Kale Vogt grew up just south of Covington, in Burlington, Kentucky, in a close-knit family – mom, dad and an older brother, T.J. A self-proclaimed “art kid,” Kale was athletic, playing soccer through high school, and loved to spend time outdoors. Kale’s mom is a special needs bus aide for elementary students, and Kale’s dad served in the military for 25 years, worked in HVAC for a while, and helped inspire Kale’s creativity.
“When I was young, he was really into woodworking,” Kale says. “I grew up surrounded by it but I was so conditioned to it I didn’t take much interest in it, honestly. Now that I’m older, it’s ironic to me that I’ve circled back to that. It’s something I obviously deeply appreciate now.”
This circle includes a loved childhood, a stint in art school, boondocking out West, working in a bakery then landing at Lost Art Press. Here’s Kale’s story.
99 Days Out West
After graduating high school, Kale worked food and retail gigs while trying to figure out how to pursue a career that allowed for creativity. Eventually, Kale took some gen-ed classes at a local community college, then studied studio arts at Northern Kentucky University while living in an apartment, solo for the first time, serving tables to pay for college.
“I got to the point where it began to seem silly to graduate with a major in studio arts,” Kale says. “I thought, ‘I don’t know what I want to do, why I am putting myself through this if I don’t know my focus.’”
Around this time Kale saw photos online of a hike in Zion National Park.
“I was completely blown away,” Kale says. “Having never been west of Chicago, I was like, ‘Wow. There’s a whole world out there.’”
Kale says they became obsessed (a word not used lightly) with the idea of traveling out West and spent the next 10 months planning, researching and saving up money – $8,000 for the entire trip. They took the passenger seat out of their 2010 Honda Fit and put in a cot. And then, in the summer of 2017, Kale started in the Southwest and did a big balloon loop, up through California and the Pacific Northwest, back down to Colorado.
“It turned out to be, in total, 99 days where I was living alone, on the road, at 22,” Kale says. “I really put my parents through it,” they add, laughing. “There were daily texts to my mom. For the plenty of times I was out of service I would give her a heads up. Overall, hands down, one of the most influential trips I’ve ever taken. I truly don’t know where I’d be if I didn’t take that trip.”
Every day Kale hiked. They hiked Antelope Canyon in Arizona and got a permit to climb Half Dome in Yosemite – a 17-mile day chasing a loved feeling of being so small. They took a sunrise plane ride over the Cascades.
“I was really just living, you know?” Kale says. “Every day was a new hike, and every day was a brand-new experience. It was so memorable for me, all of my senses felt heightened. Everything was new to me.”
Kale boondocked and got a jetboil, living on soup, chili and oatmeal. Once home and having developed a deep passion for public lands, Kale immediately started applying for jobs with the National Park Service.
Four National Parks
Kale applied for more than 30 jobs before getting a call from Kings Canyon National Park in California. They loved the outdoors and had three months experience traveling – that’s it. At the end of the interview the interviewer asked Kale if they had anything to add.
“I basically just bared my soul to the person, begging her,” Kale says. “I was 23 at this point, and I said something along the lines of, ‘I know I may not have on paper a lot of experience but I have a lot of passion. I really think I’d be a great addition…’.”
A week later Kale received an email with a job offer.
For the next three-and-a-half years, Kale worked at four national parks. As a visitor-use assistant, they started out driving a camp truck from campground to campground in Kings Canyon, reporting visitor usage, ensuring folks were following the rules and performing general safety checks. From there Kale spent the winter at Arches National Park in Southern Utah, watching snow fall on red rocks.
“I love desert; it’s my happy place,” Kale says.
Next up was Glacier National Park.
“Turns out, Montana is very cold,” Kale says, laughing. “And so, from Montana I went back down to Zion, which was a full-circle moment for me. Zion is what inspired me to go out West and it ended up being my last job in the Park service.”
It was 2020, the start of Covid, and everyone wanted to get outside – Zion got hundreds of thousands more visitors that year than the year prior.
“It kind of just did me in,” Kale says. “It was a lot.”
By this point, Kale hadn’t lived longer than five months in any one place for three-and-a-half years and knew that a lifelong career working for the National Parks wasn’t what they wanted. Covid helped Kale realize they needed to get in touch with their roots again.
“Those relationships are hard to keep up when you’re on the road and moving,” Kale says. “So I came back to my family here in Northern Kentucky.”
Home
The first year back turned out to be really tough. Transitioning from an active lifestyle where they had complete control of what came next while living in some of the most beautiful places in the world to a period in their life where they didn’t know what the future held was difficult.
