George Nakashima

The monumental and legendary "Arlyn" table came about quite unexpectedly.  During a visit to the Nakashima compound in New Hope, George Nakashima took Derek Ostergard and Evelyn Krosnick into his Minguren Museum.  There stood the magnificent redwood burl, which came from the Muir Woods redwood forest in California.  When Ostergard asked Nakashima what he had in mind for the piece, Nakashima replied that the wood was too soft and fragile to do anything.  Wanting the public to know that “even an old man is capable of producing new designs,” Ostergard, with an eye towards the upcoming George Nakashima:  Full Circle exhibition that he was curating at the American Craft Museum, baited him.  He also convinced the Krosnicks that they needed another table, and so the "Arlyn" table was born.

The end result was an extraordinary work.  Nakashima conceived the table as a monolithic piece, the base fully integrated into the top and therefore not removable.  However, due to transportation considerations, an intricate substructure securing the top to the base with a series of pegs was devised by Mira.  Other than the “Trestle” table, this is the only Nakashima table with a removable base. 

Upon completion, the table was named "Arlyn," a combination of Arthur and Evelyn’s names, and it traveled directly to the American Craft Museum.  "It's the most powerful piece he's ever done," said Ostergard in an interview with the New York Times on May 24, 1989.  "As George gets older, he gets more dramatic.  But really it's not George being dramatic; it's the language of the wood coming through."

Because of the exhibition, the "Arlyn" table escaped the devastating fire that completely engulfed the Krosnick home.  In the reconstructed Melody Woods III, the "Arlyn" table would become the focal point of the Arlyn Room, designed specifically for the table.  But before the house was completed, the "Arlyn" table traveled to the Spirit and Nature:  Visions of Interdependence exhibition, held at Middlebury College, Vermont, in conjunction with a larger academic conference dealing with the global environmental crisis.  There, the "Arlyn" table served as a symbol of the tree of life. 

The name "Arlyn" also appears in the George Nakashima Woodworkers catalogue referring to the base.  The pamphlet reads, "This starkly simple base works well with a wildly free-form top."