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Where it all began...
When I was a little kid in school I struggled with some of the cookie cutter teaching styles of elementary academic hell. There was no such thing as alternative learning techniques for reading in my home town, so my classmates and I were expected to develop and perform to the same weights and measures. I learned at a very young age that this set me apart from my peers. Unfortunately once a child gets left behind in school they often stay behind with the help of teachers who turn a blind eye to alternative needs. I developed stealth maneuvers of protection to go unnoticed. I hid my voice, my ideas...myself. With the support of my Mother I was able to recognize I had creative abilities that provided me uniqueness. My Mom declared me an artist from the day I picked out my first 64 set box of crayons. With a voice in hiding as a child art was the only mode of expression... and as an adult, the ultimate.
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A little stained glass history...
Stained glass was once held high as a architectural component for cathedral enlightenment. After the realization of excessive maintenance, it took a back seat to more cost effective light sources. Stained glass fell into the hands of hobbyists and artisans who developed the ultimate line of unattractive sun catchers and shrinky-dinks and thus it took a heavy fall from grace. Its no wonder stained glass as a medium falls low on the totem pole in the arts community. It is paid little attention by museum and even less by galleries. The amount of artist exclusive to flat glass these days can barley be held in one hand. This lack of attention has left this medium excessively under explored and underdeveloped. This is not the main attraction to stained glass for me but an idea that I find very appealing.
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This is where I come in...
I discovered stained glass 12 years ago when I first moved to Seattle and fell in love with it. The substance itself is beautiful before it has even been cut into pieces and reassembled. I trained myself in the traditional techniques of stained glass, worked as a fabricator for many years, then went home to develop a technique uniquely my own. MY intensions with this series are to remove these panels from the necessity of an architectural structure and let them be their own freestanding selves. I have challenged myself with the idea of crossing over glass mediums by adding cast, fused and blown inclusions. I find these pieces to be much more expressive by adding a third dimensions in the mix. My inspiration usually comes from the challenge of how to actually create what I can see so perfectly clear inside my mind. With the fabrication of one idea comes the evolution of the next.
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