Ukulele 1923 - 1933

This is Nicola Turturro’s Ukulele, its date unknown but it was certainly made with wood and some sort of varnish! The whole thing is an exercise in tonal harmony, this warm, honeyed wood. I love the way the maker celebrated the materiality of the instrument. Look at the grain, it feels unhurried. This isn't about speed or precision; it's about a slower kind of looking and feeling. There’s one spot, just below the sound hole, where the varnish pools, catching the light in such a way that it looks almost liquid. It reminds me of the way my paint behaves sometimes, settling into the canvas, finding its own level. This ukulele feels like a relative of those beautifully crafted folk instruments you see from all over the world. They aren’t just functional objects, they are also works of art. Like a painting, each one embraces ambiguity and invites endless interpretation.