Djuna Day
Toronto, Ont.
Djuna Day, Series 7 Turnings, 2017. Douglas fir with ebony dye, 213/158/122 x 18 cm. Photo: Danika Zandboer.
Studio: How would you describe your approach to your medium? What made you choose it?
Djuna Day: I came to wood through furniture making. Prior to moving my practice to art, I spent 15 years making furniture. My first art material was the scrap and off-cuts from my furniture work. They would litter the floor, and fill the waste bins after a project, and I began pulling them out and composing shapes, creating little assemblages. Even then, it wasn't about the wood, about material, it was the shapes themselves that I was interested in. And creating from them a language that made me feel something.
Djuna Day, Series 7 Turnings (detail), 2017. Douglas fir with ebony dye, 213/158/122 x 18 cm. Photo: Danika Zandboer.
S: How would you describe yourself, personally and professionally?
DD: I'm meticulous, and contemplative. My work comes from me intuitively, but it is not accidental. A new piece or project is planned out in detail before I begin. And then I execute the plan. Sometimes this takes a few days, but more often weeks. When I complete a piece, I stand back, assess whether it worked emotionally, decide what to do differently next time, and begin another.
Djuna Day, Series 7 Turnings (detail), 2017. Douglas fir with ebony dye, 213/158/122 x 18 cm. Photo: Danika Zandboer.
S: What inspires you?
DD: Wow, everything! I do have certain artists whose work I really admire, and look to. But most of them are dead, or live far away. I don't go to see a lot of new art in person. For the most part, I take inspiration from objects I see in my daily life. All the time around me, as I move through my day, I am looking at shapes. Shapes and light. Light, and how it falls on objects, is a continual source of wonder and beauty to me. I guess I take a lot of inspiration from that - the falling of light.
Djuna Day, The Botanicals, 2019. Douglas fir with ebony dye, 137 x 86 x 31 cm. Photo: Danike Zandboer.
S: What do you see as your contribution to the field of your craft?
DD: I think sculpture, as an art form, is having a moment right now. To share space with a sculpture, to share living space in your home with sculpture, requires more commitment, and demands more engagement than, I think, a two dimensional object does on the wall. I am really glad to see that more and more people are willing to make that leap. I'm glad to be participating in it.
I'm glad to carry wood, as a medium, out of the traditionalist closet it got thrown in. Maybe because furniture is so often made from wood, and because furniture often gets lumped in with "craft", we don't think about wood as a legitimate material for art. But wood is a material for art, and always has been. I'm glad to help make that so, again.
Djuna Day, The Botanicals (detail), 2019. Douglas fir with ebony dye, 137 x 86 x 31 cm. Photo: Danike Zandboer.
S: What wisdom do you want to impart to younger makers?
DD: I'm not sure I have much wisdom. Certainly not around art! Except to say that, if you have the calling to make objects that speak to our hearts, then maybe heed it. If you can't make it your entire life, find some little corner of your life where it might exist, and protect it there. It is a native tongue that your soul speaks, and to lose it is to lose part of yourself.
Djuna Day
instagram: @djuna_day_studio
website: djunadaystudio.com/
This article was published in the Fall/Winter 2024-2025 issue of Studio Magazine.
