Glass Artist

Kenan Tiemeyer began his journey in the art of borosilicate flameworking in 2000 after moving from Michigan to the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia. He had graduated from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich. with a degree in communication/film and video production and was looking for an artistic outlet that would allow for a quiet rural lifestyle. Since then, he has been challenged to decipher the "language of glass" and his creative spirit continues to be enlivened through the art of flameworking glass orbs and paperweights. While reflecting on the essence of existence/consciousness, Kenan’s hot glass exploration deals with the metaphysical concepts celebrating the human creative spirit. Kenan feels blessed and inspired living and working in the ancient beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains with his artist wife and two children.

Benjamin Edols has been blowing glass since 1987 and has worked alongside colleagues in America, Italy and Japan. He received his BA from Sydney College of the Arts and went on to successfully complete a postgraduate diploma at Canberra School of Art in 1992. Ben has presented glassblowing workshops at Pilchuck Glass School, The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, Toyama Institute of Glass Art, Niijima Glass Center, The Jam Factory and Sydney College of the Arts.

William Carlson earned a BFA from Cleveland Institute of Art in 1973 and an MFA in 1976 from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He was a professor of art and head of the Crafts and Sculpture programs at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 1976-2003. In 2003, Bill became chair of the department of art and art history at the University of Miami. Currently, he is an endowed professor in the department of art and art history at the University of Miami. As an artist and an educator, Carlson has significantly impacted the contemporary art glass movement. In 1993, the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, nominated him for “Excellence in Glass Education,” in the decorative artist category. The James Renwick Alliance of the Smithsonian Institution of the National Galleries of American Art awarded him the Distinguished Craft Education Award in 2004.

Vittorio Costantini was born in 1944, on the island of Burano, near Murano, situated in the lagoon of Venice, Italy. Typical of most islanders, he is the son of a fisherman and his mother was a lace maker. He began an apprenticeship in a glass factory at age 11. Initially, lamp working (or flameworking) was a hobby which occupied the little time he had after a long day working in the factory. Since Vittorio opened his own workshop in Venice, flameworking has become his one and only true focus and passion. He always had an innate fascination for nature. In fact, all of his creations show great mastery, art and love for nature. He spends endless hours creating individual pieces: multi-colored insects, iridescent butterflies, birds, fish, and colorful flowers -- all the result of his manual skill. He was the featured artist at Salem Community College’s 2013 International Flameworking Conference.

For Steve Sizelove, finding the medium of hot glass in 1995 could not have been a more life-changing event. The novel independence of early adulthood had recently diverted his attention from studies at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and inspired cross-country travel. While living in Boulder, Col., Steve was given the opportunity to “play with some glass” at a friend’s makeshift flameworking studio. He was instantly hooked.

Always concerned with quality and craftsmanship in his work, Steve sought the instruction of notable glass artists such as Robert Mickelsen, Roger Parramore, Milon Townsend, Italian master Lucio Bubacco and others. Workshops with these artists helped Steve refine his glassworking skills and led to a 2005 Niche Award in the goblets category and his inclusion in Lark Books' 500 Glass Objects. His work has been shown at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Kentucky Museum of Art + Craft, the Richmond Art Museum and galleries across the country.

Living in Indiana with his wife and three children, Steve continues to be active in the glass community through participation in exhibitions, gallery talks and by teaching classes at his home studio and other facilities across the U.S. and Canada.

Loren Stump began his career more than 40 years ago as a stained glass artist. Over the years, he has become well known for his large-scale, soft-glass sculptures. Today, the Sacramento, Calif. native is a self-taught flameworker, tool and technique developer, and teacher. He is known for such innovative techniques as the manipulation of two-dimensional murrine slices into three-dimensional forms. Loren has exhibited, demonstrated, and lectured world-wide. He was the featured artist at Salem Community College’s 2007 International Flameworking Conference.

Roger Parramore has worked with glass since he was 10 years old. His early experience with a home-built furnace led to formal training as a scientific glassblower. Parramore’s current work reflects his fascination with the form and romance of traditional Italian glassware. His work has been selected for inclusion in New Glass Review, the National Permanent Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art, and Renwick Gallery.

