mudoak.com

Tony Micocci has worked with wood for much of his adult life, from building and restoring both sailboats and musical instruments to constructing theatrical sets. His dedicated life as a wood artist began after moving to Asheville nearly a decade ago and building a shop with a turning lathe and carving station at its heart.

Themes in Tony’s current work reflect a balanced love of applied colors and revealed wood grain, often hovering between utility and aesthetic presentation. He works frequently with local downed trees such as cherry, walnut and locust, while also exploring exotic woods such as camphor, Bolivian rosewood and Latin American bocote. His goals for a block of wood are often preplanned but Tony will sometimes pick up a piece without knowing exactly what it will become, allowing the material itself to guide the process.

Tony serves on the board of the regional Carolina Mountain Woodturners club (Home - Carolina Mountain Woodturners) and is an active member of the American Association of Woodturners. He’s delighted to offer work among the area creatives at Woolworth Walk, and is occasionally available for commissions.

Before moving to Asheville, Tony built an extensive career in performing arts management, directing performing arts centers in Burlington, Vermont, and New York City before spending two decades producing tours and festivals, managing artists and coordinating international exchange projects through his own NYC-based agency. He later published on the business of performing arts touring and led the graduate arts management program at the University of New Orleans. He holds a BA from Bennington College and an MBA from Columbia University, and has served as a Fulbright Specialist in arts and cultural management.

Tony enjoys a personal and professional partnership with ceramicist Martha Savitzky whose work is shown in the gallery at The Village Potters Clay Center (The Village Potters Clay Center). With ceramicists’ reference to clay as ‘mud’ and their shared love of oak trees - both the wood and oak images in clay - Tony and Martha create within the North Carolina partnership Mud Oak LLC (MudOak).