article-FreePress,Tiki Dressers,Jan22,2003

"Craftman changes the face of furniture"

The Free Press, Key Largo, Jan.22, 2003

By Timothy O'Hara, Free Press Staff Writer

KEY LARGO - Rex Rothing doesn't call himself a carpenter, but he shrugs off the title artist.

Rothing, 49, prefers the term, "craftsman."

"Carpenters build houses and put together decks. My stuff is a little more refined," he says with a smile. "Growing up, I was the kid doing co;or by numbers and putting together models. It just grew out of that."

But it is hard to deny that his chests, dressers and other creations are anything less than art.

Three dressers - Tiki Man, Cuba Man and Rasta Man - he recently created have caught the eye of some local art enthusiasts. The creations are on display at the Frame Shop Gallery in Tavernier.

Frame Shop owner Carol Ivey saw th edressers at Rothing's WoodShop 102 in Key Largo and knew that she had to display them in her gallery.

"Every piece is unique," she said. "The wood they are made out of is unique. No two pieces will ever be the same."

" I wanted to do something different. Most people don't think furniture is art, but it is. His stuff keeps with our motto - furniture for your walls."

The dressers depict the faces of three men, using three different kinds of wood.

Tiki Man is made out of Wild Tamarind, a native species of the Keys. The dresser depicts a man with a kind of shocked look on his face. There is also a secret hidden drawer below - ain't that perfect for the Keys?

Rasta Man is made from Jamaican Dogwood. The dresser is textured to give the face dreadlocks and a Fu Man Chu beard.

Cuba Man is made of West Indies Mahogany, which is the world's most rare and valuable wood. Cuba Man has big lips and an earring.

Rothing got the idea for the dressers from staring at a dresser and envisioning eyes, nose and mouth.

"I could make out a face and I just got carried away with it," he said. "It was a sort of spare time thing."

The wood for both Tiki Man and Rasta Man came from trees that were uprooted by Tropical Storm Mitch.

Rex Rothing, right, owner of WoodShop 102, displays his artistic dressers - Rasta Man, Cuba Man, and Tiki Man -

at Carol Ivy's Frame Shop Gallery in Tavernier.

Rex Rothing, holding a piece of Wild Tamarind, creates his furniture art at his WoodShop 102 warehouse in Key Largo.

"People wanted to get rid of it," Rothing said. "It would be a shame to waste all that good wood. There are a lot of threatened species. Its better than seeing it choppd up and dumped. I have enough now that will last me half a lifetime."

Rothing is a firm believer in not letting wood go to waste. He combs the mangroves in his little boat, looking for driftwood.

The wood he doesn't use gets cut up and used for cooking over an open fire or chipped up and used for mulch in his yard.

"From the tree to the dust, it all gets used," he says with a smile.

Walking behind his shop is like going thru a museum of dead trees. Stacks and stacks of mahogany, tamarind and dozens of other types of woodlay behind getting "seasoned." And he can pick out each type just by its smell.

"You can blindfold me and put me in a room with wood and I can tell you what it is," he said. "I work with it all the time."

Reprinted with permission: