It’s interesting to contemplate the many obstacles to liberty - past, present, and future. Walking through the glass gallery of the National Liberty Museum (NLM), home to Maurice Gareau’s biblical glass scenes in stained glass, one remembers the colonists who came to America seeking religious freedom. Having escaped persecution in Europe, their challenge then became how to live in peace with others who did not share their beliefs. The NLM’s glass chess set by Gianni Toso includes flameworked pieces arranged in groups, as if conspiring to find answers to the complicated dilemmas that the search for liberty generates.

Located in the heart of historic Philadelphia, the National Liberty Museum is dedicated to preserving America’s heritage of freedom by encouraging people to find their own place in the story of liberty. Visitors to the Museum enjoy an inspiring and entertaining experience, as they interact with incredible stories of heroes and a collection of contemporary glass art including a 20-foot tall glass art sculpture entitled Flame of Liberty by Dale Chihuly. 

The National Liberty Museum first opened its doors to the public in January 2000. An independent learning and exhibit center, the museum is supported by visitors, community leaders, and foundations. Core themes include leadership and good character, diversity and inclusion, peaceful conflict resolution, and civic engagement.

In the Spring of 2017, the NLM sponsored a temporary exhibit titled The Treachery of Images: A Glass Art Exhibition. This exhibit pushed the limits of artistic respectability by showcasing the work of pipe makers and embracing the challenges they face in their efforts to be accepted within the art world. Later in the podcast, you’ll hear from pipemaker Jeremy Grant Levine, also known as Germ.

The NLM’s current GlassAccess Temporary Exhibit, Transparency: An LGBT+Q Glass Art Exhibition began in June runs through August 6, 2017. To celebrate Pride 2017, the National Liberty Museum hosted the nation’s first museum exhibit of studio glass works produced exclusively by artists of the LGBTQ community. Later in the podcast you’ll hear from participating artists Tim Tate, Jenny Pohlman and Sabrina Knowles.

We begin our podcast tour of the National Liberty Museum's history, goals, and exhibitions with glass department manager, Meegan Coll.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that we are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 65.3 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 21.3 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. In a world where nearly 34,000 people are forcibly displaced every day as a result of conflict or persecution, Susan Cox makes a poignant statement about the importance of home and the heartbreak of losing our place in the world.

Informed and inspired by her background in architecture, Cox’s cast glass forms reveal her unique understanding of the correlation between light and space. The artist considers elements that define the concept of "home," including the evanescent qualities of childhood memories and the lifelong moments of looking back and looking forward. She explores the landscape where we feel most at peace or at home, as well as the act of individualizing a home to identify and make our own. Cox’s sculpture triggers examination of the home within each of us.

Working at her kiln and casting studio in Pound Ridge, New York, Cox earned a Master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University. In 2009 she turned to glass as a more immediate means of exploring ideas about light, space, and memory. In 2014, Cox was awarded a four-month residency at Bullseye Resource Center, Mamaroneck, New York, and was selected as an “E-merge” finalist. In 2015, she was honored by ArtsWestchester as one of their “50 For 50” artist’s, recognizing 50 outstanding artists living or working in Westchester County. Cox had her first solo exhibition "Finding Home," held December 3, 2016 through April 4, 2017 at View Art Center, in Old Forge, New York.                 

Judson Studios’ Resurrection Window, the largest single composition fused glass window in the world, was dedicated in April, 2017. Created for the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, the groundbreaking work measures a mammoth 37 feet tall by 93 feet wide. For the ambitious project, Judson Studios collaborated with world-renowned artist Narcissus Quagliata to bring Judson designer Tim Carey’s vision to life. This represents the first time a notable liturgical window was created entirely from fused glass.

Chosen for the Resurrection Window project via a worldwide selection process, Judson Studios designed, fabricated, and installed 161 panels each measuring 4 feet wide by 5 feet tall. Located above the sanctuary chancel and choir loft, the spectacular 3,404 square feet of glass is comprised of approximately 6,000 individual pieces of painted, fused, and glazed glass. Though protected from the elements by a glass curtain wall, the colossal expanse of art glass is visible at night from miles away.

To accomplish the daunting task of producing this first ever fused window wall, Judson Studios expanded from their workspace in nearby Highland Park to a new addition in South Pasadena. More than 5,000 square feet of modern factory and kiln capabilities enabled the studio, with Quagliata’s assistance, to complete their most challenging commission to date.

