Keith Lackner

As long as I can remember I have been an artist person. Whether it was drawing in sketch books or building model cars as a kid I've always found a way to express myself artistically. When I was a teenager my family moved from a suburb of Chicago to a small rural town about an hour south called Dwight. It was a huge culture shock for me to go from being able to ride my bike a few minutes to hang out with my friends, and able to do whatever we wanted to being surrounded by corn fields for miles. This isolation caused me to spend more time finding ways to keep myself busy. I can remember spending days in my backyard drawing and even starting to experiment with painting to fill my day. It wasn't until I entered high school I signed up for my first art class where I really found what I loved to do. I sat down at the potters wheel and for the first time I was able to create something with my bare hands. I was completely obsessed with creating with my bare hands after tht. I later signed up for a woodworking class that was available at my school. After graduating from high school I wasn't able to turn pottery but woodworking was able to fill the void that I needed to fill my creative drive that was in me. After years of woodworking I watched a TV show called Wood Works with David Marks and I watched as Master Craftsman David Marks used exotic woods to make museum quality furniture. Little did I know that one moment in my life would change my direction and path in life. Years after watching the first episode I ending up in Santa Rosa California taking a class with David on how to turn on a wood lathe. After working with David it actually flipped a switch inside of me that changed my life and wanted to do nothing but turn, and find that way to separate me from everybody else. While out in California I bought some highly figured walnut that was filled with defects that I put in the corner of my shop not knowing what to do with it. Months later I was turning a small pen that was filled with resin and really liked the way the colors worked with figured wood. It then hit me what to do with the large walnut billets I bought months ago. In 2014 there was really nobody out there that could help me because nobody was really casting larger than a duck call blank size, and my billets were 10 times the size. I realized at that moment I found something that would set me apart from everybody else if I could figure out how to cast something so large. After successfully figuring out how to cast large pieces I have developed a name for myself as the pioneer in resin casting for turners as the go to person in this field. I travel all over the US teaching students the basics in casting as well as the proper ways to turn and finish pieces to a museum quality piece of art exactly as I was trained early on in my wood working career.