Paul Robert Hathaway - furniture maker and sculptor (1914-2003)
Paul Hathaway established himself in Woodland Park, Colorado as a maker of furniture of his own design, but he wAS, IN FACT, ARTISTIC IN MANY OTHER ENDEAVORS AS WELL. A LIFELONG LOVE OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST, Native American CULTURE AND COWBOY LIFE PLAYED A CENTRAL ROLE IN HIS LIFE AND ALL OF HIS ARTWORK. HE WAS VOTED CLASS ARTIST IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL ON THE WEST SIDE OF Colorado Springs, AND EARNED MONEY IN HIS YOUTH BY MAKING AND SELLING Native American BOWS AND ARROWS. AS TEENAGERS, PAUL AND HIS BROTHER ED TRADED THEIR BICYCLE FOR A HORSE, A MARE THEY NAMED MERINO. FEELING THE STRONG PULL OF THE MOUNTAIN LANDS, PAUL RODE MERINO WEST VIA UTE PASS AND BEYOND, EXPLORING THE PEACE, SOLITUDE AND BEAUTY OF REMOtE MOUNTAIN PASTURES WHILE FORMING IDEAS AND BELIEFS THAT HEAVILY INFLUENCED HIS LIFE'S WORK. DURING THE SUMMERS OF HIS YOUTH HE SOMETIMES WORKED AS A COWHAND FOR GUY PARKER, AN EARLY AREA RANCHER OF NOTE WHO OWNED THE JUNIPER VALLEY RANCH 20 MILES SOUTH OF Colorado Springs. PAUL WAS ONE OF THE HERDSMEN FOR Colorado Springs' COMMUNITY FREE-RANGING DAIRY HERD.
HIS BROTHER, CLAUDE, PHOTOGRAPHED 15 YEAR-OLD PAUL IN Colorado Springs' GARDEN OF THE GODS, WRAPPED IN A NAVAJO BLANKET AND WEARING THE BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED COMANCHE HEADDRESS THAT PAUL HAD MADE FOR HIMSELF. HE EXPERIMENTED WITH OIL PAINTINGS, AND LATER SUCCEEDED BEAUTIFULLY WITH WATERCOLOR. IN HIS LATE TEENS HE APPRENTICED WITH RENOWNED AUSTRIAN FURNITURE MAKER PETE BERONI (1894-1968) in old Colorado city, just west of Colorado Springs. existing examples of Paul's furniture from that time and from his early twenties demonstrate his talent for high-quality craftsmanship and beauty.
in the mid-1930s, Claude was employed as a scientist and engineer at General Electric in schenectady, New York. Paul had bought a 1936 ford coupe at that time, and when Claude's wife, hazel, who had been visiting Colorado was ready to return east, Paul drove her there, where he took on carpentry work until the weather turned cold. Claude then secured a job for his brother at General Electric as an apprentice machinist. it was there that he met annamae denner, his bride-to-be, who worked in the experimental laboratory winding copper wire onto electric motors that claude had designed. she later recounted that all the women in GE's Experimental Labs were abuzz over the handsome 'cowboy' who had come to work at the plant. The two were married in Schenectady in October, 1937.
in 1939, Paul moved his family to Denver and became foreman at Claude's new General Electric defense plant, the hathaway instrument company, designers and manufacturers of engineering instruments and scientific apparatus. in 1944, they sold their Denver home and returned to upper New York State, where they bought a 20-acre farm that had on it a house built in 1789, on Bliss road in rural Galway, about 15 miles north of schenectady. There, they could live in a rural setting while Paul resumed local carpentry work. they had a few cattle and probably some horses. Paul harvested hay to sell, while Anne had a chicken-and-egg business and a weekly delivery route.
At this time, the U.s. army needed Paul to put in his obligatory service to his country, and to fulfill the requirement, he went back to work for General Electric, doing defense work. He was selected to work at a secret army research project hidden away in the woods at a place called Malta, only about 10 miles from the farm. he was given use of his own army-issue mobile machine shop. as the only civilian onsite and the only machinist, he had no supervisor. he had to learn by experimentation and reading books. his job was to duplicate parts from captured German v-2 rockets(!).
When eventually they decided to sell the farm in order to move back west again, Paul forfeited the tractor he was making payments on and sold the operation to the man they were buying it from for $2,000 more than they paid. That provided seed money for the investment in their western dream. It was the ever-present pull of the west that took Paul and Anne and their by-now four children back to Colorado in 1946. the family lived at signal rock ranch and the crescent ranch (now called the Maytag ranch), both west of the town of divide, where Paul worked as a ranch hand. in 1947, Paul and Anne bought 34 acres of undeveloped land near woodland park. In the spring, Paul built a small one-room cabin for the family to live in while he spent six months using his own hands to build the combination workshop and family home where they raised their four children and lived out their lives.
