Statement of Process

Glass is a material I have been fascinated with my entire life. When I was four years old someone told me that glass was a liquid, like water, and I was hooked. ‘How could that be?’ I always asked myself. In the Fall of 1985, after making stained glass windows for two years I blew glass for the first time. Wow! What a sensual, sexy and challenging material to work with. And again, I was hooked.

Twenty years later, I am still as fascinated by glass as I ever have been and it is just as sensual and challenging. Glass has taught me the talents of compromise, understanding, patience, observation, focus and quick problem solving. Working molten glass at 2,000ºF is challenging not only because of the intense environment, but also because of the innate beauty of the material. It is fully alive and demands respect.

Why glass? There are easy answers, although, as an artist I continuously evaluate whether the materials I am using are appropriate to the ideas, emotions or whatever I am trying to express. This is extraordinarily difficult to do while being especially enamored of one material. Wood, metal, drawing, photography and other media are often the better material choices and they all present their own challenges and opportunities; however, glass is the perpetual teacher, the music and the dance partner.