Being a bit of a ‘weirdo’ is worth the reward on the other side for Carlsbad wood artist

An allergy put an end to Mac Hillenbrand’s work as a licensed painting contractor, and it opened up a return to the woodworking he’d enjoyed as a teen.

“I used to refinish cabinetry and I would sand boards, like, all day long. I would see scenes in the wood grain, staring deeply at the grain for, like, eight hours a day,” he says. “I would imagine the grain lines to be surf breaks and beaches, I would see all these fantasy coastlines and little fantasy surf breaks in the grain.”

He developed a severe allergy to latex paint — to all neoprene, which was devastating for him as a surfer — from years of overexposure, so he had to figure out what he could do next to take of himself and his family. With these visions that were showing up in the pieces of wood he’d been staring at day in and day out, he wanted to work out how to make a painting out of wood. The answer was wood inlay, or marquetry. He attended the American School of French Marquetry in San Diego’s North Park neighborhood, studying under instructor and school founder W. Patrick Edwards, and went on to open his own marquetry art business, Amber Waves of Grain. Hillenbrand’s work is among that of more than 30 other artists on display in the Escondido Arts Partnership’s 16th annual exhibition, “Wood: A Furniture Show,” opening Satu...