Edward Foley

Lives and works in Northport, Michigan Artist Website

Edward (Ted) Foley’s artistic practice is rooted in a lifelong engagement with nature and materials in transformation. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, and went on to earn his Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills. Over the course of his career, Foley has explored a wide range of media—including photography, printmaking, screen printing, sound art, film, sculpture, furniture design, and most recently, wood turning. While the mediums have evolved, his reverence for the natural world has remained the constant thread guiding his work. 

Foley is represented by V Gallery in Omena, Michigan, where he exhibits sculptures from his Infinite Disasters series—an ongoing exploration of the effects of climate change. During the pandemic, he turned to wood turning as both an artistic shift and a philosophical response to the environmental realities of Northern Michigan. Living among forests increasingly shaped by invasive pests like the emerald ash borer and by violent, once-in-a-century storms, he saw an opportunity to create work that honored fallen or threatened trees rather than letting them go to waste. 

Ash has become a signature material in his recent work. Foley transforms these endangered trees into taper candle holders, bowls, plates, and other functional forms. He often employs finishes such as shou sugi ban charring or milky white washes designed to highlight the grain and character of the wood—revealing both beauty and fragility. The possibility that ash trees may soon vanish makes each turned piece both a meditation and a record. 

Collaboration is another defining element of his practice. Foley frequently works with landowners who have lost trees to weather or disease, using their downed wood to create objects that carry a shared sense of place and story. In some cases, he co-brands the finished pieces as a testament to that partnership, merging art, ecology, and community. 

Through Northport Workshop & Studio, Foley continues to investigate the intersection of craft, sculpture, and environmental witness—transforming remnants of ecological loss into objects of meaning, memory, and endurance.