Small blown glass vases

Artist Statement

When I first saw someone melting glass at age 7 I knew I wanted to do that. I finally got my first chance in college when I realized that there was a glass program at the University of Miami, where I was studying audio engineering. I started with soft glass in the hot shop in 2008, melting in front of a 2400˚ glory hole in the 97˚ heat of summer in Miami. After graduating from college in 2009 I moved to San Francisco. I couldn’t find a hot shop to work in, but I found a place in Berkeley that taught flameworking with borosilicate. It wasn’t as exciting and fast paced as soft glass but I soon fell in love with the amount of detail and intricacies that were possible with this more durable medium. After a year in the bay I moved to Santa Fe, NM and found a studio gallery to work soft glass and was able to set up a torch in my house so I could keep practicing with borosilicate. I stayed in Santa Fe for two years before I started to feel like I’d hit a ceiling and needed to be around more glass blowers so I moved back to Berkeley and hooked up with a really talented group of pipe makers at a time when the industry was taking off. Today I live and work in my home studio in Berkeley, CA.

I have a mathematical mind and a love for patterns and rhythms. I’ve played music for most of my life and when I started getting more into glass the rhythms and melodies I learned to play on instruments began to reappear in my work. I love making fillacellos because there are endless combinations and patterns that can emerge from this simple pattern and they seem to be universally understood and appreciated in the same way as music.