Center for Craft Creativity and Design

(03/19/10): update

The last few months have been very busy for me. In June I traveled to Istanbul to work on a collaborative project with some fellow artists and musicians. The project was a collaborative, multimedia project whose music component I was in charge of recording. I carried a portable recording studio in my knapsack and recorded music that will later be used for an album on David Byrne's record label Luaka bop. after leaving Istanbul, we stayed in Venice for a week and saw the Biannale.

(11/22/09): new work

(01/15/09): CHICAGO, PHILLY, NEW YORK.....THE WORLD

In November, like a few of the other fellows, I made the pilgrimage to Chicago for the Sofa show. It was spectacular. I made the rounds with a good friend of mine who lives in the city. I took very few pictures as always but I have included a few that sum up the experience. We spent an entire day at Chicago Hot Glass which is the city's public glass furnace, and also spent the good part of saturday night there for a massive annual party that features live demonstrations from some of the SOFA glass artists as well as a live band and lots of beer. I spent two days at the show walking around in a state of awe but still managed to make some solid connections for Philly. I met an old friend from MASSART who has been in Philly for a few years. He, Dan Petraitis, was represented by a few galleries from Pennsylvania which he introduced to me. I planned to come down and stay with him and get a full and more intimate perspective of the city.

(01/15/09): AMISH COUNTRY

Philadelphia is ridiculous. I came back from my second trip down there a few days ago and I am still recovering from a week of $1 pounders and chicken cheese steaks. We actually had to leave early in order to stay alive. We did, however, have a really good time and get a really good idea of what is going on down there. My buddy Dan Petraitis set my colleges and I up with a fantastic tour of the Fishtown, Kensington, and Northern Liberties areas that are currently welcoming studio artists and crafts people. Dan then cooked us up a romantic chicken dinner in his beautiful three and one half story studio/home in the Kensington area. We were very impressed by the whole thing and through this trickery, are strongly considering the move to Philly. The rent is very cheap by most, but more specifically by Boston's standards. The spaces on average are large and inviting for a craftsperson like myself to set up and make noise. The one draw back of Philly other than the fact that chicken cheese steaks taste way too good is that WAWA is just way too convenient.

(01/15/09): other miscellaneous photos

I can't figure out why my postings keep cloning themselves. Sorry but you will just have to bear with me. I would like to take this time to post some random pictures of my summer at the OX-BOW School where I had a residency this summer. I didn't take any photographs this summer so I had a friend send these to me recently. This photo is of the studio that I shared with some of the other fellows. mine was the window on the left side of the first floor behind the porch.

(01/15/09): Lagoon

Lake michigan is right behind those trees. There is a meadow behind the camera where painters would hang out and paint the lagoon. There was tons of wildlife in the lagoon and it was a really nice, peaceful place to spend time.

(01/15/09): Craft Center

This is the OX-Bow Metal shop/wood shop/jewelry shop/hangout shop. I spent a lot of time up here this summer. there is a nice fire pit in the front.

(01/15/09): SOFA pictures

These are some pictures of the stained glass collection at Navy Pier in Chicago. This is where the SOFA show was held. I have always been in love with the work of Louis Comport Tiffany, but I have only had the pleasure of seeing a few of them in person. At Navy Pier, there is a huge collection of them, as well as a collection of other glass. This is a photo of me taking a somber moment to collect myself half way through the glass exhibit, before making my way to through the rest.

(01/15/09): two of the four seasons

it was really hard to capture the depth of these windows with my little point and shoot camera, but these were my favorite and I would like to share them with you.

(01/15/09): the other favorite season

(01/15/09): John Miller blowing glass

This was Saturday night at the party hosted by Chicago Hot Glass. I saw John in Boston the weekend before and therefore had a little to talk to him about which was nice. He makes giant martini glasses with big sets of keys hanging off of them and other sort of animated blown glass objects.

(10/22/08): Ox-Bow fellowship

I started my summer by heading out to the Ox-Bow School of Art and Artist Residencies in Saugatuck, Michigan. I was awarded with a fellowship from them in the spring which included a studio, facility access and a part time job working maintanence. The food was amazing, the people were wonderful ad the school is set in a beutiful location on a lagoon just off Lake Michigan. While I was out there I took a class in ceramics called "Altering the Wheel Thrown Form" with Rob Mclurg. THe class was great and I learned a lot about ceramics that I had been too stubborn to learn in the past. We did a wood fire in this massive kiln that they have outside of their ceramics studio. I had a blast. I highly recommend checking this place out for either residencies, fellowships or for classes. Thanks to the Windgate I was able to drive out with some of my studio equipment and set up a temporary studio for the summer.

(10/22/08): Ride home

I left Ox-Bow in August. I drove back through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. I had a very interesting trip back and stopped in a few cool places. One of the places that I stopped at was the new Teledo Glass Museum. The museam is all glass and has a large hot shop. Toledo is called the "Glass City". I met some great people and got to see a little country. I drove up from Toledo to New York and watch the sun set over Lake Erie.

(10/22/08): Pilchuck Glass School

I flew out to Seattle shortly after returning to Boston. I attended a glassblowing course at Pilchuck in Stanwood. Pilchuck is in a really secluded location that overlooks the water and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. It rained the whole time was there, as I had expected. The class I took was an advanced course with Kathy Gray. She is a terrific glass blower and an awesome person. The class was also filled with great people including former Windgate fellow Ben Johnson. I also got to hang out with Stellarc who had a residency while I was there. I learned a lot and had a great time. I will try to get back there in the future. We went into Seattle for a day and night and saw a few studios and a ton of glass. I am planning to go to Seattle in the spring with a group from Massart. I will be helping Professor James Mcleod organize and schedule a course related project that will involve the rental of the Pratt public glass studio in seattle, as well as involvement from many established glass artists in the area. We will go to their studios, visit museums, go to exhibitions, and later have a show back in Boston that includes work that we did in Seattle as well as stuff that was inspired by new techniques learned and the general Seattle experience. I went on the same trip when I was a Junior and it was great. I am looking forward to going again.

(10/22/08): Other stuff

I just got back from Philidelphia the other day. I am looking for a good location to set up a studio in the next few months. I am looking with a few friends of mine for a nice, big, cheap, first floor loft or old fire house or something. I love Phili. The architcture and layout seems European in some areas. The culture is way more pure and intimate than Boston. I have a few connections in the city and will have to do a little networking to see if it's the right place for me. I will be going to Chicago in November for the SOFA show. I met a ton of people from Chicago when I was out at Ox-Bow this summer and I will be staying with some of them when I go out there. My buddy Jason is going to show me around and try to convince me to move there to set up. We'll see.

(10/22/08): some more new work

Above is a crutch I made out of 3/4 inch sheet glass. I took this shot for the Corning New glass review catalogue which shows new work by emerging artists. I don't like it alone but I took the shot anyway. I think I am going to make a big ear for it to stand on. Kind of like it's stabbing the ear like an acupuncture needle or something. I'll make a steel stand for it. We'll see. Over to the left is a piece I did for my final review last semester. I took the picture and it's too dark. I want to re-do the guy on the left and reshoot it. I have a few more of these character pieces that I will shoot and post in the future.


home	who we are	research	community	education	exhibits/talks	craft artists