Michael Cullen

Michael Cullen studied mechanical engineering in college and started a career in the field. But the gravity of his family profession must have been too powerful: Before long he quit his job and followed his paternal grandfather and two great-grandfathers into woodworking. He went east to study under English furniture maker David Powell in Massachusetts, then returned to northern California, where he has been building furniture and sculpture since 1990. His current shop is in a former egg-sorting shed in Petaluma, once the egg capital of the country. When not in the shop adding texture to his latest bandsawn box, Cullen can often be spied on his bicycle, carving turns in the spectacular countryside.