About the Artist

Al Fried was born in New York, graduated from CCNY as a chemical engineer and has lived in Ohio, Los Angeles, and Key West, Florida. He has always dabbled in art as a hobby and has painted, carved, sculpted and wood-turned most of his life. However, after settling in the foothills of Appalachian Kentucky amid the lush hardwood forests, he started turning wood in earnest. It is always a source of amazement to him when the interior of a piece of wood is exposed and various grains, faults, spaltings, and colors are revealed for the first time. He enhances the natural effects contained within each specimen by using different coatings, tailor-made to enrich and deepen the colors and figure of the wood. The final shapes which he creates on the lathe are designed to display the natural beauty of the wood. No two pieces can ever be exactly the same.

Al is a member of Sheltowee Artisans, based in Somerset, KY. Sheltowee holds an annual show at the Center for Rural Development in Somerset. For further information about the annual Art Show, click here.

His work is also displayed at the Kentucky Art & Craft Foundation Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky.

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