Crafted Conversations: Alan Cohen - Where Driftwood Finds a Second Life

Last week we hosted Crafted Conversations: Alan Cohen, the Healdsburg architect turned sculptor whose work sits somewhere between… engineering and play. More than thirty guests gathered for the evening, filling the room with the kind of easy attention that good art tends to invite. Cohen spoke quietly about inspiration, process, materials, and chance, while his pieces - assembled from driftwood, salvaged tools, rusted metal, and objects pulled from the Northern California coast - held the room on their own.

Alan spent decades designing homes, wineries, and public spaces throughout Sonoma County before turning more fully toward sculpture. The shift feels less like a departure than an extension of the same instinct: structure, balance, proportion. His sculptures are built from found materials, though “found” hardly captures the transformation! Pieces of driftwood become figures with character and charm. Rusted wire suggests movement. Old hardware takes on a second life with wit and restraint. There is patience in the work, and also humor - and you’ll see it as soon as you walk in, because Alan Cohen’s showcase is now open at CraftWork - and it will be running here until August.

The collection will remain on view over the coming weeks, and visitors are welcome to stop in during our regular hours. A fair warning: these pieces have a way of slowing people down. What begins as a quick glance turns into ten minutes spent inspecting a rusted hinge or a beautifully worn piece of driftwood like it holds the answer to something important. Up close, the work reveals itself gradually - weathered textures, careful joins, traces of past lives tucked quietly into the details. All works in the exhibition are available for purchase, though you may first need to stop staring at them.