The dramatic centerpiece of a $93-million capital improvement plan, the Resurrection Window serves as a beacon on the church’s 76-acre Leawood campus. Designed by Minneapolis-based HGA Architects and Engineers and Gould Evans of Kansas City, the new sanctuary changed the local landscape with its seven stainless steel-clad exterior panels. These "sails" rise more than 104 feet above ground and represent each day of creation, the wholeness of life, and the seven days of Holy Week. In harmony, Judson’s Resurrection Window tells the biblical story from Genesis through Revelation.

Our conversation begins with president of Judson Studios, David Judson. Next we’ll hear from designer Tim Carey, then Narcissus Quagliata about each of their roles and experience in the creation of the Resurrection Window.

Robert Mickelsen’s second act in glass not only pays homage to his early career in flameworking, but couldn’t have happened without it. The artist gracefully transitioned from sculptural to functional glass, promoting his artwork to an entirely new fan base and resulting in the most successful years of his career.

Born in 1951 in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mickelsen apprenticed with a professional lampworker for two years in the mid ‘70s, then sold his own designs at outdoor craft fairs for 10 years. In 1987 he took a class from Paul Stankard that opened his eyes to the possibilities of his medium. 

Mickelsen stopped doing craft shows in 1989 and began marketing his work through fine galleries and exhibitions in high profile shows nationwide. His work can be found in many prominent collections including the Renwick Gallery of American Crafts at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.; the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning New York; and The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Ohio. 

Beginning in the mid 1990s, Mickelsen taught flameworking at major glass schools including the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood Washington; Penland School of Crafts, Bakersville, North Carolina; and The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. He has published numerous technical and historical articles on flameworked glass and served for six years on the board of directors of the Glass Art Society as treasurer and vice-president.

June 19 - 23, 2017, Mickelsen will co teach with Jared Betty the first flameworking workshop at Pratt Fine Arts in Seattle, Washington, to include pipe making as part of the curriculum. From July 17 – 21, 2017 Mickelsen returns for his ninth year in a row to Pittsburgh Glass Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to teach the creation of organic forms made from bubbles of borosilicate glass. He also teaches private workshops at his home studio in Ocala, Florida. 

Like something out of a dark fairytale, David Fode’s personal work in stained glass entices the viewer with its frighteningly beautiful aesthetic. His alluring autonomous panels painted in the Munich style provide a canvas for Fode’s highly detailed and elaborate renderings, resulting in an irresistible synthesis of the exquisite and the macabre.

Since 2004, Fode has been designing and fabricating independent works in glass from his Waukesha, Wisconsin, studio HaeuserHeil as a means of promoting the Munich style for applications in private and smaller public venues. Though Fode’s subjects are not ancient, his medium is, making for an interesting and endlessly appealing dichotomy. His contemporary content helps to legitimize the stained glass craft through its appeal to today’s art viewing and art buying audience.

Formally trained in illustration at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, Illinois, Fode has worked in stained glass studios for nearly 20 years, replicating the Munich style for new and preservation projects across the United States. As senior artist at Gaytee-Palmer Stained Glass in Minneapolis, Minnesota, last year Fode designed 14 4' by 4' windows for Trinity High School in Bismarck, North Dakota. With natural light on only one side, the remaining windows were artificially lit to mimic natural light. LED panels set on dimmer switches and timers controlled the light replicating daylight as closely as possible.

Whether creating autonomous panels, restoring historical glass, or designing new projects at Gaytee-Palmer, Fode’s artistic endeavors serve his goal of keeping the art of stained glass alive.

Lino Tagliapietra’s visit to Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, in the late 1970s was a game-changer. His willingness to share glassblowing techniques regarded as Muranese secrets with American artists hungry for knowledge was one of the most important seeds of the Studio Glass movement’s growth. For Tagliapietra, the Americans planted a seed also, one that would encourage him to leave his career working in Italian glass factories and transform himself into an independent glassblower and artist.

Since 1990, the Maestro has created some of the world’s most recognizable blown glass, represented by prestigious museums including the De Young Museum, San Francisco, California; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; the Metropolitan Museum, New York, New York, as well as by numerous galleries and private collections.

