"I am a furniture and cabinet maker.  I also make art pieces and small objets d’arte.  My journey with wood begins when I was six or seven years old.  My mother, my brother and I lived in a redone boy scout club house across from the poor farm in Mansfield, MA.  One day she heard banging and clawing at the kitchen wall.  My mother found us with a hammer (missing half the handle), a few bent nails and a couple of short pieces of wood.  We were building a room on the house and were making the doorway.  She suggested we build the room first.  How do you build a room was my question.  When I was 12, I started working with a cabinet maker.  I worked for no pay, but I was allowed to learn.  I did this until I left for college (Harvard University) after which I taught history and then served as a United Methodist Preacher.  When I turned 40 I turned back to the room and became a licensed construction contractor and then a furniture and cabinet builder.  My furniture includes inlays with wood, glass and tile.  I build to suit the customer in whatever style he or she wants.  I build tables, chairs, beds, bureaus, desks, work centers, kitchen cabinets and other built-ins.  I live in Bunker Hill, WV with my wife, Sharon and my grandson, Eric. "

~ Joe Bourgeois