I began flameworking and blowing glass after a long career in oil painting.  Because of this background of formal training and experience in painting, I look at glass art through a painter’s eyes.             Just as in painting, where color can establish depth and dimension, color in glass can elaborate and define mood, context, and emotion. The color vibrancy that is unique to glass immediately draws active participation and interpretation from the viewer. I elicit this narrative interpretation and interaction in constructs which feature three dimensional flameworked figures and painted or textured two dimensional glass sheets . Though my glass art is formally directed at fully realizing a synergy of two- and three-dimensional forms and shapes within a fully developed formal color context, the realization of the art has been in representing human figures in flameworked glass and presenting them in a context or juxtaposition which creates a narrative communication with the viewer.             The figures are usually representational, but they are subservient to the more pervasive demands of the narrative in which they are placed.  Because the narrative is intended to be interactive with the viewer, the figures are made and positioned in a suggestive, rather than explicit, narrative context relative to each other.  Manifold interpretations of the interactions of the figures are intended and  encouraged by the context in which they are placed and presented. The interaction with the viewer is intended to be both visceral and intellectual.             The pieces are designed to be either free-standing or as wall hangings, depending on the breadth of the narrative interactions that have inspired the piece. Both types are constructed so that light is allowed to pass through the painted plate glass, allowing the refractive qualities of the enameled glass to enhance the visual impact.             Some of my works have emphasized a three-dimensional context by placing the figures with metal castings. The opaque surfaces of hand-machined aluminum or patinated bronze shapes provides a contrasting context for the translucent and transparent glass figures and enameled glass sheet. In other pieces the contrasting opacity is provided by electrodeposited and patinated copper on the glass figures or on other implements that I have designed for the piece. Rather than being representational, these metallic contexts are meaningful only in their relationship to the figures and the narrative that they create.             Because of the amount and types of work involved in its design and implementation, each piece is done as ‘one of a kind’ creations, though the larger themes that inspire the work are often recursive from piece to piece. As should be expected, the ideas and techniques developed to complete one piece serve to inspire and be expanded in subsequent works, so my work is continuously evolving.

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