“I was feeling kind of lost,” Kale says. “I tried out this new thing that I was so passionate and sure of at first then it turned out to not be for me. It was scary. I didn’t know where to go from there.”
Kale lived with their parents for three months to get back on their feet and then found an apartment in Covington.
“I wasn’t sure what route I wanted to take,” Kale says. “Coming back I knew I was ready to focus on a creative career. Though I didn’t know what that would look like yet. It had always been my dream growing up and going to college – I wanted to do something creative, but I could never land on a focus.”
Kale worked at REI for a year.
“It’s what was comfortable, but I knew it wasn’t the goal,” Kale says. “I felt I’d done this – I’ve taken this route before to no avail.”
While visiting a local farmer’s market, Kale talked to some folks at North South Baking Co. and asked if they were hiring. They were.
“Honestly, I’m not much of a home baker at all,” Kale says. “I just really appreciate pastries.”
Kale brought drawings that could be translated to stickers or other merch to the interview. This, they thought, could be a path to a more creative career. But with few employees there was little time for extra creative pursuits. Kale did whatever was needed – retail, deliveries and working farmers’ markets. North South Baking Co. had a lot of regulars. Christopher Schwarz was one of them.
Building a Chair & the Start of Something New
“Full transparency, I didn’t know what Lost Art Press was,” Kale says. “I was looking for a restaurant on Google maps for lunch and ‘press’ was in the name. When I Google mapped ‘press,’ Lost Art Press came up.”
Kale pulled up LAP’s website and thought it looked interesting.
“I immediately see Chris and think, Wait a minute. This guy is a regular here. I see him all the time!”
Soon after this discovery, Chris came back into the bakery.
“I told him about how I came across his website and how amazing I think his work is,” Kale says. “I asked him about himself and figured, surely, he’s gone to college for industrial design and he’s like, ‘No, I actually just have hippie parents who were homesteaders and that’s how I learned woodworking.’ By the end of our convo he says, ‘Why don’t you come by sometime? We give out scholarships to local people if you’re interested. We could chat about that if you like.’ Which of course I say, ‘I’d love that.’”
The next day Megan Fitzpatrick came into the bakery and handed Kale her card and a copy of “The Stick Chair Book.”
“I was blown away,” Kale says. “I just talked to Chris and am now discovering this world, it was an exciting time. I was so thankful.”
A few weeks later Kale met with Chris and Megan for about a half hour after work one day, and Chris offered a scholarship to build a chair. It was mid-November and the bakery was busy with pre-holiday orders. With more time the first week of December Kale reached back out – they wanted to build a chair.
“Chris took me up to the lumberyard for our first day,” Kale says. “We picked out the wood, and he taught me how to read the grain, which I found super interesting. I was documenting all of it. I have so many pictures on my phone of this process because I figured, surely, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
Kale began working on the chair at LAP several days a week. After working an eight-hour shift at the bakery, Kale at first found the additional two to three hours of chairmaking exhausting. But then, it became something they not only look forward to, but found energizing.
“It really lit me up,” Kale says. “This was a whole new world I was trying my best to absorb in real-time.”
It took Kale about a month and a half to build their first five-stick chair.
“It’s really unfortunate how unhappy I am with my first chair,” Kale says. “Looking back, it’s difficult knowing what I know now. I literally knew nothing going in. I had no idea what stick chairs were. I was trying to take in the history of stick chairs on top of designing one for the first time. I didn’t have a vision going in. So now, of course, I can only think of all the things I’d do differently. I’m sure that some time from now it’ll be a story to laugh about then be proud of my progress, but I’m just not there yet.”
Kale was about halfway through building the chair when Chris asked if they’d sit down with him and Megan to chat. Kale was nervous.
“He brought me back to his office and he had a book in his hands that he said was a really profound book for him.”
The book was “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”
“He shared with me that it’s always been his dream to work with an apprentice and if I was interested, he had this idea about us both journaling from our perspectives during this process. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ It was so serendipitous. I go from working in a bakery and now there’s a possibility I get to learn from this master?”
By the time Kale finished the chair Chris had brought up the idea of a part-time position, working with him. By this point Kale had been looking for another job – they needed a full-time job. So Chris came up with a plan: They would work full-time at LAP, splitting their hours between working on editorial duties and helping with fulfilling orders.
“I think all of it was unexpected for the both of us,” Kale says. “I think we’re navigating it together.”
Kale’s been journaling, as Chris asked.
