Dusty Hammack and his son, Zac, are using their Marking Tree Design business to keep it local, whenever and whenever they can.
The Hammacks unveiled their “elemental contemporary” furniture and interior design goodies three years ago in Oklahoma City’s historic Western District.
Both born in OKC, the pair produces and showcases their modern, minimalist, functional art in the form of furniture, serving trays and charcuterie boards. If you can envision and articulate what you want, they’ll make it. However, Zac says farmhouse and rustic styles aren’t really their thing.
“We do a lot of custom work,” he says. “But we try to steer our customers into our preferred aesthetics. As far as Oklahoma and regional, we’re on the forefront of this kind of business.”
In 1981, Dusty founded his OKC primary business, Arrowhead Lumber. In the meantime, Zac got into oil painting, graphic design, glass blowing, music and all things art, showing his work in Oregon galleries. Now, they’ve merged wood and art, catering to myriad customers’ visions.
“We primarily do creative, artistic, one-of-a-kind, high-end furniture, using Oklahoma hardwood,” says Dusty.
Zac adds: “We do selective harvesting, to be good stewards of the earth, getting most of our wood from southwest and southeast Oklahoma, and we use rural or urban salvage.”
You may have seen their work at Myriad Botanical Gardens, where the duo installed nine pieces. The Hammacks use bold elements, including rare woods, glass, epoxy resins and steel. They believe in restoring the soul to wood that others might not see. They also sell raw materials to architects, contractors, home developers, interior designers and other furniture makers, and to people who want to create their own works of art.
Zac embraces the life pouring out of the natural world, waiting for it to make a statement.
“The wood tells you what to do with it,” he says. “My favorite thing is that through Dad, we have a long history of wood products and milling. I’ve grown up around trees and wood. We transport, cut, dry it, [and] mill it, before we make furniture out of it.”
Dusty adds: “The important thing is Zac’s artistic talents and our history in wood,” he says. “People will come by with a big, salvaged oak tree. They bring things to us, and we remove wood from properties.”
Part of the experience includes their showroom and work spaces. It’s also amazing to watch Zac’s imagination and skills take the elements to a new level.
With ancestors arriving in Love County during the 1800s, the Hammack’s family members still own their land, where Dusty has accumulated hundreds of arrowheads. Zac says that Native American technology includes arrowheads and marking trees.
“The top of a sapling is tied to the ground, so it grows in a horizontal orientation to mark something,” he says. “They were used on the Trail of Tears to mark where someone passed away, and to point to water sources and other significant places. We wanted to hearken back to our roots and heritage.”
