I have been designing and making furniture from the late 60s to the present. It is one passion in my life that has been a constant. I have academic training in furniture design but my primary career has been in the private practice of psychotherapy. I have run my furniture design/consulting business as a part time venture alongside my psychotherapy practice. Both of these activities have the capacity to cause frustration and anguish in the practitioner as well as a sense of centeredness and bliss. It is for those moments that I am both blessed and thankful.
Wessels studied furniture design at Virginia Commonwealth University and at Penland School of Crafts. He received a fine arts grant from the Virginia Museum to execute a series of furniture forms that were psychologically and spiritually inspired, The Secular Icon Series.
I have considered art furniture to be unnecessary if all one seeks is a place to sit, eat or lie down. One buys art furniture because it adds more than pure function to their environment. Building on this notion, some years ago I attempted to develop a series of pieces with elements that drew on Jungian or spiritual themes such as a balance in life, transcendence and self-awareness. I called this series Secular Icons. I was fortunate at the time to receive a grant from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that enabled me to build most of the pieces and show them in a number of venues. Since then, my work has taken numerous paths, but the influence of secular icons always lurks in the background.
Tom is nationally recognized and his work has been exhibited in Museums and galleries around the country including the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Hermitage Museum; Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC; Mark Milliken Gallery, New York City; Arts and Architectural Design Gallery, Baltimore, MD; and Sansar Gallery, Washington, D. C.
Wessells furniture has appeared in several editions of The Biennial Design Book published by “Fine Woodworking Magazine” and “Southern Living Magazine.” Wessells furniture was featured in two books by Main Street Press, Modern Style and Portable Furniture. It was included in an article featuring famous studio furniture makers in “Metropolis” New York’s Architectural & Design Magazine. In addition to “Portfolio Magazine” and “Baltimore Magazine” Wessells furniture was featured in “Inform, Architecture Design,” “The Arts,” a magazine of the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects.