“Now that I’m working here, everything once again is a new experience,” Kale says. “I have so many thoughts about it all, so journaling has been helpful for processing.”
They are also studying the work of others.
“I’m learning about different styles and techniques,” Kale says. “It can feel a little overwhelming at times. I don’t yet feel ready to create my own designs. So as of now, to make myself feel less overwhelmed, I’m learning from the masters. I’m learning from Chris’s designs. I’ve been looking at Chris Williams’s work and of course John Brown, all the people I know Chris looks up to and has been inspired by. I’m taking note of the masters, taking what resonates and leaving the rest.”
These days Kale’s also been working on a research project for a workbench video, editing videos for the blog, and woodworking, which is considered part of the job (and really fun, they say, because it doesn’t feel like work). Megan is teaching Kale how to cut dovetails, and they’re finishing up a tool chest. Kale is also working on a second chair.
When not at LAP Kale loves spending time in nature.
“It’s my daydreaming time,” Kale says. Kale’s partner, Jordan, has two dogs and they like to take them out to explore several parks a week. Drawing will always be a hobby and lately, Kale’s been drawing a lot of chairs.
“I am wildly happy,” Kale says. “It’s been hard to articulate because I’m fighting the part of my brain that says this is too good to be true. I’m still in this headspace where I feel the need to prove to Chris that he made the right decision. I have a fair amount of imposter syndrome coming into this field, for good reason. Especially working with Chris and Megan, I mean, what teachers. I couldn’t ask for better role models. I’m allowing myself to be a student again and I’m just so wildly grateful to have been granted this opportunity.”
— Kara Gebhart Uhl
Sat here in the countryside of Southern England recovering from major surgery with a cold, neglected workshop across the garden I read this and almost had a weep for how good things can be. A truly lovely real world story and a credit to you all as fellow travellers. When I saw the sheer happiness on Kales face in her new Rangers uniform I knew this was authentic.
Would be great to have an update later, Best Wishes, Steve.
Good to “meet” you! I took a cross country trip in 1975 for three months with a buddy of mine. Best thing I ever did after pretty much failing college and not knowing my direction.
I think you will do just fine at LAP, you have some great teachers to work with.
The Return of The Joiner and Cabinet Maker. Can’t wait for that to be in print. Kale, keep that glue warm, don’t burn the place down, and have fun. Cheers!
What a wholesome story all around. Go Kale!!
What a tremendous act of courage! Best of luck!
THAT was a wonderful tale of journeys. Thanks for sharing!
To sum up, “I just really appreciate pastries.” That’s all I needed to see.
Assistant editor is all well and good. But they need a cool nickname. Sadly, I’m at a loss.
I’m hoping to follow them for years and years!
Congratulations, Kale! You are the perfect addition to the team. It’s really inspiring to see how things can work out, and Chris and Megan picked a first class apprentice!
Best thing I’ve read in a very long time. Thanks
Congratulations and welcome, Kale! A lot of us are deeply envious of your new job. I hope you never lose that “too good to be true” feeling.
Wonderful people at LAP. Great writing and warm hearts. Kale will have the time of their life.
Congratulations Kale! Wandering down roads takes you interesting places and you sure have arrived at one. Best wishes to you.
Very happy for you Kale! I’ve admired Chris from a distance, both for his writing and his woodworking. I envy you being his apprentice. What a terrific position to be in. Thanks for sharing your journey and good luck to you in this new world. Best, Dan
Great read and a big congrats to you Kale. LAP would be a dream job for many including myself. For all of the years that I followed Chris and his writings, I feel like he is a man of honesty, integrity, great moral character and a great teacher and I do not think you could ask for anyone else better to work and study under. Where would we be without Lost Art Press.
Wow that sounds like quite an exciting life so far! They sure are lucky to have taken that hike while young. I had a chance to do something similar but i chickened out and have regretted it the past 25+ years since. And then to just kind of fall into place of having a master woodworker take you to pick out lumber and build a chair? I am actually kind of jealous of Kale.
It’s great to see young people get involved in hand crafts, it appears to be a dying industry now a days.
One thing about the article, it refers to Kale in the plural sense, ‘they’ and ‘their’, probably just a slip up.
It may be intentional. Those are pronouns that people chose to speak about themselves. One needs to listen to how they talk about themselves instead of placing them into one of our preconceived notions of how we classify people in society.
I like details. Specifics. They matter. And Kara is an excellent writer, with a fine attention to detail. A quick count shows 22 uses of they in this blog post. I’d assert that Kara never had a slip-up 22 times, total.
The mistake is not Kara’s.