Tagliapietra’s awards and honors are innumerable and include his 2006 Distinguished Educator Award presented by the James Renwick Alliance of Washington D.C. In 2011, the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti in Venice held an exhibition Lino Tagliapietra from Murano to Studio Glass, and in 2015 bestowed upon him the coveted Career Award. Tagliapietra holds two honorary degrees and the title PhD of Fine Arts from Ohio State University. In 2012 the Maestro was chosen for the renowned Phoenix Award. In 2014 he was presented with the Visionary Award at Art Palm Beach, Florida, followed by the Best Glass Work Award, Masterpiece exhibition, London, UK.

Tagliapietra is widely revered as the Maestro of glassblowing, an inspiring teacher, and the elder statesman linking the glass centers of Venice, Italy, and the Pacific Northwest. Vessels, installations, panels, and Avventurina comprise his current body of work. His 2017 exhibition schedule includes Sandra Ainsley Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, from May 13 through August 6; and Lino Tagliapietra, Master of a Glass Renaissance, Morris Museum, Morristown, now through June 18. The New Jersey exhibition will showcase approximately 30 Tagliapietra masterpieces in collaboration with Schantz Galleries.

Widely regarded as one of the godfathers of the functional glass community, Banjo works glass in a torch to create mind-blowing psychedelic sculpture that transcends its functionality. In doing so, the artist has attracted a legion of faithful fans and collectors, many who do not smoke marijuana.

Banjo’s glasswork brings to life interdimensional biomechanical deities that represent the emergence of sacred feminine energy within the post-modern techno-industrial matrix. He also pays homage to pop culture, crafting thousand-plus piece Transformer robots, motorcycles, cars, and Star Wars characters in borosilicate glass.

Though it’s happening, Banjo and his contemporaries don’t need gallery support or acceptance from the mainstream art world in order to sell their work. The functional glass community has always been tightly woven with the fibers of social networking. With over 150,000 followers on Instagram, hungry collectors devour Banjo’s new work the minute images appear online.

“Pipe-makers, glassblowers, and even glass collectors make up an entirely new class of cannabis celebrity,” wrote Ben Parker Karris, editor and correspondent for Kind Stash, Los Angeles, California. “With the nationwide legalization of marijuana, more artists will be inspired to enter the glass industry, because the demand for pieces is growing so quickly. This heightened demand creates a rise in the value of the work as well. Artists who were once barely earning money for their work are sometimes pulling in as much as $30,000 per piece.”

In 2016, Banjo had his first solo exhibition, Sacramental Vessels, held October 8 through November 13, 2016 at Gregorio Escalante Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Featured alongside other visionary works by Alex and Allyson Grey, Amanda Sage, Chris Dyer, and Luke Brown, Banjo’s android-goddesses snuggled in amongst their pistons and gears, represent harbingers of another incremental step towards normalizing and celebrating marijuana culture as part of creative life. Goddesses in vibrant transparent colors mingled with those created in opaque glass, each one surrounded by the hundreds of detailed nuts, bolts, screws, and knobs of Banjo’s mega-mechanisms.

In terms of industry growth over the next few years, many believe the functional glass movement has a chance to become one of the biggest art movements in recent history. According to Banjo, the government called glass pipes a billon dollar industry as far back as 2003. He estimates that currently between five and 10 functional glass artists are earning half a million dollars per year, with over 300 artists bringing in over 100K each.
Nice and tidy.

From the archives, this very first episode of Talking Out Your Glass has been edited and re-released for your listening pleasure.

Former editor of Glass Art magazine Shawn Waggoner interviews internationally respected artist Narcissus Quagliata about his 2013 book, "Archetypes and Visions in Light and Glass." They discuss highlights from his 40 years of groundbreaking glass projects, including his work with the figure and public projects such as his Dome of Light in Taiwan. Just how did he conceive and execute one of the world’s largest stained glass domes?

At 19, Preston Singletary was the night watchman at Rob Adamson’s Glass Eye studio in Seattle. Three months later he started blowing glass, working with his childhood friend Dante Marioni. Both artists credit a visit from Italian Maestro Lino Tagliapietra as well as Pilchuck classes with inspiring their subsequent successful careers in glass.

In the 1980s, Singletary began incorporating Tlingit designs into his work. By doing so he found not only a new artistic direction but a captive audience for glass that reflected the stories and symbols of his Native Southeast Alaskan tribe. Singletary transformed the notion that Native artists work best with traditional materials. The evolution of his glass working skills and designs along with his subsequent commercial success has positioned Singletary as a primary influence on contemporary indigenous art.

