La Sombra Del Ébano

decided to leave the town of Candelaria where he was born and raised, to go to Mexico City to seek his fortune. He came back to settle on the coast in 1978 after a long period of working and traveling in practically every state of the Mexican Republic as a carpenter and cabinetmaker. During his time outside of Oaxaca he learned from many masters of the trade, so he brought back with him many techniques and an ample knowledge of wood. Paco's life as a serious woodworker started when he was 17. He left school and started helping with jobs in the family shop, a small distance outside of the town of Puerto Angel. He learned in a couple of years all the basic skills of carpentry and cabinetmaking. The most important thing he learn learned from his father was how to work honestly: that everything he did he should do with integrity. Off course he also taught him how to use electric tools (router, planer, and table saw included) but most importantly never abandon the use of hand tools like the chisel and hand planer. Francisco loved wood (the variety of its colors and forms) and related to it as a material with flexibility and potential since he was very young. But he wouldn’t fall in love with crafting and creating with wood until later in his adult life. In his twenties, he began to grow more restless and wanted to be exposed to more ideas and do more creative work. His family had no money to pay for his studies but he found a way to live in the city of Oaxaca, where he began studying art. He supported himself through odd jobs and started with drawing and painting classes as well as learning about art history: things that he later found useful when he went back to working with wood. After two years of studying at the “Bellas Artes de Oaxaca” he fcame to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to be a fine artist, not a painter anyway. He knew that he would still have to work as a cabinetmaker and carpenter to make a living, but neither was this going to fulfill him completely. He had really started to think differently about making and I went back to working with wood with the drive to find ways of integrating the simplicity of form and line that he loved in modern sculpture, and also it’s monumental nature, into the designing and crafting of wood furniture. At the same time he sought to respect the specific organic nature of the wood, or piece of wood, he would be using and to include these specifics when embarking upon the design process. He came to this point quite naturally where it wasn’t enough anymore to just make something well, with integrity, as his father had taught him. "I wanted to make furniture that felt artistic and alive," and that became his goal and vision.