15 Aug The Story in the Grain: The Art of Patty Younger

One crisp, clear morning in the deep woods of Southwest Virginia, Patty Younger walks in silence. She steps carefully over damp leaves and storm-tossed limbs, breathing in the scent of rain rising from the earth. Her fingers brush against a soft piece of oak, its bark still glistening from last night’s weather. Some might call it debris. Patty calls it the beginning of a bowl.

Raised in the quiet forests of Virginia, Patty learned to find inspiration in everything around her. Her first love was drawing with pencil and pastels, a medium where every line could be measured and controlled. Watercolors, with their looseness and unpredictability, made her uneasy. She preferred clarity and precision, where the final image matched her intent.

For more than thirty years, Patty taught art, but she never stopped being a student. Alongside her learners, she explored new materials, letting curiosity guide her lessons. Clay, tin, and whatever the school budget would allow found their way into her classroom. She never limited herself to what she already knew. But while teaching was fulfilling, it often meant setting aside her own creative pursuits.

In 2019, retirement brought a shift. Her son gifted her a lathe, and with it came the freedom to create just for herself. That same year, a grant allowed her to attend the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. There, she witnessed her first live woodturning demonstration. In her words, it was love at first sight. It was the process, not just the product, that lit a spark in her.

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What sets Patty apart is the intimacy behind her craft. She doesn’t just work with wood; she works with wood that has lived a life. Salvaged trees, wind-fallen limbs, and reclaimed logs from her father’s childhood cabin find their second life in her hands. Her studio is a place where memory meets material.

She never buys commercial wood. “I live in the woods. Why would I?” she laughs. Each piece carries a history, shaped by weather, place, and time. She finishes her work with beeswax from her own hives and natural oils, letting the wood breathe and speak for itself. “The tree has a story,” she says. “And I want to tell it.”

To Patty, woodturning is a conversation. She follows the grain, listens for its rhythm, and lets the piece guide her. “The wood decides what it wants to be,” she says. “I might start out thinking it’s a bowl, and then it’s a toothpick holder.”

These days, she makes art every day. But the pressure is gone. The joy is in the process. “If I spend 25 hours drawing and no one buys it, that hurts,” she says. “But if I make a bowl and it doesn’t sell, I still had a good day.”

Patty Younger reminds us that imperfection has meaning. That creativity is rooted in patience, not perfection. And that sometimes, if you slow down and listen, the trees have something to say. Because in Patty’s world, a fallen limb is not waste, it is potential. A knot in the grain is not a flaw, it is character. Her bowls, vases, and vessels are more than objects. Each one begins with silence and ends with something both useful and beautiful.

In the end, Patty doesn’t just shape wood. She honors it. And in doing so, she invites us to do the same—to notice what others overlook, to find beauty in the broken, and to listen for the stories waiting in the grain.