Wrote Matthew Kangas for Visual Art Source: “Making indigenous art releases the ego tied up with individual artistic expression in favor of a wider, collective surge and cross-cultural impact. Combining private and public commissions as well as mainstream gallery commitments, Singletary’s new work is advancing both glass and contemporary Native American art. He is perhaps now the leading artist doing so.”

Singletary’s astounding commissions include his glass Clan House screen and house posts at the Walter Soboleff Center in Juneau, Alaska. The screen depicts a Northwest Coast design in sandblasted glass. On the left stands an Eagle warrior; on the right stands a Raven. This screen measures approximately 11.5 feet high by 16 feet wide and weighs over 1000 lbs. It is comprised of 28 glass panels, 28 Plexiglas panels, and over 200 custom made mounting bolts.

More than five years in the making, Singletary’s Family Story Totems include three 7-foot tall 3-dimensional glass totem poles depicting a beloved family story about the artist’s great-grandmother. A collaboration with longtime friend and woodcarver David Svenson, the Family Story Totems are three of the largest cast glass sculptures in the world. From designing, to carving, to casting first in plaster, then bronze, then lead crystal - this project broke boundaries in art glass production. No other artist has attempted glass casting on this scale with this detail.

In terms of his gallery work, Singletary will exhibit new sculpture in Premonitions of Water at the Traver Gallery in Seattle from April 6 – 29, 2017. Opening in 2018 at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Raven and the Box of Daylight is the Tlingit story of Raven and his transformation of the world—bringing light to people via the stars, moon, and sun. A dynamic combination of artwork, storytelling, and encounter, the exhibition allows the treasured Tlingit creation myth to unfold during the visitor’s experience.

When he’s not making art, Singletary sings and plays bass with his band Khu.éex’ (pronounced koo-eex). This one-of-a-kind musical collaboration included the legendary late Rock and Roll Hall of Fame composer and performer Bernie Worrell of Parliament/Funkadelic and Talking Heads. Other bandmates include Skerik collaborator with Pearl Jam, Stanton Moore of Galactic, Captain Raab of Red Earth, and tribal members Clarissa Rizal, Gene Tagaban and Nahaan. Following their debut album, “The Wilderness Within," their second album “They Forgot They Survived” will be released on triple vinyl. We’ll hear a track, “Angry Bear,” later in the show.

Of the handful of Native Americans working in glass Singletary is a forerunner, using previously undeveloped techniques to revolutionize a new art form. The artist has unintentionally carved a place in history for himself by sharing Tlingit stories and traditions in the unexpected and technically challenging medium of glass.

Paul Messink’s multilayered kilnformed glass panels draw the viewer into an ethereal and ghostly landscape that represents the uncertainty of life and its myriad directions. Transforming a painting, an historically two-dimensional art form, into a three-dimensional scene with depth and perspective, Messink poses questions about choices and pathways via scenes obscured and enhanced by the mystery of fog and mist.

Frequently asked if a photograph has been embedded in his layers of glass, Messink actually creates his imagery by applying glass enamels and fusing. The artist creates depth by layering the glass, diminishing the size and color of his subject matter, and manipulating texture and translucence. Messink typically uses between nine and 12 layers of glass that are kilncast into one solid panel.

Formerly an IT project manager in Chicago, Messink is currently based out of Palm Desert, California, with studios in both Palm Desert and the nearby Coachella Valley Art Center in Indio, California. While mostly self-taught, workshops of artists such as Susan Taylor Glasgow, Richard LaLonde, Mark Salsbury, Annette Baron, and Don Schneider helped him refine and advance his technique. Messink now teaches his process around the country to other artists and kilnworkers looking for more expressive approaches in glass.

Messink was awarded “Best in Glass” in the 2012 and 2014 Royal Oak Clay, Glass and Metal show, Royal Oak, Michigan, and was awarded “Multi-Media Artist of the Year” in the Art Comes Alive 2013 competition, Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2014 he received a category award in The Glass Prize 2014, sponsored by Warm Glass UK, and was also awarded "Best in Show" at GATHERING: Contemporary Glass from the Heartland, sponsored by the Indiana Glass Art Alliance.  In 2015 he took home the "People's Choice Award in Glass" at the 3rd Brea Clay and Glass Exhibit, in Brea CA. Messink has participated in numerous group shows around the country.

Award winning artist/designer Peter McGrain has been working with stained glass for over 30 years. During this time he has handled every type of stained glass project imaginable, ranging in scope from intimate experimental panels to large scale architectural installations. The book Uncommon Stained Glass charts McGrain's journey from crafter to award-winning artist.

