For Garth Franklin, working with wood and steel is about more than making something beautiful. It is about creating things that invite people to connect, whether that is around a dining table, along a trail, or beside a 20-foot dinosaur sculpture.

A Summit County resident since 2014, Garth has spent the past decade building a creative career through his custom fabrication business, Franklin Woodworking, which he founded in Salt Lake City’s Granary District in 2016.

Franklin Woodworking specializes in custom furniture and structures made from wood and steel. Over the years, Garth has built everything from dining tables and doors to custom seating, saunas, playgrounds, and traditional timber-framed gazebos throughout the Wasatch Back. But alongside this work, he has found another creative outlet in public art.

From Furniture to 20 Foot Dinosaurs

Garth’s public art career began with the Arts Council of Park City & Summit County’s Art on the Trails program, where he created two pieces in 2021 and 2022. One of those pieces, Come to Your Senses, remains installed along the creek.

In 2023, Garth took his first major leap into large-scale public art with Hoodah, a 15-foot wooden troll that now stands outside his studio in Salt Lake City. Created as the mascot and protector of the Granary District, Hoodah has become a local icon and the namesake of Hoodah Fest, an annual celebration of the neighborhood’s arts and culture.

Garth followed Hoodah with Kosmo, a 20-foot steel Kosmoceratops inspired by a visit to the Natural History Museum of Utah. Learning that the dinosaur had only ever been discovered in Utah sparked the idea for what Garth calls “our original local.” Working with artist Alec Gonos, who created the digital model, Garth fabricated the massive sculpture, which toured the Granary District before finding its permanent home in Salt Lake City’s Poplar Grove neighborhood.

**Rusted Range**
*New fence behind the MARC’s pool*
Created in collaboration with Garth Franklin & Trevor Dahl

More recently, Garth has brought his fabrication skills back to Summit County. In 2026, he partnered with artist Trevor Dahl on two projects: Rusted Range, a new fence behind the MARC’s pool, and Patchwork Migration, a standalone sculpture along the Coalville Rail Trail inspired by the town’s quilting tradition and the migratory birds of the reservoir.

For Garth, public art offers something his custom work cannot. “Unlike my custom furniture business, these pieces are free to enjoy, and everyone creates their own relationship with them,” he says.

Inspired by the Material

At the heart of Garth’s work is a deep respect for the materials themselves. His woodworking practice is guided by the trees, boards, and makers that inspire him. “Working with wood is a process that requires constant sensitivity to the material,” Garth explains. “Working with beautiful boards from beautiful trees creates reverence around the process for me to do my best work.”

That reverence also shapes his approach to longevity. If a tree lived for a century, Garth wants the piece made from it to last just as long. Achieving that requires precision, an understanding of how wood changes over time, and a commitment to enduring design.

His inspirations range from the furniture makers he admires to the places where he encounters their work. A recent trip to Copenhagen for 3 Days of Design left him overflowing with ideas. Sitting in the chairs of designers Finn Juhl and Hans Wegner, artists whose work he had admired for years, felt like the culmination of a decade-long pilgrimage.

Where Craft Meets the Unexpected

While Garth’s furniture is rooted in craftsmanship and precision, his public art takes a decidedly more playful turn. He finds the most joy in creating work where “expectations of normalcy collide with absurdity.”

**Kosmo**
In collaboration with Garth Franklin & Alec Gonos

That philosophy was shaped in part by his experience building a theme camp at Burning Man. The experience changed the way he approached making, from working as an individual perfectionist to embracing the power of a collective. “I saw firsthand how a team with a common goal can make large things happen absurdly fast,” he says.

That energy followed him home. Both Hoodah and Kosmo were built in less than three weeks immediately following Burning Man, fueled by the collaborative spirit and creative momentum of the experience.

Today, Garth continues to move between the worlds of fine craftsmanship, fabrication, and public art, bringing the same attention to materials and detail to each. His work reminds us that art does not always have to live inside a gallery. Sometimes it can be a fence, a trail-side sculpture, a neighborhood guardian, or a giant dinosaur that makes you stop and smile.

And that might be the magic of public art: once it enters a community, it belongs to everyone.