Press Release: Green Furniture Artist Salvages History

Green Furniture Artist Salvages History               

Knoxville, Tennessee.  April 10, 2009.

Furniture artist Raven Toney could easily be mistaken for someone just out collecting wood: a guy in a red pickup, usually sporting a three-day stubble, definitely wearing long johns on cool spring mornings, and almost always hauling a truck full of supplies.  It might be 100-plus-year-old wooden flooring from the former JFG Coffee warehouse on Jackson Avenue; planks from a Sevier County barn given to him by a friend (yes, the whole barn was a gift); tree limbs that tumbled onto Toney’s own roof during a summer storm.  Guy who works with wood?  There’s more to it than that.  Toney is a successful artist and founder of resurrectionsdesign, his green furniture company. 

A native of Big Ugly, West Virginia, Toney moved to Tennessee in 2007 after having spent a total of nearly 25 years in New York and Los Angeles.  He came here with two things in mind: being closer geographically to his parents and launching his furniture design company.  His production shop may be in South Knoxville’s Vestal community, but Toney has exhibited his work from downtown Knoxville to Gatlinburg to, most recently, Madison Avenue in New York City…all within the seven months since he began his endeavor.  And his pieces can be found in private homes and businesses as close as the Old City in Knoxville, Tennessee and as widespread as Athens, Georgia to Tuckahoe, New York.     

His furniture is made entirely from salvaged wood: discarded planks, flooring, stumps, limbs, even leftover crown molding trim.  Toney takes what others throw away, literally, and crafts gorgeous, functional art.  Says Toney:  “In this time of use and abuse of our resources, I am very proud of what I’m doing. Not only do I love my work, but I feel like I am helping and doing my part to conserve our ever-dwindling forests. Wood that I use for all of my designs is discarded or overlooked as a functional resource. I feel very different about it; I see beauty and perfection."   

Certainly, Knoxville is successfully drawing artists and entrepreneurs who value what the city offers.  Toney is unique among them: he sees in our discarded “trash” both beautiful furniture and a sound business model.

Toney is the feature artist during April’s exhibit at the Walnut Building, Suite 100, 706 Walnut Street.  The Walnut Building is located in downtown Knoxville, TN.   

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Contact: Juli Neil, Publicist

The Living Room

706 Walnut Street, Suite 403

Knoxville, TN 37902

865-386-2949 cell, julicayeneil@yahoo.com