Jesse Taj Karolczuk was raised in beautiful Humboldt County, Calif., home of the majestic redwood trees, and returned to live and work there. "Taj," as many people know him, began working with glass in 1994 in Eugene, Ore., using the flame-work or torch-work technique.

His art includes themes such as butterflies, ocean life, magic, and mysticism. Taj's flame-sculpted murrine canes have been embraced by collectors worldwide, including the permanent exhibition at the Palazzo Rota Museum in Venice, Italy. Murrine are cross sections of a glass cane that contain the same image throughout its length usually depicting abstract designs, floral patterns, animals and even portraits of famous figures. The art of murine-making goes back at least 2500 years when the Egyptians created murrine canes that are unrivalled to this day. Jesse uses these miniature designs as subject matter in most of his work, primarily paperweights and marbles. In 2003, Jesse Taj created at the request of fellow artists Paul Stankard and Lucio Bubacco special murrine canes depicting their signatures in glass.

Herbert Babcock was born in Bloondale, Ohio, 1946.

Education:

MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

Iwao Matsushima is a lecturer at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art and a faculty member at Okayama University, both in Japan. He taught himself the ancient art of core forming, and his work has been exhibited in museums and shows worldwide. His demonstration at the Glass Art Society conference and his subsequent course at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass in the summer of 2001 were very popular. He was the featured artist at Salem Community College’s 2005 International Flameworking Conference.

John Nygren is a senior member of the North Carolina glass art community and a renowned American master. Throughout his 40-year career, love of nature and the environment have been persistent themes. Nygren's glass works range from landscape vessels, classic vase forms with delicately wrought natural elements, to whimsical frogs. After earning an MFA degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Nygren first trained in the art of glassblowing at North Carolina's Penland School of Crafts in 1968. Of the pieces produced in this three-week burst of creativity, two were juried into important exhibitions and a third purchased by Charlotte's Mint Museum. A year later, he moved to Walnut Cove, N.C., where he built the New Branch Glass Studio. Though living in North Carolina, John's successful art career was firmly launched as a member of New York's newly formed Contemporary Art Glass Group (now the Heller Gallery) in 1973.

Robert DuGrenier has been a glass artist, sculptor and designer since the 1970s. He has created high-end installations for museum and architectural projects around the world. He began in New York City by working on the redesign of the flame for the Statue of Liberty and was commissioned to create and produce the 1/12th scale model from which the French artisans sculpted the new flame. His projects include original glass chandeliers and displays for well-known hotels, jewelry stores, private homes and gardens. He enjoys the challenge of creating glass works for novel interactions with the natural world of plants and animals. His glassblowing shop and gallery are open to the public in Townshend, Vermont. For more info: www.dugrenier.com.

Hank Murta Adams studied as a painter before turning to the medium of glass. He describes portraiture as a "venture of communication, with the sitter, the viewer and society at large." He does not create individual portraits, but uses the "theatrics of posed or imagined characters" to explore human experience. Adams's work abandons the conventional function of glass to transmit light; instead, his glass castings capture light and a sense of life within. The rough, disfigured surfaces of his works are embedded with fragments of industrial debris. Hank serves as Glass Studio Creative Director at WheatonArts and Cultural Center in Millville, N.J.

Carmen Lozar shows her work throughout the United States and is represented by Ken Saunders Gallery in Chicago. Lozar lives in Bloomington-Normal, Ill. where she maintains a studio. She has taught at Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Craft, Pittsburgh Glass School, Appalachian Center for Crafts, The Chrysler Museum, and the Glass Furnace in Istanbul, Turkey. Carmen has had residencies at the Corning Museum of Glass and Penland School of Craft, and was the 2008 featured artist at Salem Community College’s International Flameworking Conference.

Quinn Doyle is a contemporary artist focused on producing beautifully designed functional and sculptural objects in glass and paintings involving narrative visions of the figure. Doyle has been working in glass since 2004, when she began taking classes in Philadelphia at a public-access glassblowing studio. She is a member of the technical team at The Studio of The Corning Museum of Glass, and maintains her studio space at the bottom of a waterfall in gorgeous Ithaca, N.Y.

Matt Eskuche began working with flameworking in 1998 and has studied with many talented contemporary-makers including Emilio Santini and Cesare Toffolo. He teaches classes at national and international schools and studios including Corning, Penland, and Pilchuck, and exhibits his work with galleries and museums throughout the country.

