Creative woodworking by Ron Jackson on display at Wenaha Gallery

Wenaha Gallery's newest Art Event features Walla Walla woodworker Ron Jackson, who has been creating with wood for 67 years and counting. Jackson's Art Event runs through Monday, July 12.

Jackson first fell in love with working in wood during junior high shop class. In the 1960s, he worked for Whitehouse Crawford Company in Walla Walla, a sash, door, and cabinet shop. That gave him his foundation in working with wood.

He built upon that foundation through the years by constructing three homes, including the "forever home" that he and his wife have been in for the last 30 years. In addition to his work building the house, he fashioned all the cabinetry and some of the home's furniture.

Jackson and a partner started a business salvaging hardwood trees in the region. They milled the trees into lumber and shipped the wood to buyers as far away as New York and Hawaii.

"The learning curve associated with the process of falling, hauling, milling, and drying hardwood to successfully obtain an end product that did justice to this region's beautiful hardwoods was substantial," Jackson says.

Now nominally "retired," Jackson and his wife Dianne work from a 450-square-foot shop creating custom furniture and accessories from maple, walnut, oak, mahogany, bubinga (from West Africa), jarra (related to the eucalyptus, from Australia), teak, and more. His gun boxes, with a secret lock opened by a magnetic handle, are especially popular, as are his small hobby cabinets designed for hunters, fisherman, and jewelry owners. His serving trays and charcuterie boards often feature an imaginative use of resin, behind which he incorporates leaves, rocks, twigs, and other organic elements.

Wenaha Gallery, located at 219 E. Main, Dayton, features Jackson's work through July 12. The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9-5, and by appointment.