In 1990 McGrain's panel "Shrimping the Spring Tide" was honored by the World Glass Congress as the finest example of stained glass created anywhere on earth during the 1980s. The artist expanded his worldwide notoriety through the creation of exhibition showpieces designed and fabricated for Kokomo Opalescent Glass Works and the Paul Wissmach Glass Co. 

Since the development of McGrain's Vitri Fusaille process - a hybrid of glass fusing and traditional glass painting - demand for his workshops has been on the rise along with increased gallery interest. His piece "Man with Fish" appeared in New Glass Review 26, the Corning Museum’s annual survey of avant-garde glass. In 2012, McGrain proved to himself and the world that Vitri Fusaille could also be used in the creation of architectural work as seen in his commission for the Jewish Home in Rochester, New York, his home town. 

I met McGrain in the late 1980s. In fact, he was one of the first artists about whom I wrote a major feature for Glass Art magazine. I had seen his work for the Strassenburgh Planetarium in Rochester and thought it was not only cutting-edge in terms of design and execution, but far superior to much of the stained glass of the day.

The recipient of the American Glass Guild’s 2014 Joseph Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award, McGrain has always been in demand as a teacher, lecturer, and author of books and journal articles, including his current ongoing series for Glass Art magazine on traditional glass painting. McGrain is grateful to stained and fused glass pioneer Dan Fenton for inviting him to teach his first workshop, sparking the discovery of the joy of sharing knowledge and information with students all over the world.

In this conversation, McGrain discusses his early history, his teaching philosophies, and his best works. We’ll even hear an original song!

Richard Jolley, internationally recognized as one of today's most accomplished and inventive glass sculptors, was born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1952. As a youth, he moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and in 1970 began his art training at Tusculum College in Greenville, Tennessee, studying under noted glass artist Michael Taylor. After receiving his BFA from George Peabody College in Nashville (now part of Vanderbilt University), Jolley continued graduate studies at North Carolina's Penland School of Crafts, under the instruction of studio glass artist Richard Ritter. Jolley has participated in over 65 solo museum and gallery exhibitions throughout the United States and in Australia, Europe, Israel, and Japan.

Jolley's sculpture takes the form of drawings, busts, totems, suspended figures, birds, the garden -- all exploring issues of the human condition, nature, and the universe through the use of glass, color, and contemporary symbolism. Jolley’s work is alluring, in part because it allows the viewer to escape from the everyday into a dream. His message: Art is not limited by its medium but is open to a continuous exploration of new possibilities for what can be meaningful to the human eye.

On May 4, 2014, the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee, debuted Jolley’s new, monumentally scaled sculpture commissioned and created especially for the museum's newly refurbished Great Hall, recently renamed the Ann and Steve Bailey Hall. Cycle of Life measures 100 feet long by 12 feet tall, making it one of the largest figurative glass-and-steel assemblages in the world. Fashioned of thousands of individual cast and blown-glass elements, the massive work unfolds as an epic narrative of the successive phases of life.

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In the process of inspiring others to try glass, Fritz Dreisbach began studying and reinventing historic shapes in glass with his personal brand of irony, humor, and fun. Above all he tried to capture the fluid nature of his medium in homage to the molten material used to create the work. Children’s toys and games, funk art (especially ceramics), and 1960s comics all inform and inspire Dreisbach’s artwork. His influences include and are as diverse as Jackson Pollock, Claus Oldenburg, Robert Arneson, Clayton Baily, Fred Bauer, and R. Crumb.

Dreisbach, who now lives on Whidbey Island, works out of his glass studio in Freeland, Washington, creating a new series of wheel-carved and cameo-cut sculpture. In addition, he continues to explore his large blown works known as Mongos, and produces playful goblets, trick glasses, and toy vehicles.

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Equal parts artist, scientist, and historian, Fritz Dreisbach has spent the last five decades teaching and demonstrating glassblowing around the world. This Johnny Appleseed of Glass has himself played a vital role in the history of the American Studio Glass movement that he now strives to preserve and share with the next generation of artists.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dreisbach grew up in Akron as part of a family of educators. His father, a college chemistry professor, and mother, a high school music and literature teacher, created in their son what is referred to as conciatore - a marriage of art and science. Fritz holds two bachelor degrees, one in art and one in math. This duality is reflected in both his technical consulting for glass factories such as the Glass Eye Studio, Spectrum Glass, Kugler Colors, and Seattle Batch as well as his continuing personal journey to express using hot glass.