Matt’s work can be found in many publications and in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Racine Art Museum; the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; the Kobe (Japan) Lampwork Museum; the National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia, Bulgaria; and the Eskisiher (Turkey) Contemporary Glass Arts Museum.

Paul Joseph Stankard is an internationally acclaimed artist and pioneer in the studio glass movement. He is considered a living master in the art of the paperweight, and his work is represented in more than 60 museums world-wide.

Paul was born April 7, 1943. In 1961, he enrolled in Salem County Vocational Technical Institute’s scientific glassblowing program (now Salem Community College). During his 10-year scientific glassblowing career, he became a master of fabricating complex instruments. In 1972, Paul left industry to pursue his dream of being creative in glass full-time. Over his 40-year artistic journey, he has received three honorary degrees and many awards within the glass community, most recently the Glass Art Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award. For the past decade, Paul has divided his time between flameworking and writing. He is the author of two books (with the third one to be published in 2016) and numerous essays and articles. He was the 2010 featured artist at Salem Community College’s International Flameworking Conference.

Emilio Santini was born in Murano, Italy, into a family with 600 years of glassblowing tradition. Now a resident of Williamsburg, Va., he combines his flameworking talent with furnace blown and cast work. He has taught extensively in this country's major glass schools and is a popular instructor for both beginning and highly skilled students.

James Harmon an internationally respected artist, has worked primarily in glass for more than 30 years. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world. Harmon has presented several lectures and workshops, taught classes in art academies, and received awards for his achievements in design and the fine arts. He is accomplished in a variety of glass techniques, including blown glass, hand-blown neon, slumped and cast glass, murrine, latticinio, and graal.

Harmon’s work has recently been added to the Smithsonian Institute within the collection of American artists at the new wing of the Renwick Gallery.

Kristina Logan is recognized internationally for her precisely patterned and delicate glass beads. She travels throughout the world teaching workshops and lecturing on contemporary glass beads and jewelry. Her work is in the collections of The Smithsonian Museum of American Art; Renwick Gallery; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Corning Museum of Glass; and the Musée du Verre de Sars-Poteries, Sars-Poteries, France. She served as president of the International Society of Glass Bead makers from 1996 until 1998.

Logan’s beads are flameworked, a process which she says is “fluid, direct, and immediate” and which allows her to work with hot glass “on a very intimate scale.” Her work has developed over the years to incorporate glass beads into jewelry and other glass objects. Logan continued her exploration of combining flameworking, pâte de verre and metal during her October 2013 Residency at The Studio.

Inspired by the decorated surfaces of reliquaries from the 16th century, the stems of goblets from the 17th century and the bronze armatures in Tiffany’s work, Logan focused her 2013 residency on glass vessels and containers. She encrusts cast pâte de verre forms with flameworked beads and adds bronze and silver elements. Logan pairs diverse elements together in one object. Says Kristina, “It is the harmonious combining of different materials that propels my work; how glass and metal meet, physically.”

Eli Mazet works with brothers, Joshua and Timothy. Setting up a studio within months of Tim, Eli was on his torch for 30-40 hours a week. In a few years, Eli accomplished a level of skill that would take most people a lifetime. Eli loves the challenge of creating new work and is always willing to try something new. Three brothers working together allows for a great range of expression and unlimited potential. Their sources of inspiration are varied, as are their personalities. Ultimately, they seek to make beautiful objects for people to enjoy and cherish for lifetimes. They all love what they do!

Milon Townsend has worked with glass for more than 35 years, in flameworking, cold- working, and kiln-casting. He is the author of numerous books, videos, and articles on glass, art, and marketing. Milon frequently presents at workshops, classes, and conferences and his work is represented in many fine galleries, museums and private collections around the world.

Lucio Bubacco’s work combine the anatomic perfection of Greek sculpture with the Byzantine gothic architecture of his native Venice. He is known for his unique human and fantasy figures, which are entirely hand-formed and incorporated in blown vases or in casting. His work has been published and exhibited around the world. He was the 2002 featured artist at Salem Community College’s International Flameworking Conference.

Other Artists

Rosemary Lackey

Clinton Roman

Harry Hunter

Gerald Hurff

Jim Smircich

Joseph Barker