Vermont Glass Guild

I was only eight years old, during the American Bicentennial year, when I came across an old, faded clapboard shed just south of Waitsfield village in Central Vermont. Centered in that room on the dirt floor was a small glass-melting furnace, roaring brilliantly orange. It was incredibly hot. It hurt to look directly into the flame but that's what I did, fascinated by the power and majesty of glass. This was the domain of two local glassblowers, and their world of manipulating glass, one of the oldest and most basic craft materials.

Thirty-two years later, I am manipulating glass to manifest my creative vision. With only a few basic elements, silica sand, soda ash, and limestone, I use intense heat to melt a clear base glass, which I then weave into a tapestry of art and objects from the simplest vase to the most complex sculpture.

I was born right here in Vermont in 1968 in the small farming town of Fayston, population at the time 273. There were five of us in my kindergarten class. Following my elementary studies, I attended the local High School in Duxbury, Vt. After graduation, I moved to Burlington to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sculpture at the University of Vermont. At a party, a friend invited me to visit the glass shop where he worked. I started hanging out at the hot shop, owned by Alan Goldfarb, an amazingly talented glass artist and supportive mentor. Eventually I was hired on as first assistant, later running Alan's second work station as glassblower while solidifying hand skills and developing my own creative aesthetic.