I love the glass
blowing process, and it is not just because it is hot,
dirty work, that somebody has to do. I was passionate about
it from the moment I first gathered molten glass from the
furnace. There is nothing quite as exciting as shaping and
forming this hot material that you can never actually
touch; and yet, there is such a tender and intimate
relationship with the medium. The basic process has not
changed over the centuries. The same few simple tools which
were used
to shape glass centuries ago are still used today. One can
only guess that the person working a millennium ago
experienced the same elation from the smooth, fluid
symmetry in a gather of molten glass. There is tension that
builds as one works with a piece knowing that it can be
lost
at any time. No piece is ever quite reproducible or
predicable, and that is part of the excitement and mystery
of glass.
My work emphasizes the process of blowing and forming hot
glass using design elements that can be incorporated into
the molten material. The long tradition of working with the
material in its “purest form” is compelling. My
challenge is to add these elements into the pieces and
still maintain the integrity of the process. I want to
capture the beauty that can be implicit in the simplest
form, line, and color.
