PINELLAS PARK, FL - Back during the November 2012 election, furniture maker Sean McKenzie, owner of St. Petersburg, FL-based McKenzie Cabinetry, created a show-stopper: Voting Booth (The Great Divide).
This cabinet expressed the frustration many voters felt with both political parties, and, says McKenzie, with the government’s inability to help the majority of Americans and small businesses.
McKenzie has lately been encouraging his online followers to repost the voting booth image on Facebook – a statement on the continued difficulty Congress and the White House have in working together.
The freestanding walnut and curly maple cabinet is splitting through the top and straight down the center of the doors, revealing a sharp and jagged edge and interior. The walnut exterior of the cabinet is dovetailed at the corners and sits on a walnut base.
Elegant curly maple doors with “Democrats” stenciled on the left, “Republicans” on the right, are stopped short by a the split.
McKenzie began woodworking at 15, entering the Baulines Craft Guild furniture program, training under legendary woodworker Art Espenet Carpenter, who had directed 130 apprentices. McKenzie was his last student before Carpenter retired from teaching.
In 1999, McKenzie opened McKenzie Cabinetry & Fine Woodworking, specializing in high-end custom cabinetry and furniture for residential and commercial customers in the San Francisco Bay area.
In 2003, he relocated his business to St. Petersburg, where he has meticulously restored his 1920s Arts and Crafts bungalow home. Hundreds of cabinet and furniture projects to his credit, McKenzie now trains apprentices of his own as he designs and builds fine woodworking.
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