Bio and Artist Statement

Background:

B.A. University of Florida, Minor in Fine Arts
1997 Glass Workshop with Fritz Driesbach at Phoenix Studio, Tampa, FL
1998 Penland School of Crafts, Hot Glass Sculpting with Richard Jolley
1999 Penland School of Crafts, Hot Glass Sculpting with Marc Petrovic
1999 – Present:  Owner/Artist  Glass Studio Leonardo, Ozona Florida
2001 Pilchuck Glass School, Glass Sandcasting with Kelly McLain and Cathy Chase
2002 Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA, Glass Sandcasting with Mitchell Gaudet
2003 University of Miami Hot Glass Sculpture workshop with Karen Willenbrink-Johnson
2004 Penland School of Crafts, Glass and Iron with Rick Smith and Che Rhodes
2005 Pilchuck Glass School, Mixed Media Glass Sculpture with Therman Statom
2010 Docent at Chihuly Collection Morean Art Center, St. Pete Florida
 

Shows and Exhibitions:

2006      Capital Arts Network National Juried Exhibition "Love, Hate, Love
               Bethesda MD  (1st Place)
2005      "Born of Fire" Two Artist Exhibition with wife Laura Vincenti,
             www.lauravincentglass.com Infusion Gallery, Los Angeles CA
             "Continuity in Glass" Postpicasso.com  National Juried on line exhibition
2004    “Trilogy in Glass”  Longboat Key Center for the Arts, Longboat  Key, FL 
             “Looking for America” Captital Arts Network National Juried Exhibition, Bethesda MD
             “Autumn in America” National Juried Exhibition, Ithaca, NY
2003    Penland Gallery Juried Glass Exhibition, Penland, NC
             Art Center Sarasota Juried Exhibition (1st Place)
             Snooty Judy Gallery, Dunedin, FL
             Pinellas Annual Studio Waltz
             Dunedin FL Fine Arts Center
             Bohemian Packrat Gallery, Dunedin, FL
             Pinellas Association of Visual Artists Winter Show
2002    Design Lab Gallery, Tampa, FL
               Ozona Beach Gallery, Ozona, FL

Artist Statement:

                 Glass in its most primitive and basic form is silica.  The ancients discovered this amazing material over two thousand years ago.  I am interested in working with glass in a form closest to its most basic state.  By casting molten glass into a mold of moist sand an clay, I am able to achieve a result that resembles something dug up in an archeological expedition.

               I frequently combine a sand cast  glass figure with an interesting old object, particularly old tools or other utilitarian implements.    I am particularly interested in objects that have an unfilled negative space.   I find unlimited possibilities in objects that have served their useful lives and have been discarded or relegated to garage sales and flea markets. To embellish these with sand cast glass forms causes them to take on new life and meaning.

             I want the pieces to make strong statements of irony and disorientation..  To achieve this, I use incongruous symbols placed in unusual and unexpected ways..  In today’s “information age,” we are constantly bombarded with often conflicting messages and images.  Rather than drive oneself crazy by trying to reconcile or make sense of it all, sometimes it is more fun to just go with the flow.   

             Some of my work deals with serious themes such as social injustice or capital punishment, but most are whimsical, satirical or simply decorative.  Most of my inspiration comes from the found object itself.  It may lay around for months or years until it finally speaks to me and tells me what it wishes to become.  Titles are carefully considered and chosen, so as to give the viewer a hint as to what the work suggests to me.

            However, I like the viewer to place his or her own interpretation on them, and I am delighted when someone suggests a meaning in them that never occurred to me.