Knocking on wood
The spring 2012 issue of the Concordia University Magazine carried a series about fine arts alumni called "The Creative Class." This is the second of four articles to be featured in Concordia NOW.
Last year, Rebecca Watt, BFA (studio arts) 99, and her husband, Phil, finished building a workshop behind their Vancouver home. It was a significant accomplishment for the couple, who had been operating its cabinet and furniture business, P+R Watt, for five years without a permanent space. “It’s great to have the shop right there,” Watt says.
It’s not the first time Watt has been a business owner. For four years, she ran a clothing label called MotherTrucker with Erin Stanfield, BA (English) 00. Watt attributes the confidence to go into business for herself to her Concordia experience. “As students, we learned to do more with less and work around each other all the time,” she says. “Both of these skills are integral to running your own business, and I use them every day.”
Watt was born in Cape Breton, N.S., to what she describes as hippie parents doing the “back-to-the-land thing” in the 1970s. In her last year of high school, Watt lived on Cortes Island, B.C., where she met Robert Bigelow, a Concordia printmaking professor on sabbatical. “He took me under his wing and encouraged me to apply to Concordia,” she says.
Watt majored in studio arts, focusing on fibre arts. She says professors Ingrid Bachmann and Neill MacInnis were strong influences “who really helped me develop a visual literacy.” Upon graduation, Watt moved back west but had trouble finding technical support. “As a student, I spent many hours with [Concordia’s] technicians in the wood shop, metal shop and fibres area,” she says. “It was a shock to be in Vancouver with nowhere to turn for that kind of support.”
In an effort to connect with craftspeople in her new city and get some hands-on experience, Watt enrolled in a Women in Trades course at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, then in the joinery program where she met her husband. “We both did apprenticeships at cabinet shops in town,” she says, “but eventually we decided that we wanted to work for ourselves.”
Since 2008, P+R Watt has been creating custom-made furniture and cabinets—and Watt says Concordia BFA still plays a role. “Making conceptual art prepares you in a unique way for all kinds of creative work. Even though cabinetmaking follows very strict rules, I often find myself bending the rules in ways that I don’t always see other woodworkers do.”
The Watts enjoy running their own business. “The lack of stability can be scary, but we both believe that taking risks is the only way to find new, exciting things in life,” Rebecca says. “The sense of freedom and setting our own schedule has been great, especially since we have two young sons. Being in control of our own lives is very empowering.”
Related link:
• P+R Watt