J.T. Kirkland: Blogger, Kentuckyan, Publisher, Artist, and by day, IT guy (oh, and former DCist contributor). At least that’s what I imagined the door might say outside his studio/home when we visited him in Ballston last week. Where does the guy keep his spandex-kevlar lined jumpsuit? I was prepared to believe that he may jump out of his two story rental at any moment to call on one of his multifarious duties.

But there’s focus. This man is a hole driller first.

Kirkland’s work is comprised of holes in wood — a medium he feels cannot be improved upon — and he’s completely serious about it. He draws, paints and sculpts with no formal art school background. He’s a thorough amateur who ignores others who thumb him off to Martin Puryear and the cannons of minimalism. He drills on.

“My first experience with wood work was in my father’s shop. He told me to sand and I did, like this,” he motions with his gritted paper against the grain, “but he just barked at me, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ I went off to play video games and didn’t touch another piece of wood for twenty years.”