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Today will not be my usual fare, and l do believe it could be of some interest to some people who normally would scrupulously avoid reading this column. So if you have friends, oldtimers or new-comers, who are into art, please make it a point to bring the following to their attention. Mention “Torpedo Factory” and you may snag their interest.

     What is especially timely about this piece just now is the fact that distinguished wood sculptor John A. Schafiher, who lives with his artist wife, Luray, in St. Leonard’s Long Beach community was named Friends of the Torpedo Factory Artist of the Year in 2002. The honor conveys a cash award and a solo exhibition in Target Gallery the following year .That event is taking place right now through June 15. Kenneth R. Trapp, curator-in-charge of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery selected Schaffner as recipient of the award in the annual competition hosted byThe Friends for Torpedo Factory artists. Visitors to Annmarie Garden in Lusby may have been fortunate to see examples of Schaffner’s work locally and he has had his works in special exhibitions and national juried shows throughout the United States and has won numerous awards in the Midwest and the East Coast. He is represented in a number of distinguished collections.
     
     Before his retirement in 1998, when he moved to Calvert County, Schaffner was Store Planning Director of Hecht's in the District of Columbia, and a vice president of Store Planning and Merchandising for the May Company in St Louis.

     Schaffner works in wood, although he sometimes includes whimsical materials into his designs. Like Michelangelo, he finds forms in wood and his unexpected shapes and designs are described by Trapp as “impressive for their architectonic forms and clean lines. The smaller pieces have an imaginative conception that is refreshing.”

     Shaffner’s artist wife who works under the professional name J. Luray, is a distinguished painter in her own right The art world knows her as a ”Signature Member” of the National Watercolor Society as well as other state Watercolor Societies. She is a member of Allied Artists of America, American Watercolor Society, Society of Experimental Artists and her paintings have been juried in and have won numerous awards in both national and international exhibits.

     I think I will have to say, however, that the work of art which impressed me most was the house in Long Beach produced by the pair; exquisitely designed to the finest detail. Set on a gentle wooded hillside, the house is a perfect round which accommodates on the ground floor a workshop for him, with all the tools and accoutrements which go with working with wood, and across the entry-way, an equally spacious studio for her, both in a fine state of disorder defining work in progress. Upstairs, with lifting ceilings and light from windows on all sides, the living area flows around the circle in a most agreeably functional way, with the rooms requiring privacy nicely obscured. There is something very comforting about the two worlds under that roof. The upstairs is a perfect oasis of elegant simplicity and tranquility, nothing extraneous, nothing out of place, a navy blue chair with a perfectly matching navy blue towel placed to indicate that the resident cat has proprietary rights on that chair. You look at the serenity and you listen to the easy conversation of the pair and you understand that the house can turn into a joyous, relaxed family home when the sons, Shawn and Jorn come home, or a wonderful party place when friends come in and mill around or park on the kitchen stools or collapse on the unique white leather sofa (which was the despair of moving men), and then settle back into the serenity of two perfectly matched people who can retreat at will to their own little worlds of messy creativity downstairs.