Western frontier furniture, with -WF cowboy cattle-brand (pronounced 'bar WF'), was of Paul's own design, made of ponderosa pine purchased from local sawmills. it was true handmade, rugged, heritage American mid-century furniture of the highest quality and originality. Though Paul's power planer, jointer and saw made the rough sawmill-cut lumber smooth, flat, and true, the pleasing curves he added with his band saw and sanders made for an elegant, yet sturdy look. The construction itself was marked by precision, as you might expect from a trained machinist. Doors and drawers were fitted to very exacting dimensions for flawless operation. The visible fasteners were lag bolts (large, square headed wood screws) that he individually cross-hatched. his 'antique' multi-coat lacquer finish highlighted the intentional sanding marks to give a rustic feel. The design was very western, and graceful, too.
he finished his furniture with leather-mounted saddle conchos, and with his own line-drawing carvings of typical old-west themes: bucking horses, longhorn steers, Indian paintbrush and Columbine flowers, pine boughs with cones, and yucca-studded prairie or desert landscapes, all of which he colorfully oil-painted. Paul made household and business furniture in standard dimensions, but also very often in custom sizes and styles according to buyer's needs and wishes. He had clients in many states, and shipped some -WF furniture overseas. Homes, offices, banks, dude ranches, boys and girls summer camps, the governor of Illinois and the star motel in Colorado Springs all bought and used Western frontier furniture.
After Paul and Anne's four children had grown, in the mid-1960's, Paul experienced a new feeling of freedom, and began directing his talents to other artistic pursuits. he had already begun including a bit of formed mild steel into the last of his furniture pieces, most prominently a number of expertly crafted chandeliers. Fabrication of the metal components sometimes required that he make is own dies. he soon became so interested in metal work that he directed his attention fully in that direction, and that is where his creative genius flourished.
His brother ed, a cabinet-maker in Colorado Springs, had taken an order to create a statuesque outdoor sculpture from fiberglass. Paul took inspiration, and created a few of his own abstract fiberglass pieces, one in the natural color of the 'glass, the other two in brilliant color, one blue, one red. So, it can be seen that after building furniture for more than twenty years, Paul's artistic instincts were pulling him to create new and unique creations in new forms. For her part, Anne was delving into weaving and pottery. She bought her own loom, potter's wheel and electric kiln. Paul made her a raku kiln. now that they no longer had the expense of childrearing to shoulder, they could step out and fully enjoy themselves. They went on arrowhead-hunting trips together in nearby high mountain plains and went fishing for trout in remote mountain streams. they welcomed many visitors to their home and workshop, where city guests could sit in the house's great room on a winter's day next to the wood burning stove, or out on the porch with a cup of coffee in the summer, listening to the birds, the wind chimes Paul had made, and to the breeze in the pines. It was this amazing escape from bustling city life blended with Paul and Anne's artistry and friendship that so many visitors came to enjoy.
Paul's first projects that used metal, namely the chandeliers, were components welded with an oxy acetylene gas torch. A desire to take on more sophisticated sculpting in aluminum and bronze inspired him to take welding classes at Pikes peak community college. after that, with Anne's encouragement, he bought a metal inert gas (Mig) welding outfit. He did not choose the accepted method of creating a metal sculpture, which would be first to create a wax original, then deliver it over to a foundry that would then cast a bronze duplicate, then add a suitable patina to the piece. this was not Paul's idea of creating a piece of art. his sculptures were entirely his own work. he never had a piece cast by a foundry, nor did he ever cast one himself. rather, he usually started a project by making patterns out of heavy brown craft paper, which were then traced onto metal. He sawed sheets of 1/8" steel, bronze or aluminum, or sometimes thinner brass, into the various pieces needed to make a shape he visualized. He then used split-headed, rawhide hammers to form simple or compound curves into the pieces. to facilitate this shaping operation he obtained a 32" length of 10" x 10" railway bridge timber, stood it on end, and scooped the top into a mild cupped shape. This became the forging anvil against which he was able to hammer curves into his individual parts before he welded them together. Bit by bit, the sculptures took shape.
Paul was always intrigued with patina. He built a wood-framed, glass-sided fumigating box to hold sculptures that would fit inside, and experimented using sulfurous gasses or ammonia fumes to alter the color of the metal he was using. he heated sculptures with his torch and brushed on liquid copper sulfate, potassium nitrate, or acids to create a patina. he overlaid some steel sculptures with brass or bronze welding rods to impart color and texture. Occasionally, he might polish certain facets on a bronze piece to a higher luster.
Paul Hathaway produced more than three hundred-sixty sculptures. Purchasers included many private collectors and the Colorado Springs Fine arts center, the Colorado Springs city administration, Colorado Springs national bank, the cities of manitou springs and woodland park, sanborn western camps of florissant, Colorado, the philmont scout camp in Cimarron, New Mexico, and the president of continental airlines.
For diversion and his own personal development he also made at least two Navajo-style looms and taught himself to weave the Navajo way. he wove at least eighteen very well-executed rugs, characteristically in his own original patterns and well-chosen colors. Throughout his life he immersed himself in books on western American culture, Spanish and Indian lore. every spring he recorded the arrival of the various species of birds that came to visit his feeders. his sculpture reflected the themes from the southwest and the birds he loved. He made a violin and taught himself to play folk tunes. He wrote more than a hundred poems to the loves of his life: birds, his beloved wife, Annie, and about the human condition. he was a quiet, curious, thoughtful, philosophical and analytical man who had a great deal to say, and preferred to communicate through his artwork, rather than the spoken word.
Though he never had any formal training in the arts, he delved deeply into a variety of arts including Native American crafts such as ceremonial garb, arrows and bows, oil painting and watercolors, furniture design and construction, poetry and most notably, metal sculpture.
(compiled and written by Roger Hathaway, Paul's youngest son)