A deep connection to trees and craft is shaping a growing community art space in Stamford.

Artist Mark Andreas is the founder of Studio Andreas, a place where people can learn and practice hands-on crafts.

The studio works across multiple disciplines, including ceramics, weaving, textiles, woodworking and sculpture.

Andreas said trees play a central role in his work, helping guide how wood is shaped and understood as a material.

Studio Andreas opened in 2021 and builds on Andreas’ career creating figurative and abstract sculptures installed around the world.

His appreciation for woodworking began as a child, working at a bench alongside his grandfather. Andreas said those early lessons focused on imagining something and creating it by hand.

He now passes that approach on to students, encouraging exploration and shared discovery through artmaking. Andreas said the studio has become a place where people from the community come together to learn, support one another and create.