About
I use glass to frame what’s not there. Curves, contours, facets, and lenses distort everything. A look into my work will instantly abstract one’s everyday, as light and imagery are stolen from here and there to build new scenery.
As an artist, I exist somewhere between sculptor and machinist. My work begins in the kiln, where raw colored glass is loaded into purpose built casting molds. At 1600*F, the glass takes on its basic shape. After cooling for a week’s time, raw blocks come out of the kiln, and the sculpting begins.
In essence, I employ the same process that a stone carver would use. Rather than a hammer and chisel, diamond grinding wheels carve away glass from the solid cast blocks. Every peak and valley and curve and facet is hand carved. The process is rough and raw. Glass is delicate, but it is also an incredibly hard material. Even stone is soft by comparison. So the grinding process is brutal, with diamond coated steel wheels gouging out glass a millimeter at a time. Remarkably something so delicate can only come from such rough treatment. Once the raw shaping is completed, new surfaces are slowly ground to a satin finish or a full polish.
Exploring glass as an artist’s medium since 2001, I have worked in many disciplines within glass, both hot and cold.
I earned a Master’s Degree in Craft and Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011. In addition to maintaining a private studio, I have taught both technical glassmaking and conceptual art practices throughout the United States.
I live and work in Massachusetts with my wife and two young sons, who are my most ardent critics and collaborators.
All of my work begins with a block of raw glass that has been cast to rough form in the kiln.
My casting forms are purpose built out of either stainless steel sheet or high fire ceramic slab - two materials that will maintain their integrity at the high temperatures required for melting glass.
The casting forms are placed in the kiln and loaded with blocks of raw colored glass. As the kiln nears its target temperature of 1600*F, the glass begins to flow and melt to fill the casting form. The glass will stay at this temperature for several hours to allow any large bubbles to rise to the surface and pop. Next comes the long, slow cooling phase.
Most pieces will spend about 200 hours in the kiln. When glass changes temperature too quickly it takes on massive stress that will eventually cause it crack, so the kiln is cooled extremely slowly, just a few degrees per hour.
Once it’s reached room temperature again, these new blocks of raw glass come out of the kiln gnarly and rough. This is when shaping can begin.
Most pieces start on the wet saw, as I begin to rough out a basic form. From there, grinding and shaping continues with a variety of diamond tools.
A block of raw green optical crystal is mounted on a studio-built belt driven turntable as rough shaping begins. The turntable allows the work to be locked into one position for the duration of the grinding process. This ensures that the glass is rotating on a fixed axis, allowing for perfectly concentric rings and lenses to be carved into the surface. The speed of the turntable is controlled with a foot pedal.
Fine grinding of lens and concentric grooves finished on first side.
Fine grinding of first hemisphere done, ready to be mounted on turntable for work on second hemisphere to begin.
The glass is secured in a foam nest and mounted back on the turntable, ready for the shape of the second hemisphere to be roughed in.
A block of raw green optical crystal is mounted on a studio-built belt driven turntable as rough shaping begins. The turntable allows the work to be locked into one position for the duration of the grinding process. This ensures that the glass is rotating on a fixed axis, wallowing for perfectly concentric rings and lenses to be carved into the surface. The speed of the turntable is controlled with a foot pedal.
A diamond wheel with a convex profile is mounted in the handheld grinder. As the piece spins on the turntable, grooves and lenses are carved into the surface of the glass.
Undulating grooves are carved into the surface with a diamond grinding wheel.
Rough carving of grooves on the second hemisphere is completed. The surface is ready for refining with a smoother diamond wheel.
After the contours of the piece have been established and refined with successively finer diamond grinding wheels, the surfaces are smoothed with wheels and pads that bring the glass closer go a polish. This wheel is made of rubber embedded with aluminum oxide grit, and leaves the glass with a satin finish that’s ready for final polishing.
After the surfaces have been refined with progressively finer buffing wheels and pads the glass ends up with a satin finish. Every surface of the piece is how polished using a hard felt wheel and a polishing slurry made from water and cerium oxide powder. Once this step is finished, the glass is glassy again, with a perfect polished surface.
The completed prismatic sculpture.
A block of raw optical crystal ready to be carved.
Rough profile cut out on diamond saw
Beginning to thin out material for the disc
The surface of the triangle has been ground to a fine pre-polish finish, and is covered to prevent scratching as the surface of the disc is refined.
The shaping of the disc is complete and is ready for pre-polish steps.
The disc has been polished, triangle ready for polish.
Inspection of the polished sculpture in the studio
The finished sculpture in optical glass