Dreisbach studied painting and sculpture at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, earning his MA. Planning to eventually teach painting, his advisor instructed him to study a broad range of artistic subjects. A two-credit course in glassblowing was part of the curriculum, and serendipitously his love affair with glass began. Dreisbach continued his studies at the University of Wisconsin where he earned an MFA and was inspired by three pioneers of the Studio Glass movement: Harvey Littleton, Dominick Labino, and Erwin Eisch. His education includes a hefty dose of art history including Ancient, Renaissance, and 20th-century painting and sculpture. His background in painting and classical intaglio printmaking provides the basis for practical color theory.

When the excitement of working with hot glass spread from the University of Wisconsin, no one traveled farther or more frequently than Dreisbach to proselytize about glassblowing. The artist visited the first summer session held at Pilchuck Glass School in 1971 and has been active with the school as teacher, advisor, and trustee for 39 years. He also helped found the Glass Art Society, which presented him with a lifetime achievement award in 2002.

By single-handedly revolutionizing the craft of stained glass through her unique aesthetic and inventive approach to materials, Judith Schaechter championed her medium into the world of fine art. The content of her work - which gives voice to those who experience pain, grief, despair, and hopelessness - resonates with viewers, leaving a profound and lasting impression.

In 1983, Schaechter graduated with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design Glass Program and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she is now an adjunct professor at The University of the Arts. Her current work was on view in October 2016 at Claire Oliver galley in New York City, in an exhibition titled The Life Ecstatic.

Schaechter’s exhibition history includes the 2002 Whitney Biennial and a collateral exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2012. Her work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum in New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the Hermitage in Russia; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York; and The Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

Schaechter found success early and has sustained it throughout her career. In 2008 she was named a USA Artists Rockefeller Fellow and in 2013 was inducted to the American Craft Council College of Fellows. She is the recipient of many grants including the Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, to name but a few.

Bob Leatherbarrow established Leatherbarrow Glass Studio in Calgary in 1988 and has created original kilnformed glass ever since. Known for his innovative styles, techniques, and designs, he has taken an experimental approach to developing unique textures and colour palettes using glass powders. His glass bowls and sculptures explore the subtle hues and delicate beauty of naturally occurring textures and encourage the viewer to ponder their origin.

In 2008 Leatherbarrow moved his studio to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, where he continues to make glass art and write e-books on his signature techniques. The artist has also been a popular instructor on both the national and international kilnformed glass scenes. Join us for this fascinating conversation with Leatherbarrow about his techniques and aesthetic approach to kiln formed glass.

On May 12 at Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, Washington, a full capacity audience of 275 guests attended Pilchuck Celebrates and toasted the 2016 Honorees. Glassblowing pioneer Dante Marioni, 52, was awarded The Libenský | Brychtová Award, which acknowledges extraordinary talent and high achievement in the world of contemporary glass.

Marioni took the glass world by storm at age 19 with his exacting and intuitive command of both Venetian design and technique. The resulting monumental Post Modern sculpture referred to vessels and paid homage to glassblowing itself. His early aesthetic signature included graceful form, impeccable finish, and the use of solid opaque colors, all of which made his work instantly recognizable.

Always looking for a new challenge, Marioni’s series are short-lived. The natural evolution of process and form led to an aesthetic shift away from opaque, bold color to an exploration of pattern created through Venetian techniques such as reticello and latticino in transparent glass. Marioni’s current work beguiles the viewer with its intricacy, beauty, and perfection of form, revealed in sculptural vessels that are inspired by the stylized leaf as found in the decorative arts.

Marioni’s work will be exhibited in Classical, Native, and Pop Cultures, on view September 2 – 30 at Schantz Gallery, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, along with the work of Preston Singletary and Richard Marquis. His solo exhibition, In a Breath, opens November 4 at Ken Saunders Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, during the first week of SOFA and runs through December 2016.

Washington DC artist Michael Janis has developed and refined an intuitive technique over many years, creating detailed imagery by manipulating glass powder. His illustrative works in glass are dreamy and beautifully stylized. His moody glass panels feature partially obscured people submersed in nature or seemingly dissolving beneath colors and patterns.

