About Me

Well this is awkward... I'm a notorious introvert who loves nothing more than the peace that working with wood has brought me. However, I've been inspired by the sheer enjoyment I receive from my woodworking, the life-changing outlook it has offered me, and the very positive feedback from family and friends to share my story and the work that I've been able to create. I'm also running out of space for any more art and furniture!

My name is Jason. As a fire-fighter with the City of Toronto and approaching on nearly 17 years of career, I've accumulated my share of physical and mental scars. The physical scars were always easy to heal – rest, see my family doctor, go to the hospital, get physiotherapy… all obvious and well-established means of healing. So obvious that no one thinks twice about them. The mental scars, however, were a different beast entirely that I had neither the tools nor the experience to deal with. The scars kept accumulating within me until one day my metaphorical glass was simply full and overflowing badly. I didn't know how to deal with the thoughts and images that my brain kept serving to me repeatedly. I couldn’t escape them. The dark clouds chased me around during the day and through-out my dreams in such metastatic fashion that my grasp on simple happiness and normalcy no longer seemed tenable. This was turning into an all-out battle that I was woefully unprepared for and the collective of personal attempts at some sort of push-back were failing. This, in combination with two (at the time) long years of covid19 isolation with my family - an experience I know every single person reading this can relate to - led me to a very dark place. By early-winter I was on autopilot. I would describe my situation at the time as more existing than living. It was obvious to all who knew me that something wasn’t right. People cared - I simply didn't know what to say.

 

I can't even recall the specifics of how I stumbled into wood-working but on a particularly dark day for me, a day where the bottom seemed endless - I went to my barn, picked up an old and very dusty piece of wood (a beautiful cedar barn board dating from the barn's construction in 1920) and simply started to ‘work’ it. At that moment in time, I was able to live in the moment and be at peace – dare I say a bit of happiness washed over me. Working with the wood – the tactile feel and sound while planing it, the smooth, silky, cool aspect it has upon a thorough sanding, the endless opportunities it offers limited only by the imagination– even the smell of it - all of this seemed to have awakened me. As simple as that sounds - It's an experience I had never felt before. I have since discovered that this is referred to as "Flow" in the psychological world. It's the merging of action and awareness - I refer to it as 'living in the moment'.

 

So profound was the experience of ‘living in the moment’ that by the time I started experimenting with different projects and exploring new ideas – I started opening up to those closest to me. Talking, sharing, understanding – the peace brought on by woodworking and the  overall art work around it opened the door towards the feeling that the future had meaning, and a sense of peace that I had not felt in a long time.

 

The dramatic change offered me a completely new perspective on life. The dark shroud seemed to lift. Working with wood literally saved my life. As a result of this - every single piece of art I create, or piece of furniture I work on allows me to express myself in multiple ways - it has become my way of communicating with the world without the need to use words. When I am most focused on my work and am in the process of creating - I can feel my brain making sense of things and putting things to rest. I now happily spend hours a day when I’m home alone with my projects and continuously think of new ideas to explore - interrupted only by my dogs looking for attention or barking loudly as they defend my property from squirrels.

Having had numerous co-workers fall to the darkness and either can no longer work, or worse, have taken their lives, my goal is to use my woodworking skills and try to give back somehow. I've been fortunate enough that I have a career offering me mental health support and I currently work with an amazing psychologist who is helping me piece things together in such a way that I will hopefully never revisit the darkness. If it does, however, I’m learning how to use all the tools at my disposal and be in a better position to respond appropriately. Because of this good fortune, I want to donate a portion of the proceeds to local mental-health resources for people who are not able to pay for professional services.

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My end-goal is to somehow offer my time woodworking with people to help them live in the moment the way I did. I'm not sure when or how mind you - but I'll make it happen.

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Thank you for your interest in both my story, and in my creations!

 

Please contact me with any questions you have.