Mykola Kulishov was born and raised in Ukraine. He graduated from Kyiv National Shevchenko University and then obtained his PhD degree in Photonics at the Institute of Cybernetics of Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. In 1994 Mykola with his family moved to Montreal, Canada, where he worked for a Photolithography maskshop as an R&D Director managing a number of research projects. Finally, he and his family moved to California in 2006 where Mykola keep working in High-Tech industry. Mykola is an author of multiple scientific publications and two US patents in the field of photonics and fiber optics. Mykola is still full time working but makes time to spend in the shop creating his wood carving projects.
Mykola started woodworking in Ukraine following the tradition of wood carving of old Ukrainian masters. He learned basic skills of sculpture carving slowly acquiring skills by trial and error. Mykola bought his first power woodworking tools, Arbortech mini-grinder and power chisel and Proxxon angle grinder, after moving to Montreal.
Much of the inspiration in his work comes from the interest in Photonics and Nature. He has designed bowls using very unusual topologies borrowed from math and then carved them from a single piece of green wood working with soft and hard woods. Mykola’s work searches the topologies of paradox: the contemporary in the traditional, the lightness in shape, the emptiness in mass, the fluidity of the solid, extended time in a moment. Reducing kilos of wood to essential shapes, his intricately carved bowls defy gravity and make possible that seems impossible. Inspired by the natural beauty of wood, he references its myriad of elegant organic forms, yet his work is not complete until abandoned to larger environments, emphasizing the intensity of his creative focus.
After moving to California, Mykola is working on applying his bowl design ideas to new furniture designs.