Maurine Littleton Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Echoes of Leaves and Shadows, a solo exhibition of new glass works and sculptures by Janis on view from September 16 – October 14, 2016. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with Maurine Littleton Gallery.

Janis' work explores the unseen sides of life, longing and loneliness, juxtaposed with fragile beauty. The atmosphere in his subject matter is often presented as if in a dream or limbo-like state, with elements of surrealism.

The artist discusses his new series of work as well as his role as co director of the Washington Glass School.

Tom Holdman currently faces the biggest challenge of his career – how to depict thousands of years of world history in the 200-foot stained glass wall his studio is creating for Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah. Holdman, artist and CEO of Holdman Studios, is a man on a mission, determined to complete all 80 panels for his masterwork, Roots of Knowledge (RoK), by the end of October 2016. His monumental masterpiece depicts the most important advances in human knowledge and civilization, inspiring individuals to reach their full potential while illuminating stained glass as one of the highest art forms on earth.

In this conversation with both Holdman and lead artist Cameron Oscarson, we learn how the creative team functions, how the windows were designed, painted, and fabricated, and how the team will meet the great race to the finish line of completion.

On the cover of Glass Art magazine's July August 2016 issue. For back issues go to www.glassartmagazine.com

Visit www.rootsofknowledge.org for more information and to donate to the project.

Ben Sharp’s artistic focus developed out of his longtime fascination with early aeronautics and the history of navigation. In developing his sculptural style, Sharp drew from engineering, geometry and mapping, and studies of proportion, balance, and light. His visually captivating and seemingly weightless sculptures incite a nostalgic sense of adventure.

Avoiding trite whimsy, Sharp juxtaposes industrial metal with centuries-old cane techniques to subtly reference the stitched netting and structures of hydrogen air balloons, zeppelins, and dirigibles. His work refers not only to flight, but alludes to the mysteries of science and the journeys of the human imagination.

Originally from Gainesville, Florida, Ben Sharp lives in Stanwood, Washington. He is currently Head Studio Technician at Pilchuck Glass School. Prior to joining Pilchuck’s team six years ago, he gained diverse experience working in fabrication at the National Casting Center Foundry, on scientific glassblowing projects for NASA, and in color production at Bullseye Glass Co. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2006 from Alfred University, and he has taught at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, and The Studio at Corning Museum of Glass. In 2012, he completed a Visiting Artist Residency at Museum of Glass-Tacoma, and this year (2015) received a Juror’s Choice Award by Spokane Arts.

Nicholas Parrendo’s Labor of Love

“Stained glass is put together with lead, and lead is flexible to allow the glass to contract and expand. If you want to live a long life, you’ve got to be flexible.”

Artist and owner of Hunt Stained Glass Studios in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Nicholas Parrendo spent his career in service to the studio and the multitudes of churches and synagogues for which he designed and fabricated or restored stained glass windows. His absolute reverence for the craft he undertook as young man is evident in his artwork as well as the many related endeavors he participated in throughout his career that spanned more than six decades.

Parrendo exhibited work for and is a member of both the American Glass Guild (AGG) and the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA). He was presented with both organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award – SGAA’s in 1999 and AGG’s in 2009. As a senior advisor for the AGG, Parrendo participated in the organization’s conferences and exhibitions. In 2012, when AGG’s conference was held in Pittsburgh, Parrendo hosted an intensive painting workshop at his studio.

He delighted in presenting slide shows and lectures for various organizations and schools, taking the opportunity to encourage others to share in his passion for stained glass. He was a guest lecturer at several SGAA summer conferences as well as a master instructor of stained glass for the Life Long Learning Program of Carnegie Mellon University. He taught at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the Pioneer Crafts Council, Farmington, Pennsylvania; and at St. Michael’s Institute on Enders Island, Mystic, Connecticut.

Parrendo passed away February 11, 2016. He worked six days a week into his 80s, starting every morning at his church, St. Cyril of Alexandria on Brighton Road, attending  morning Mass, doing readings, and leading hymns.

"I think my father possesses more than talent when it comes to stained glass. It’s more like a special gift," says daughter, Celeste Parrendo. “He has such a passionate love for what he does.”

In this interview from Glass Art magazine's archives, Tina Oldknow, former Curator of Modern and Contemporary Glass at The Corning Museum of Glass, discusses the museum's new Art + Design Wing. She also reveals her criteria for Rakow Commission award recipients and how museum donations were secured and incorporated into CMOG's collection. Part 2 of 2.