Adiante Franszoon

I was born and raised in the Amazon basin rainforest in Suriname on the north coast of South America in a Saamacca Maroon village one of many communities established by my ancestors enslaved Africans who escaped from plantations on the coast beginning in the late 1600s. I learned to carve wood from my father and relatives when I was a young boy. I came to the United States in 1968 to get an education. After the war in Suriname in the 1980s,  I decided to make a business integrating my traditional craft with modern furniture and artwork design. The designs are inspired by my tradition but are my own conceptions, what I see in my minds eye, what the wood suggests to me. In the culture I grew up in, art is part of everyday life. We believe in making the ordinary things we use every day beautiful. I try to apply that in my work today, everyone deserves to have beauty and craftsmanship in their surroundings.