We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chad Holliday. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chad below.

Alright, Chad thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My interest in glass and art in general occurred when I was an undergraduate. I had always been creative and had a drive to make but where I grew up this was frowned upon but the local and family and you might be confronted with aggression when I was in high school. When I entered college, I started in psychology but always felt the need to create but also share or teach. I was immediately drawn to glass when I found out the university had this as a course and later a major. From that point it snow balled. Glass hold so many dichotomies and lessons for life. Overall I wanted to embrace the properties of the material and its limitless areas of exploration.

I became very invested and entered leadership roles in the Emporia Glass Guild. Under my leadership we were recognized as one of the most active organizations leading to the President of the university offering two students flights and hotels to attend the Glass Art Society conference in Japan. I was elected to go, which was my first flight ever. I was then elected the student representative for the board of directors. From this I helped enhance the education booth for the Glass Art Society. Upon graduation, I was invited be a graduate student at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I maintained my connections with mentors which helped push me to residency at Grand Crystal in Tapei, Taiwan and this opportunity brought a connection that recommended me to be hired as the lead technician at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. In this position, Jason Jones, Charlie Parrtiott and I put together the glass studio and created some of the foundational programming. While in Seattle I worked with great artists such as Chihuly studios and Martin Blank, creating life long friends. I then received a Fulbright fellowship to study the pedagogy and history of glass education at the first glass school in the world in the Czech Republic. After completion, I was a tenured professor at West Texas A&M receiving many awards for my service to the arts, teaching and intellectual contributions. This also allowed me to share my life experience and broaden that of the students by taking almost 60 students for study abroad to the Czech Republic and Turkey. Currently I am a practicing artist in the Twin Cities.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I believe I ended up covering a bit of this in the last area. I think my artists statement may be the best.

Artists Statement

In the dance between constructivism, cubism, and the very essence of materiality, my artistic journey unfolds. It’s not just about creating sculptures; it’s a personal dialogue with the material, an intimate conversation where every stroke, every manipulation, breathes life into a unique form.

My process is a holistic immersion, a symphony of charcoal sketches, clay models, and the transformative melding of glass. What sets my work apart is the profound connection I cultivate with the material as it undergoes its metamorphosis. It’s not just about shaping the exterior; it’s about predicting the interplay of light, color, and space within and around the form.

Glass, with its dual nature, fascinates me. It’s not just a medium; it’s a dynamic storyteller with multiple surfaces that playfully dance with the light. As the exterior is polished, the interior reciprocates, becoming a mirror that reflects and redirects light, creating a mesmerizing interplay of planes and surfaces.

My forms, born from simplified architectural components, decorative embellishments, geometry juxtaposed with nature, carry a nonreferential scale, evoking a monumental feeling irrespective of their physical size. The architectural essence serves a dual purpose, insinuating scale while allowing for the exploration of negative space as a vital part of the composition.

The journey begins with swift sketches, capturing the raw energy of initial ideas. Whether retaining the freshness of these sketches or refining compositions through more formal drawings, my aim is to preserve the authenticity of the maker’s marks. Each sculpture is a visual narrative, a passage for the viewer to embark on, discovering not just the exterior aesthetics but delving into the interior activation of space and shapes.

I aspire to create sculptures that transcend the ordinary—a contemplative pause amid the hustle of daily life. These pieces are crafted to invite meditation on beauty, a journey where each glance yields new discoveries. The play of light and movement within the form ensures that as the viewer interacts, the sculpture breathes, evolves, and remains a source of inspiration—a shared aesthetic journey between creator and collector. Each piece, a testament to the dynamic interplay between the viewer, the artwork, and the ever-shifting light that breathes life into form.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I come from very humble blue collar background. Work was valued and education and especially art, were seen as a little frivolous. I was always interested in our visual world though. As a child we moved every year until high school which led me to spend time alone reading and drawing. Teen age years were a little rough. I was a gifted child but due to my socioeconomic situation the school I attended did not allowed me to pursue and lead to some very poor choices. As I moved into being an adult I found that there were greater things and the best way to change my situation was through education and luckily at the time I could easily enroll in a state university. I took a while to gain footing as I was totally self funded working full-time, sometimes 2-3 at a time, all the way through undergraduate and graduate school. I think these experiences helped me build resilience and push through those situations that are challenging. My socio economic situation has always been in the background and made the pursuit of a creative career difficult to say the least. This is a difficult topic to discuss because generally it is frowned upon not really understood what challenges this holds.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

In graduate school I found the opportunity for broader intellectual pursuits in regard to the use of glass. Namely conceptial discoveries moved the front of my intentions. Later I would be blessed to have worked very closely with Martin Blank. Martin posed a question to me one day about my work. “Why are you interested in revisiting unpleasant psychological things? What about the fact that as artists we have an opportunity and maybe responsibility to bring beauty to peoples’ lives and a break from all the things in the world.” (paraphrased and how I remember it.) My current work embraces this idea. While I am discovering things for myself in regards to the material, overall I hope to bring objects into the work that offer a contemplative moment where the viewer or collector can have a break from the daily things we all encounter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hollidaystudios.com chadhollidayglass.com
• Instagram: holliday_glass
• Facebook: chad holliday

Image Credits
Chad Holliday