BLOWN GLASS CUSTOM CHANDELIERS & LIGHT FIXTURES HANDMADE IN NC USA
I first saw glass blowing at 5 years of age, drawn to it like a moth to a flame.
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Fortune went my way at 13 years of age began to blow glass.
It was like running away to join the Circus.
In the right place at the right time I was pulled into what became the Studio Art Glass movement
lead by Harvey Littleton.
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Stark began blowing glass and study art metals at the age of 13 in a unique program in 1970, directed by Erling Heistad ,head of the Dartmouth Art Department. He then went on to work with many of the greatest living glass bowers and artists of the Twentieth century., some of which include - Gianni Toso 1976 , Anna Wolf, Willie Anderson/ Kosta Boda 1977, Dale Chihuly 1989 , Loredano Rosin 1990 , Lino Tagliapietra 1991. Davide Salvadore 2008
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iiiEveryday I learn from those experiences as I work glass .
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After 53 years of working glass it is more exciting now than ever.
As artists, we are some of the last true explorers of our age. Each piece an expedition into the unknown creating objects and pieces that had not and may never have existed, if not for our endeavors. Driven by visions, ideas, emotions and a fearlessness to create something that has never been made before. A life not in the realm of the everyday conventions of reality, but somewhere between fantasy and perception
“ Explorers and Artists never really know where they are going but they know they’re going somewhere no one has yet to venture, as they trek into the unknown”
EDUCATION
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2008 Penland School of Crafts | Davide Salvadore P
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1994 Penland School of Crafts | Assistant to Willy Anderson, Swedish Master
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1991 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts | Lino Tagliapietra, Italian glass technique
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1989 Dale Chihuly | Guest assistant to Chihuly, working with Martin Blank, Seattle
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1989 Loredano Rosin | Italian solid master, second assistant during G.A.S. Conference in Toronto, Canada
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1987 Penland School of Crafts | Spring concentration, special assistant to Finn
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Lynngaurd and Chi Munch
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1979-1981 College of Idaho | with Michael Taylor. Helped open Glass Program and build Studio, enrolled triple major in Art, Psychology and Philosophy
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1973-1978 Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, TN | under Michael Taylor
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Built glass Studio and helped develop Glass Program
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Sculpture and Art Metals with Michael Sanford
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1972-1976 Naples Mills School of Arts and Crafts, Naples, NY. (summer program)
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1972 & 1973 student of Michael Taylor, Kim Newcomb, Marvin Lipovsky, Tom Kekic, Larry Livosi, James Nadel
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1976 teaching assistant to Carl Schantz, Michael Taylor, Leon Applebaum, Marvin Lipovsky
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1972 Haystack-Hinckley School of Crafts, Hinckley, ME | under the direction of Erling Heisted, Head of Dartmouth Art Department. The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts was integrated with Hinckley School, a prep-school, affording high school Students the opportunity to study crafts with professional artists. Summer student First blew glass in Michael Taylor’s Introduction to Glass Blowing
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1971-1972 Hinckley School, Hinckley, ME. | Studied ceramics with Erling Heisted, Metals with Richard Benson
CUSTOM INSTALLATIONS
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Hampton Inn Miami Florida .HHHam
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Asheville Film Festival, North Carolina, the "AFI" Award
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21 Battery Park, Asheville, NC, Galapagos Installation.
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International Ski Film Festival, Crested Butte, Colorado
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For Michelin Tire Corporation the "Michelin Man" in solid crystal
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Commerce Union Bank, Nashville, TN
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Numerous private commissions have been created over the last thirty years
THE STUDIO
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The furnace runs 24 hours a day at 2000 degrees, and the heat shield keeps the studio at a comfortable working temperature.
Glass is reheated in the Glory Hole and the blowing pipes are kept warm while the glass is worked.
COLOR APPLICATION
Color can be applied in several ways: glass powders, pulled cane and frit or small chunks of colored glass.
Colored line application: thin lines of color are threaded on entire glass shape; usually part of a series of color application techniques to achieve layered depth.
We welcome you to the studio by appointment. Contact us here to schedule your visit!