Furniture by Skip Dyrda
Picasso at the Dinner Table
This piece began its life as a privacy door in the Towles Court Artist Colony home my wife and I purchased in Sarasota—a two‑story saltbox that looked as if it had wandered down from Vermont. The first floor had once served as a gallery, but since I had a separate studio on the property, we reclaimed the house purely as our living space. I removed the door, rounded its corners, filled the old knob opening, and transformed it into a black-painted canvas for a series of Trompe L’oeil elements celebrating the arts: a small Picasso print, a paper label with its details, a paintbrush, and a decorative bronze-style border. The table’s sculptural legs were created by my friend, steel artist John Dehn, using 12-inch I‑beams with their centers cut away and filled with river rocks from Maine, secured on half‑inch steel rods. This table is due for a fresh repaint so stay tuned for it’s next chapter.
Detail Images
This detail photo of the table shows the paper label , taped to the table, which is the description of the Picasso print. Also seen is a small portion of the brass finish border.
The photo shows the ‘special key’ along with my red thread and a portion of the brass finish border.
Here’s a photo of the table in our old house. Those chairs are long gone. Notice that very heavy duty table leg, created by sculptor John Dehn.