Artist’s Statement

I’d like to talk a little bit about the series I have come to call, Cast Glass Vessels. Just like any significant discovery it takes a number of factors aligning for things to manifest. I had been working in the field for approximately fifteen years, becoming quite skilled at the glass craft yet I was having difficulty finding my voice. I had come through the glass program at Massachusetts of art and been exposed to many ways of creating including casting glass and light fabrication.

One of the unique constraints of being a contemporary glassworker is ones relationship to the furnace. It was only recently that the glass craft made the jump from large-scale industrial glasshouses to the more familiar contemporary “studio movement” that we see today in the United States. My opportunity to realize this series aligned with my move to Tacoma and my relationship with the Museum of Glass. As a local glass artist I was available to produce evening demonstrations for private events. Having access to the facilities at MoG and developing a process that was both entertaining and effective birthed my artistic series of Cast Glass Vessels. To date I have produced these sculptural works as demonstrations across the country. From Urban Glass in Brooklyn NY to Ohio State University in Columbus OH and naturally here in the Pacific Northwest from Olympia, Tacoma and Seattle

Cast Glass Vessel, as a name is a simplistic yet covers the variety and process of this body of work. These pieces were originally called “Architectural Forms” for their stoic and constructivist nature and visual structural references. I was breaking out of my “glassblower” way of thinking. I began exploring my unique process of assembling glass forms in a similar manner as one would assemble slab built pottery. In a glass world of sleek beauty and perfection these works stand out a raw and honest. Bubbles ad scars lend detail to the journey these works travel upon their realization.