thrill is there as the tool reveals the magnificence hidden in each chunk of spinning wood.
It was once said of my teacher, mentor, and friend James Krenov that his “preference is for calm, unpretentious objects that whisper lasting concern rather than demand quick attention.” This is what I am trying to express every day.
Woof Works Studio - Wood Michael DeHaven Resume
This video is an example of how the artisans at Woof Works Studio envision and create public art.
Art for Allen Hall - Oregon Arts Commission 1% for Public Art, University of Oregon, Eugene.
Art works by Woof Works Studio and Jeremy Okai Davis. Video by Ben Kitoko.