They is a gender-nonspecific singular pronoun. No mistake in sight.
This does tend to cause confusion, in the early part of the article the term ‘I’ is used, latterly ‘they’ is used, a contradiction? I, myself, me, prefer to stick to past convention, we all knew where we were then. Just my opinion, Folks, don’t get upset with my writings, please.
It’s time to make an adjustment, language evolves all the time. You’re right that ‘we all knew where we were then,’ except for quite a lot of people where they were was misunderstood, unrecognized, uncomfortable, unhappy, and even suicidal. You should be excited because it’s just one more way we can be kind and understanding to our fellow human beings. Isn’t that a good thing? Think about all of the people you’ve met in your life who fall somewhere in the middle of the gender spectrum. There’s nothing new here at all except that we now have language to recognize and affirm non-binary gender identity. If you read more about this, you’ll learn that other cultures in other places and times in human history have also figured this out. This is a really great development and long coming.
I so appreciate everyone’s observations and perspective on this matter. To put this to rest, I use they/she pronouns, however, I prefer “they” nowadays. While editing, Kara thoughtfully asked what pronoun I preferred for the piece. This new pronoun is relatively new for me so even I’m still navigating it! I have a lot of patience and understanding for people who ever misgender me, so no hard feelings over here. Again, I’m very appreciative of the safe space you all have created, I feel welcome and want to show you all the same respect.
Welcome, Kale.
Such a nice and interesting presentation – thank you to Kale, for telling us about themselves, and to Kara, for the well written pen portrait! I hope one day to get the opportunity to make your aquaintance in real life, Kale, and wish you much fun and great success with your apprenticeship and in your new job with LAP.
Cheers and all best,
Mattias
The opportunity that you have is amazing. Looking forward to hearing more about your experience as this grows! Good luck.
I’m betting I know what kind of chairs will be around their dining table…
Love the story. I have not had the opportunity to meet Chris, although I have met a number of well know woodworkers. Kale sounds like a really neat kid (I can say that as I am almost 72). So many adventures already in life. I envy her and wish her success working at Lost Art Press and with Chris.
Jerry
Kaple, perhaps you can write an updated version of ” The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” and do all the projects. It would be enjoyable to all. If needed, we in the peanut gallery can help with wood or tools.
Just ask.
Kale. Stupid auto-korrect.
Congratulations, you are getting to live what I would have consider a “dream” opportunity when I was your age.
Cheers
Congratulations and welcome to their team! Great folks all, and I’m sure there’s a good reason they picked you!
Brings me back to the trip I took just after high school graduation. My 4 best friends and I packed up a van and went out west. Backpacking in the Wind River valley, up through Yellowstone and Grand Teton, then on to visit friends in Seattle and Vancouver. From there headed up to the Alcan Highway and on to backpacking in a few spots in Alaska. From central Illinois. About 14,000 miles all told and about 7 weeks. I think of that trip at least once every day and that was about 15 years ago. You’ll still have all those memories your whole life!
Best of luck to you!
Cheers,
Dan
Welcome to LAP and it’s extended “family”. Hope this new adventure works out well for you.
Hell yeah! It’s great to have such a fresh perspective in the LAP mix!
Fantastic sketches!
Welcome Kale! Always refreshing to see someone getting into the craft without a single grey hair!
Hi Kale. You have a great and fascinating story! Thanks for sharing it. I am a fellow learning chair maker specifically in love with Irish hedge chairs and Jogge Sundqvist’s colorful Swedish style hedge chairs. I am also guided by Lost Press and Chris’ work. I was in Chris Williams’ chair class last year. So excited to see more of your work upcoming. Good luck and happy chairmaking. You are a great addition to the Lost Art Press. Cool how this happened so serendipitously!
I’m excited to participate vicariously (and enviously) in this apprenticeship!
Keep your tools sharp and clean, remember safety tips with sharp tools, enjoy the learning and doing. I’ve got a sort of apprentice myself, my step-grandson, who’s doing well so far. You’ve got great teachers. Welcome and all the best.
COOL!!!! Looking forward to following your journey ahead, Kale.
Old saying for sawing to a line: start right, stay right. It seems like you are off to an outstanding start in every way.
This story is another reason to keep buying LAP’s stuff. Kale, continue to swing for the fence (baseball metaphor).
Great story! We need more apprenticeships in all fields.
