Liesl Chatman
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Bio
Fast becoming known as one of the top kolrosers in the US, Liesl is a spoon carver, kolroser, and teacher. She was the 2023 Folk Artist-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is a 2024 American Scandinavian Foundation Fellow. Her background as a handlettering artist and graphic journaler influences her spoon forms and kolrosing images. In her teaching, Liesl works with students to carve spoons and kolrose wood with confidence and joy through mindfulness, technique, and practice. Liesl's kolrosed spoons have been exhibited at the American Swedish Institute (ASI), the Dubuque Museum of Art, Vesterheim, and the University of Wisconsin. She teaches at the ASI, Fireweed Community Woodshop, John C. Campbell Folk School, North House Folk School (NHFS), and Vesterheim Folk Art School. Currently she serves on the NHFS Instructor Advisory Group and is an Advisor to the NHFS Artisan Development Program, designing and leading craft pedagogy intensive workshops. Liesl has received national recognition for her work in education, women and girls in science, and organizational change. In 2020 she was given the Minnesota Ethical Leadership Award from the Minnesota Character Council. She loves that spoon carving and kolrosing are crafts that are accessible, affordable, enjoyable, and healing.
Contact
Artist Statement
I’ve always chronicled my life through small ink drawings, often with watercolor and almost always with commentary, that are bound in small journals. These journals traveled with me in motorcycle bags, backpacks, and satchels. When I started spoon carving and becoming part of the slojd community, friends told me that I had to learn to kolrose, to translate my ink drawings into line engravings in the wood. At the same time, I was learning to see and carve wooden spoons — to see spoons as three dimensional letter forms; to become competent with the axe, knife, and hook knife; and to begin to understand the ways of trees and greenwood. And so my journals turned into hand carved spoons with kolrosed images, words, patterns, and stories. In March of 2020, I started what would become a series of 35 spoons (and counting) that chronicle the historic times we are living in. Carving and kolrosing are for me intensely meditative and healing. This is something I want my slojd students to experience as well. As my friend CurlyPete says, “the patterns and forms we see that stretch across time and space are tendrils of wisdom.”
Liesl Chatman, Summer of Healing, 2022, Carved and kolrosed sugar maple from the northeast shore of Lake Michigan, 6x1.5x0.75
Liesl Chatman Tache, The Spoon Carver's Hound, 2022, Carved and kolrosed paper birch from the northwest shore of Lake Superior, 6.5x2x.75
Liesl Chatman (carved by Derek Brabender), Southern District of New York Felony Indictment of a US President, 2023, Carved and kolrosed silver maple from southern Wisconsin, 7.5x2x1
Liesl Chatman, Wisdom Across Time and Space, 2023, Carved and kolrosed sugar maple from the northeast shore of Lake Michigan, 5x1.75x.5
Liesl Chatman, Shepherd’s Starry Night, 2023, Carved and kolrosed sugar maple from northern Wisconsin, 5.25x1.5x.75