Rick Knopke

Rick Knopke has been a professional furniture maker for well over forty years.
“I started decorating the things I make with marquetry about twenty-five years ago and soon found myself wanting to do nothing else.  The tortuous process of making marquetry is agreeable to me; the materials are brittle and generally intractable and there will usually be hundreds of pieces to wrangle into shape.  One has to be disciplined and patient.  There is inexhaustible scope for inventiveness.”- Rick Knopke
Modernism was the overarching cultural theme during my formative years, and I’ve always felt an affinity with Oriental sensibilities.  The exertion of these influences has, I’d say, caused me to lean away from the overly ornate tradition of wood marquetry towards ideas that are simpler and more primitive, more aligned with the primal urge to decorate the ceiling of the cave…