My full(er) post on Nancy can be found here.
Inspiration: My mother used tools but had no training or anything. But at least I had this example of someone who was changing the plumbing. She built us a playhouse when my sister and I were little. Things like that.
Why cabinet making? I decided I was going to have to find some way to live that would combine earning a living with some way that I could afford to have furniture and stuff because I was very very poor in those days (after high school) and I couldn’t afford to buy anything. I mean, literally, buying a jar of mustard every few weeks seemed that a real luxury.
First job: My first professional job was in the shop of a guy with a great eye for design who was working on old stuff in an old building.
To do this job right: You have to be guided by the house itself.
Can read and write: Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Aramaic.
Favorite philosopher: Canadian Charles Taylor is a contemporary Aristotelian who really emphasized the importance of things you can’t put your finger on — they’re there and you can’t justify them without somehow bringing them forth and recognizing them.
On dealing with the monotony of sanding cabinets: There’s something in your brain, where you just somehow – I can’t help thinking that part of it is physical – you somehow develop a cognitive or even a synaptic ability to not need to be stimulated all the time. It’s quasi-meditative in a way.
Pleasure: Being able to distance myself from the work a little and look at the process and think, it is so interesting the way you create, all these different people and end up creating such different spaces.
