Art Majerus’ photography, wood turning at Redlands gallery

This year’s featured artist shows at Redlands Art Association begins with artist Art Majerus’ long artist career in woodwork and photography.  

After a 27-year career in the military, Majerus spent the next 27 years making fine handmade gifts in wood. It began in 1995, six months before he retired, when his wife got him wood turning tools. “The first year, I think I did 15 shows and then it got out of hand,” Majerus said.

“I was making 4,000 items a year and traveled to 30 to 40 cities doing art shows,” he said of what followed in 1996. For 27 years, he traveled around California, Washington and Nevada in the fall at convention center craft shows, then in the spring it was Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Texas and Arizona with a mix of indoor and outdoor art shows. Later, his photographic art would be added to the shows where he developed, scanned, printed, matted and framed all of his own artwork.

“I traveled in a 40-foot motorhome, pulled a three-quarter ton cargo van behind me,” he said. “I would come home from a show Tuesday midday. I would turn until 10 at night, all day Wednesday and then leave again Thursday morning for the next show, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”

Majerus’ artwork both for woodwork and photography has won several awards, for example The Best in Show at Tempe, Az. “I was invited as a guest demonstrator at the largest wood turning symposium in the US in Provo [Utah] for several years,” he said.

“In the last ten years I probably sold 1,000 ice cream scoops,” he said, mentioning that they are made of high-quality cast stainless steel. Fellow wood artists have told Majerus, he is the last of a dying breed of guys who would create vast volumes of functional art in wood.

Now, the very last sets of bowls and platters, kitchen tools with wood turning handles and unique pens will be on display and available to purchase at the Redlands Gallery. Moving forward his focus is on photography.

Photography has been a stable hobby in his life since he got a professional 35 mm camera in 1968. “In the Navy, they called me Mr. Fuji because I always had a camera in my hand,” he said. He built a dark room which he still uses at his current home.

“The only good thing about Vietnam was it got me out of Minnesota and I forgot to go back,” he said with a chuckle. He grew up in Minnesota, the oldest of nine kids.

Four years ago, when Majerus stopped the full-time art show gig, he got involved with the Hemet Valley Art Association where he currently is the director and photography instructor. Staying in one spot, has also meant that Majerus and his wife spend more time in National Parks. During the Christmas weekend they went to Sagauro National Park.

“I’ll be out there taking photos of swallows,” he said. He has been to the Bosque del Apache National monument in Montana to photograph the Sandhill Cranes’ migration.

“Birds and flight is what really got me serious about photography,” he said. “I’m not a birder,” he added, “I find the movement and everything [about birds] really great.” In landscapes he likes to find natural frames.

“I’m a realist. It’s a dead medium,” he said of photography as an artform. “Everybody got a camera on their phone and everybody thinks they are a photographer and I understand that.”

That is why he chooses to work in old cameras with rolls of film, both in color and black and white.

“I’ve got an RB 67 with four by five, that’s one sheet of film at a time,” he said. “It takes 20 minutes to take one picture.”

Going into vintage photography, “It makes me think a little bit,” he said. “To do that, you look through and everything is upside down and backwards.” The slow process, “Makes you more aware of what you’re wasting film on.”

Majerus’ varied artwork will be on display at the Redlands Gallery from Jan. 3 - 23. There is an open house event scheduled Jan. 10 from 1 - 4pm.

About Art Majerus

Take a look at the Majerus’ woodwork here: www.sawdustman.com
Photo portfolio here: artee8c.myportfolio.com
Email contact: artsphotography@icloud.com

About the Redlands Art Association

Address: 215 E State St, Redlands CA 92373.
RAA website: redlands-art.org
RAA social media:  facebook.com/RedlandsArtAssociation and @redlandsartassociation on Instagram.

Opening hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays closed.

Featured artist show by artist Art Majerus runs from January 3 - 23, 2026. An open house event is planned for Saturday, January 10 from 1 to 4 p.m.