I went to a record store near AU in DC with a friend, because I was bored – he was looking for African drum music after coming home from the Gambia – that’s what he called it., in the atrium of tower records was a little news paper, learn to roll sushi, learn to line dance, learn to ride a horse, hmmm. 37 yrs later give or take, and I’m still teasing/teaching children of all ages, in life threatening situations, how to ride a horse. As you can tell I love mud on my boots, horse hugs, and an improper run-on sentence!
What a great intro to Kale, Kara. Look forward to seeing the great things that lie ahead.
Congrats Kale!
What a great introduction! Congrats Kale!
Smiles for all! Kale, thanks and all the best.
What a beautiful ride this story was. I found myself tearing up and I’m genuinely so happy for both Kara and Chris. (I’m such a sap!!)
Obviously the tears in my eyes made me write Kara instead of Kale. D’oh.
Kale is a kindred spirit… Long distance bicycle touring around the U.S is my thing. Did my first solo trip of over 3,100 miles in ’86. My most recent trip, 1,200 miles, was in 2022. I’ve been in the Everglades back county, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Rockies, Cascades, Appalachians, FL Keys, the east coast from Key West to Maine, Colonial Williamsburg, etc.
I met Chris years ago when he first visited Woodworker’s Showcase in Saratoga Springs, NY. That show is put on by my club, Northeastern Woodworkers Association. We were converging on Tom at the Lie-Nielson booth from opposite directions. The then brand new David Charlesworth DVD on shooting boards was handed to Chris by Tom… I commented that it was a great CD. They both looked at me and Tom asked “Where did you see it?” My response was met with smiles when I replied “I ordered it last week as I’m doing demonstrations on shooting boards at the show.” In later years Chris was back as a featured presenter… and later was part of Williamsburg’s annual woodworking program (along with Megan).
Kale has joined a great community of creative adventurers. Welcome!
Such a happy story! Looking forward to future updates on your apprenticeship Kale!
What a great story! Thank you.
I hang out in a lot of woodworking spaces that are filled with homophobic, toxic comments, so it’s so incredibly refreshing to see the way everyone is so embracing of Kale, working to use Kale’s pronouns, and even correcting gently and respectfully when other people push back on that.
Lost Art Press gets a disproportionate amount of my money – far more than my workmanship would indicate – and this is just more example of why.
Welcome aboard, Kale. You literally won the lottery.
It’s honestly “be kind or be gone” here. I don’t have to delete many comments (maybe three per year).
And that’s thanks to y’all.
So thanks.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Hugh. Thanks for the warm welcome!
A grumpy old man says, …
Thank you all at LAP, including especially Kale, your newest. Thanks for your uplifting story that warms hearts and restores faith in humanity. I’m old enough to be a grandfather and I tell you true, I’m as choked-up happy for you, Kale, as I’ve ever been for my own kids. What a great start you’re having. What a splendid outlook on life. You’re a cure for the blues.
I hope the LAP elders let you keep us onlookers updated on your new adventures. (In your spare time, of course, right!) Kale, there are so many of us LAP onlookers out here who can deeply appreciate your story and have the highest regard for your courage and openness to adventure. You don’t have to grow out of that, ever. Believe it.
PS: Congratulations to you, Kale, for choosing your pronouns. Yay! That is truly beautiful.
Happy Trails!
I loved this whole story. What an opportunity! I can’t wait to see how this all unfolds.
Also, Kale, I don’t think the imposter syndrome ever goes away. It hasn’t for me yet. Learn to live with it. Maybe everyone is a fraud?
This bio really helped my outlook today. In my 20s I hiked the Appalachian Trail. I often refer to it as reverse PTSD. Without fail, every day I get a flashback to the trail that gives me complete joy. It was the best decision of my life.
What was difficult for me in my late 20s, and even now, is gracefully acknowledging how my values have changed since then. When I see friends hiking other long trails, climbing, skiing, or just getting out more than me; I would feel guilt. That I have different priorities or that I’m not burning the candle at both ends to keep up.
I have a mortgage, a infant, decent job, and a woodworking hobby. To some people or even my past self, that may seem boring. Moments I get to spend with my daughter or in my shop remind me that things are pretty alright.
It’s nice to see someone from the other side acknowledge that it’s okay to change and find happiness. Godspeed on your journey Kale. Wherever it leads, I’m sure you’ll end up better for it and that’s all that matters.
Such a great story, and opportunity – it’s satisfying to see that good things do sometimes happen to good people in real life!
Best of luck to all of you on the journey ahead – I hope you really enjoy the experience.
Hello Kale! Great stuff! Sharing my journey: https://thedumalady.wordpress.com/2024/03/30/mysterious-myanmar-part-2-no-mud-no-lotus/