If you’ve always been drawn to the timeless beauty of driftwood, you’ll surely appreciate the exquisite elegance of Hope Falls artist Caitlin Roben’s driftwood sculptures. Roben’s work embodies the alluring mystique that beachcombers and river walkers alike savor when they stumble upon a piece of aged wood, worn smooth by the forces of Nature.

Cedar Vase Duo

"Heart Years" and "Carry"

A lifelong driftwood scavenger, Roben grew up on the banks of the Mohawk River in Glenville. “With access to the water from my parents’ house, I was always collecting interesting pieces. Going out and searching for driftwood is fun and definitely part of the inspiration for my artistic process.”

Roben credits her parents for exposing her early on to the arts and a variety of crafts. Her mother is a folk singer, so she grew up surrounded by music, and her father gave her a toolbox and a little whittling kit when she was quite young. “I always gravitated to art classes in school and enjoyed all different mediums. But it’s been a winding road to where I am now. In my teens and college, I trained as a dancer. But even while studying dance at Bennington College, I continued to study ceramics, painting, and other visual arts.”

After college, her love of dance led her to New York City for a decade. “Life took its twists and turns, and eventually, after working in hospitality for a number of years, I found myself itching to get back into the arts.”

Roben initially ventured into calligraphy and hand-lettering, doing custom work on driftwood for wedding signage. But the more she worked with the driftwood, cleaning it up and preparing it for lettering, the more fascinated she became with the material itself. “As my own interest in driftwood grew, I reached a point where I dropped the lettering work and pursued the sculptural bent of the wood.”

Many artists find inspiration in a blank page or canvas, but Roben’s artistic approach differs. “My work never starts from a place of, I have this idea and I’m going to build it. It’s more of, I am inspired by the piece of wood that I found, and I’m just going to listen to it, carve it down, patiently remove the outer layers, and just keep going. It evolves as I go, but I have to work slowly, using only hand tools.”

Although driftwood is often associated with the ocean, Roben enjoys working with driftwood formed by the mountains, forests, lakes, and rivers of upstate NY. “Driftwood comes from the trees but is shaped by the elements—the water, the rocks, the tumbling and movement—and for me, somewhere in that mix is its magic. Nature has already shaped the wood, and I’m just giving it one more round of shaping.”

Roben can never predict at the start what the end result will be. “But with the first round of carving, taking off the bulk with a big draw knife, there’s always a point at which the shape begins to show itself: a clear little moment when I think, ‘Oh, there you are!’ From that point on, guided by the wood, I just keep honing it down to its heart. By then, I may have taken away up to three-quarters of the original material.”

In her work, Roben finds hand tools “grounding, reassuring and satisfying. I prefer to pursue things that, thus far, machines have been unable to replicate. I think the handmade element adds value to an item, and I’m trying to fit into that space. There’s a magic to one-of-a-kind pieces that just isn’t there in mass-produced items.”

Collaborative cupboard by Caitlin Roben and Russ Gleaves

Roben enjoys creating sculptural series: numerous pieces bound together by a common theme. Her “Carry” series, she explains, represents “the things we carry within us, tucked inside, held, tenderly or not. Each piece includes one large anchoring piece of wood and one smaller, carved piece perched upon the larger, symbolizing in part our interdependence and how, at times, we carry and care for one another.”

To date, Roben has made over 600 Etsy sales alone, many to coastal California areas where appreciation for the natural beauty of driftwood runs high. Recently, in addition to her solo work, she has begun collaborating with fine Adirondack Rustic furniture maker Russ Gleaves at his Hope Falls Rustic workshop. “I feel an amazing kinship with the ADK rustic style of woodworking. It’s so similar to what I am doing, but in a different vein. Both start with an appreciation and utilization of unique natural pieces. But I just happen to be coming at it through driftwood whereas the Adirondack tradition is coming at it from the native-grown trees and their quirks.”

Sculpture from Caitlin Roben's “Carry” series.