Eric Cannizzaro

Eric Cannizzaro grew up in Vermont where he developed a life-long interest in natural history. After high school he spent several years working odd-jobs and traveling in Central and South America. In 2010, he enrolled at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington to study natural history and ornithology. At Evergreen he found his way to the wood shop and explored arched instrument making and furniture making over several years. After years of going back and forth between field biology and woodwork he accepted a residency at the Arbutus Folk School in 2017, where he studied the techniques employed in Windsor chair making and adapted them to the tools and materials he had available. In 2019, he apprenticed with Curtis Buchanan, a Windsor chairmaker in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and accepted a residency at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. He lives in Charlotte, Vermont where he makes Windsor and ladder back chairs and teaches chairmaking workshops in his home shop.