Meet the Artist
Gavin Tougher
woodworking
Gavin Tougher is the artist behind the wood studio, Pith to Bark, which explores the relationship between the human and more-than-human world and the memory we hold through objects. He studied sculpture as an undergraduate and completed a fellowship at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Before starting his studio, he spent years farming and developing carpentry skills across Colorado, Vermont, and Maine, a time that deepened his relationship with land, material, and making.
Based in Corvallis, Oregon, Gavin shows regularly at juried art festivals across the Pacific Northwest, exhibits with galleries, and creates commissioned works.
Gavin works primarily in domestic hardwoods, using traditional and contemporary woodworking techniques to achieve distinctive forms. Gavin’s locally sourced hardwoods carved by routing, then refined through power carving, sanding, and hand finishing. Found objects such as stone and shells are then set into carved pockets by customers. At the center of his practice is a simple phrase: "a journey from middle to outer; from heart to skin." Like a tree, it encompasses all of life.
Follow Gavin on Instagram.