There are collectors for whom the aesthetic is all. An object must be from a certain time period or fit a particular style profile. It must have a certain perceived value. John Hill isn’t a collector of “stuff.” He doesn’t know how many pieces are in the woodturning collection he houses at his Weaverville home, although he is sure it represents work by over several hundred artists. He doesn’t think about the monetary value of the work. This collection is personal. “When I turn on the lights in the morning, it’s like all my friends are here,” he says.
Among those friends are Jean-Francois Escoulen, a French woodturner who is considered one of his country’s preeminent artists and has also served as Hill’s mentor; California woodturner Mike Mahoney; Bill Luce, a well known artist from Washington state; and Giles Gilson, an artist who in the 1980s was one of the first turners to use color on wood. There are also artists who are lesser known and some who are considered “emerging.” But they are all people with whom Hill has formed a lasting personal connection. “It’s not really about the work,” he says, although he appreciates and values every aspect of it. “It’s about the person who made it.”
The pieces in Hill’s collection vary widely in shape and form. Many, if not most, are sculptural rather than functional. There are minimalist, contemporary works; large and tiny pieces; materials that range from madrone (a somewhat rare wood) to birch to cherry, and processes that may include carving, burning, dyeing, or bending. From a small wooden egg made from over 2,500 separate strips of wood to a series of nesting bowls that look almost as if they are made of paper that’s been burned along the edges, the breadth of form in Hill’s collection is vast. Some pieces are whimsical or express a sense of humor while others appear to be conceptual. But at some point, each work was turned on a lathe. And at one time, Hill met the artist and bonded with him or her over a shared love of the art.
A tall, lanky Texan, Hill retired early from a career in commercial real estate in New Orleans in 1987 and moved to Weaverville along with his wife, Patti, a well known basketmaker and member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. It was at one of the Guild’s semi-annual craft fairs that he had an encounter that he says changed his life. A wood turner was “knee deep in shavings” doing a demonstration in one of the back corners. After watching and asking him questions for two hours, Hill left the fair as a new convert to woodturning.
Hill doesn’t do things halfway. He began turning wood himself, taking classes and later serving as an assistant for Escoulen and 25 other artists at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg. He formed the Carolina Mountain Woodturners, the Asheville chapter of the American Association of Woodturners (and still its largest chapter). He served on the national association’s board for several years and still volunteers as an auctioneer at the association’s annual auctions. Hill chooses faculty for symposia and mentors up-and-coming artists. Because of his many contributions, the association bestowed on him an honorary lifetime membership in 2011, an honor only one of the association’s 15,000 members receives each year. He’s currently on the Association’s Board of Advisors.
Hill’s collection started around 1999 with a piece by local turner Owen Burley and grew as he encountered more and more friends in the woodturning world.
His commitment to woodturning runs strong and deep, but it’s not his only passion. He’s been a master beekeeper and a master gardener. He raises a small herd of heifers on his Weaverville farm. He also spearheaded stream water quality data collection in Buncombe County, helping to develop a model that’s used nationwide.
While Hill’s collection is extensive, it’s not growing anymore, he says. There’s simply not enough display space in his home. Because each piece represents a friendship, giving away or selling off parts of it seems to Hill a bit like unfriending someone. Keeping pieces stacked away in boxes wouldn’t do them justice. Instead, the collector is content to keep his current circle of friends close.