Artist Statement

My name is Keighan McGoff (she/they). I am an architectural millworker and cabinet maker from Boston, MA. I enjoy nature, poetry, odd things, and people. I try to approach design with the hands of a cabinet maker, and the heart of a poet. This means I take care to let the wood speak in order to celebrate the strength and the life giving nature of the tree, and I like to take opportunities to celebrate the weird forms I find in the lumber. My long term goals with woodworking are to make heirloom quality pieces for the people in the communities I land in, and use the scraps to make toys, puppets, and automatas. I believe that a good piece of furniture functions like a transitional object; it survives the move because you can depend on it, or because you just can’t let it go. Great furniture gets passed down, preserved, and admired by communities large and small. My collection of work celebrates the labor of living things and the way humans use work and labor to let our lives speak. I hope to build something that speaks to your grandson at an estate sale someday, or maybe your great-great-grandaughter, in some strange museum.