This blog is about my life in my studio over the last fifty-two years, exploring creativity and being self-directed. I’m sharing this because I am all too aware of the struggle it takes to go out on one’s own and make art one’s life work.

 

I hope that sharing my experiences will make your journey less complicated and more financially rewarding.

 

My concern for the future of artists and art drives me. That’s why my blog is free, ad-free, and interactive. It’s a space where we can all share and learn together.

Design

I created this skylight around 2005 for a three-story home in Richmond, Virginia. It was a beautiful home in the Fan District built around 1890.

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Project

In 2013, my son Daniel and I created two rose windows for St. Thomas Aquinas Priory in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Dominican Friars at the Priory

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Design

I spend a lot of time studying my projects to reduce the possibility that they will go in the wrong direction once we start building.

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Design

Scrolling through my photographs, I see this as one of my favorites. It is so lush and abundant, as if it were after a heavy

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Design

Around twenty years ago, I experimented with combining glass and metal motifs. This was a design for a powder room entrance. Starting with a garden

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Design

I enjoy collaborating with other artists. This collaboration was for a home near Charlottesville, Virginia, around twenty years ago. I created panels representing the four

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Design

This is one of my current projects. It will be installed in my patron’s bedroom, where he can enjoy the beauty of the evening sky

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Design

I created this window in 2021 for a dear friend and patron who lives in Floyd, Virginia. It was for an interior transom. Typically, I

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Design

I created this window for a home in northern Virginia around thirty-five years ago. The 1/2-inch thick glass borders beveled on our 1915 beveling machines

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Color Selection

This window is part of a series depicting the four seasons for a home North of Washington, DC. I created the series in 2020. I

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Design

There have been times when I thought our sculptured soldering looked dull and uninteresting. I’ve tried different patinas, like the one that turns solder green,

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Self

Almost every evening, as I open the door to leave my shop, I turn around and take one last look. I am overcome by a

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Projects

Some vast projects have occurred over the years. This is Saint Peter Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Virginia. We completed it around twenty years ago.

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Self

I’m going to be seventy-six in a couple of weeks. I spend considerable time thinking about life, especially the changes that have occurred during my

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Self

Focusing on color enriches my life every day. As a young man, I was so busy trying to meet others’ demands that my mind was

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Design

I enjoy creating movements in my designs. It heightens interest, often as a surprise element. I start with studying sheets of glass. The only control

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Self

I believe it is essential to have a rich emotional life. Not only to be aware but to dive deeply into its meaning, to better

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Self

The proper title for what I do is artist/craftsman. I first heard of this description when I was in my early twenties. I was drawn

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Design

There are days when going to work is pure joy. So much of my time is spent dealing with communication, taxes, insurance, fixing problems, and

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Marketing

Marketing, the ever-changing mystery commission artist must have some understanding of to survive. Over the years, I have sent out postcards and letters, attended appointments

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Design

Almost always, art glass windows are photographed straight on. As we create them, we try to remember to photograph them in their many stages of

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Design

You may recall me saying that I am often halfway through a project before I cut the first piece of glass. Well, this is one

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Self

One of the most interesting aspects of my life as an artist is my ability to create my reality. I desire to do good, be

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Design

I spent most of today working toward completing my project, depicting a fall evening scene by the Blue Ridge mountains as if standing on an

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Design

I designed this front door transom for a home in Richmond, Virginia, thirty years ago. The homeowners didn’t pursue the idea, so it became a

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Craftsmanship

I created this window for the Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, Virginia, in 1990. The beveled glass is 3/8 inch thick and beveled

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Family

I designed this window for Tanden Friends School in 2001. We sent our children to this small Charlottesville, Virginia, school modeled after the transcendentalist. There

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Self

Glass cutting is something I take seriously. Each type of glass cuts slightly differently, requiring varying pressures on the little wheel at the end of

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