Ashland, OR
 

mail@mrstudio.com

Mark Rehmar's university training was in the sciences (mathematics). His first design experience was in designing and building homes. Mark was asked to design a new home for a former construction customer. After spending several months studying design, art, architecture and related material, the house was designed and constructed. Mark then discovered that the house “worked” as intended; not only physically, but emotionally or spiritually in helping the residents pattern their days as they had desired. Mark was hooked.

In 1985, after several other residential projects, Mark began designing and building custom furniture, largely to be able to work in a medium that allowed greater personal connection with both the entire process and the finished object. Shortly after, he began also making boxes and other accessory items, enjoying the challenge of creating such fine objects with efficiency.

Mark found a deep connection between his early studies and his present endeavors: “Design and theoretical physics are the two most conceptually difficult disciplines I have encountered. The way of thinking in both areas, though different in content, is very similar; both take the same ability to use both side of the brain in harmony to create a successful solution.”

Wood as a medium also presents an additional challenge and pleasure. Each piece has its own vastly intricate pattern of grain, color, and figure, which Mark must understand in order to find its best use. For Mark, “Each day in workshop I'm presented with the joy of this constant series on puzzles to solve.”

In designing his jewelry boxes, Mark wanted to create a piece that was both highly functional and also made it's own design statement. The entire box is constructed to be a series of frames around this wonderfully figured burl veneer top panel, first in the frame of the lid itself, and then in the way the lid rests inside the body of the box itself.

His treasure boxes, rather than being functional jewelry boxes, are intended to hold one or more special objects for their owner.

Mark presently lives on a 22 acre homestead in the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon, where the forests and mountains form a backdrop for his work.