Sage 50. May 2, 2016 - The sensuous curves and subtle walnut grain of Maloof's rocker just seem. The legendary California woodworker and furniture maker, said this. 2 Quotes about Rocker; 3 External links. Essence of life, the impelling force in all intellectual and social development, the creator of every new outlook for the.

One of Maloof’s coveted, donated in 1997 to the by Roger and Frances Kennedy, gracefully displays this ideal combination of beauty and utility. Its sensuous curves and subtle walnut grain just seem to beckon and say “Come on in a sit a while.” Maloof said he hoped his furniture had a soul to it, and the soul of this piece is instantly apparent. No other piece of furniture is as human as a chair, since it echoes the shape of a sitting person, and Maloof chairs show clearly the human touch. Maloof hand-made every one of the more than 5,000 or so pieces that came out of his studio in Alta Loma, California. According to, a curator of the the museum's, the artist had a few assistants over the years, but he did all the major work himself. He made chairs that seem as alive and organic as the wood he used to make them.

In 1985, Maloof became the first craftsman to be with a MacArthur “genius” Grant, a signal honor, but on his business card he referred to himself simply as “Woodworker.” And now honoring the centennial of the artist’s birth, the, a museum in Alta Loma, is featuring more than 60 objects including furniture, drawings, photographs and other ephemera from the artist’s storied career. The in Washington, D.C., in collaboration with the Maloof Foundation, will host a one-day symposium, September 16, 2016, to examine furniture design and production in light of changes brought about by the digital age. A centennial celebration of the renowned craftsman is underway at the Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation of Arts and Crafts in Alta Loma, California. (Maloof Foundation) Maloof in 1916 in Chino, California, to parents who were immigrants from Lebanon. He took his first woodworking classes at Chafee High School in Ontario, and began to make furniture when he and his wife bought a house but lacked the money to buy furniture. So, as is so often the case, the mother of his first inventions was necessity. For the pieces he made for his home, his raw materials were discarded plywood and packing crates, not a woodworker’s dream material, but plentiful and free.

From the beginning, Maloof learned as he went along, by doing. As he said when he was a well-established master furniture maker, “Many times, I do not know how a certain area is to be done until I start working with a chisel, rasp, or whatever tool is needed for a particular job.” His pieces for his own house appealed to friends who visited, and soon Maloof was being asked to replicate them for sale to people he knew. Then came a request from, the renowned industrial designer who gave shape to such iconographic household appliances as the Singer sewing machine and the Hoover vacuum cleaner.