I am Roberto Ferrer

A wood artist, a woodturner, a demonstrator, a teacher, a husband, a father...but most importantly I am a person who is passionate about art and wants to share this passion through my work.

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My Story

I was born and raised in Mexico, where I was surrounded by art and crafts from the early age.While drawing and painting were part of my everyday life, the love for wood as a medium was born in the childhood when I used to visit my cousin's wood shop. But it was the colonial and baroque style architecture in my hometown that sparked the desire to one day be able to create sculptural work.

My natural curiosity of knowing how things are built and how mechanisms work led me to explore different jobs such as construction, auto mechanics, body shop among other things. In my mid twenties I started carving sculptural bowls and vessels using a limited number of handheld power tools. Although the results were somewhere satisfactory, it was hard on my body and time consuming as well. And this is what eventually led me to pursue woodturning as a way of removing wood in a more efficient manner and to lay the base for the sculptural work I currently create.

In July 2019 I received a Professional Outreach Program Excellence Award at the Symposium organized by AAW. My work was featured in the AAW journal in August 2019 as well as the October issue of the same year. In 2020 I was among the invited artists for the Professional Outreach Program Exhibition, where I presented a sculpture with my own interpretation of Quetzalcoatl.

In recent years I am invited to demonstrate at local woodturning clubs and to teach in woodworking schools. I also provide online demonstrations worldwide. Since 2018 I have taken part in multiple fine art shows where he has received several awards including outstanding achievement, best of category as well as best of the show. My work now lives in major private collections across the US and Europe.

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Creation of my work

If you are reading this, very likely you saw my work, and now are wondering how long it takes for me to complete one piece. Before we continue, I would like to invite you to read until the end, as you might also get some insight into what it takes for me to create my work.
I will start by saying that I make art because of the simple reason that it completes my life. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had the desire of expressing myself through art. The work that you see now is a progression of lifelong experimentation, study, research, disappointment, practice, and joy when the piece is finished. Having an idea is not enough to successfully complete the piece. You must also have the skill and an understanding of the medium in order to translate your ideas into reality.

I’ve had to acquire the necessary tools that help me in the sculpting process. In some cases, the tool or fixture I need is not available and I have to fabricate it myself. In other cases, I must learn how to use certain tools or techniques in order to improve my work or to achieve the quality I seek. It is true that by now I might be able to finish a piece in a matter of days or a handful of hours. But to get to that point I have spent years practicing and perfecting my technique.
And as you can see now, my dear friend, I do not really concern myself with how long it takes me to complete a piece. I simply rejoice to do what I can in order to create quality work for the world to enjoy. And just like any working artist I also need art lovers' support to continue with my creations.