When he's not installing wood floors, Steven Dana, a second-generation wood floor contractor with Dana Floor Sanding (Erie, Pa.), is a sculptor, fashioning new and reclaimed pieces of wood into works of art. Through May 27, his sculptures will be on display in the Ronald E. Holstein Gallery at the Erie Art Museum.
Dana takes a minimalist approach in crafting his work, converting wood into various bird, bug and human forms, and he has said his sculptures take on a cartoonish form. For inspiration, Dana thinks of his time spent outdoors with his two children. "I am a witness to their curiosity while they discover the various life around them," Dana told the museum recently.
Dana gets some of his source material from firewood stacks. Many of the bases for his sculptures are made from flooring and old house parts, rescued through his work at Dana Floor Sanding. Part of the show includes a series of sculptures made from old bowling pins. Surfaces treatments on his sculptures are diverse since he uses a combination of dyes, chemicals and pigments to alter the wood's appearance.
When his most recent art exhibition is over on May 27, Dana will continue having his work showed at the museum: His company, which he runs alongside his brother, repaired and refinished the museum's wood floors during a recent renovation.
And if that wasn't enough, Dana Floor Sanding has this pretty neat time-lapse video on YouTube showing a wood floor installation from start to finish:
