Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bentonville artist DiNino creates art out of wood, alabaster
BELLA VISTA — Frank DiNino of Bentonville, one of the artists featured at the Wishing Spring Gallery on McNelly Road, is a woodworker who creates artistic and functional pieces out of different types of wood, sometimes using alabaster as well.
He and his wife, Dee, moved to Northwest Arkansas six years ago from Colorado. They became familiar with Bella Vista when they participated in an art show in the city while traveling the country and selling Frank DiNino’s pieces at art shows.
He uses a variety of types of woods for his art, including aspen wood that he brought with him from Colorado. Aspens grow easily in Colorado, but they only live about 25 years, so when the wind would knock them over, people gave them to him, he said. Fallen trees are easy to come by in Northwest Arkansas as well, he said, and he has plenty of maple, hickory, elm and black walnut.
When DiNino starts to turn a piece on his lathe, he tries to imagine what it might become, he said.
“You look at the piece of log and try to visualize what it might be,” he said. “You look at the grain, knots and texture and visualize what it might be. You might draw a drawing, maybe. As you turn it, it might turn out differently.”
DiNino said he stops the wood more often than the average turner, looking for “thumps” or knots. When turning alabaster on the lathe, he said, there are pieces of quartz that are harder than the alabaster that must be dug out. Whether he is working with wood or alabaster, he often likes to leave some of the texture in rather than making the entire piece uniform so that the customer can see the difference between the finished and the unfinished.
He started learning to work with wood when he was in junior high school and a woodworking class was offered, he said.
“Everybody was turning candlestick holders,” DiNino said. “I still have the original candlestick holder.” He added he uses his original pieces as a display at his shows.
His pieces include wooden bowls and other containers, wooden snowmen, artistic wooden pieces, alabaster containers and more.
Dee DiNino also contributes by giving her opinion and by inlaying some of the pieces with turquoise.
“A lot of the projects are a joint venture,” Frank DiNino said. “I will turn an item and get close and then get her opinion. She’ll say how it could be better. It is a joint project. My customers are mostly female. I respect that opinion.”
He tries to make his work “something different, functional and diverse.”
“You’re taking this tree that is beautiful, that has died. You either burn the wood in the fireplace, cut it up and use it for lumber or make turnings and make it into something it’s never been before. It can be functional but also visually appealing,” he said.
DiNino has been a part of the Artisan Alliance at Wishing Spring for five years and said he feels the Wishing Spring Gallery is one of the better galleries in the area, since it has not only art but also crafts.
“We are pleased to be a part of it,” he said.