We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joe Grant. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joe below.
Joe, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I encountered glass blowing in my undergraduate Art School. I thought that I was going to be an industrial designer but when I walked into the hot shop for the first time I was mesmerized by the material. Watching go from a liquid to a solid and back again using extreme heat seduced me and here I am 20 something years later still melting the stuff! I was also struck by the teamwork required to execute something well in the glass studio. When I walked in there was a group mentality and everyone was listening to great music while working. I felt like I had found my tribe. It was from my instructors and my fellow classmates that I began to learn the craft of using glass as an artists material. Those four years in college were a balance between learning to make artwork with context and meaning and learning the technical aspects of blowing glass. It takes years of practice and hands on training to really start using glass effectively. After this period I continued to learn by going out into the world and working for glass artists around the country. Finally I went to Graduate school. After which I have been teaching in various settings and have been acting as Director of a glass studio called Starworks Glass for the last nine years.
I am not sure I could have sped up this learning process much. I would say that for someone who’s only goal is to learn the craft and technique of blowing glass, going to university may not be the best route. The best way to get those skills is through hands on practice and university art programs balance that practice with a lot of critical thinking that may not be the fastest way to learn technique. Some of the most critical skills to learn in the glass studio were the soft skills of teamwork and communication. How to think quickly and react to changes in your plan and how to allow the glass to have a voice in the process. One of the most important skills is just to learn by watching, have a good attitude and work really hard. The biggest obstacle to learning the craft of glass is how expensive it is to work in a glass studio. The cost of melting glass is quite high so it feels risky when you try and make something new. To push boundaries with your craft requires taking chances that things will not work the first time around and that cost will be on you as the maker. High risk high reward.
Joe, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
After matriculation of my Masters degree I began teaching at the University level and making my work in various glass studios in Western North Carolina before landing in my current position as Director of Starworks Glass, located in a former hosiery mill in North Carolina. The glass studio is part of a larger non-profit umbrella that includes a ceramics program, metal program, exhibitions and a cafe. One of the best things about this position as well as one of the biggest challenges is to run a vibrant glass institution with a lot of programing and production while also continuing to pursue the creation of my own artwork. In addition to my 2-3 full time glassblowing employees, I run a residency and internship program. Through an application process we bring in 6-9 interns a year from all over the world. Interns come to live in the area for three months and help us with all facets of work in the glass studio. Resident artists are also invited for 1-3 month periods with the intention of focusing solely on making their artwork with the use of our expertise and equipment to support them. This programming brings in a great variety artists and skills that keeps a lively exchange of techniques and ideas thriving in our glass community.
I teach a lot of glass classes in my studio. We hold weekend workshops that are open to the public. I have a group of at risk youth that comes to our studio every week to learn glassblowing, as well as high school and college classes that are run in our shop. Teaching students by sharing my knowledge and excitement about glass is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job. The glass blowing community globally has always been a bit difficult to gain entry into. It is a very expensive and unique thing to learn. Teaching allows me to help break down the barrier of access to the glass studio and help bring up a new generation of artists with a more diverse perspective on the world. We also host numerous public events and demonstrations that continue to spread the excitement about this material and the studio I am running.
During our 9-5 work hours for Starworks we make a lot of hand made glass designs. Everything from functional and decorative objects to high end sculpture. We also work with clients to fulfill wholesale glass orders. For some clients this begins with research and development to bring a new branded glass design to life for their already existing business. Sometimes this is fabrication work for a client that already has a job and needs specific handmade glass parts manufactured. Other times we will take on commissions for one of a kind art objects and installations. We have done large scale glass and steel installations at he Reid Heart Center in Southern Pines NC and most recently we are finishing an installation of glass and steel at the High Point, NC location of Hospice of the Piedmont. In addition to this daily creation of glass, I have made it possible for everyone who works at Starworks Glass to have access to our equipment after hours to continue developing our personal artwork.
My personal artwork is a reflection of my varying interests in using glass as an artists material. I maintain the technique based side of blowing glass by designing and executing a variety functional vessels and drink ware.
Alternatively, I also create one of a kind sculptural and multimedia artwork. Embracing the myriad relationships between science, nature, design and art allows many of my works emerge. Science is creative but the language is limiting. Art has a wider vocabulary with which to interpret nature, one that can employ the subjective experience. There is room for mysticism, transcendence, intuition, hybridization, feeling and emotion in art. I have made sculptures inspired by images the depict the neural networks inside the brain. I have used the delicate scales and patterning of butterfly wings to elicit beautiful glass sculptures. Most recently I have been collaborating with my wife, Tracy Greene, who is a textile designer. We have been weaving glass into her fabric designs and placing them into shadowboxes lit from behind with tunable LED lighting. These wall pieces have great depth and character. Because we are working with light, they have the ability to completely set the mood of any space they are put into. My work has covered a wide range of topics but I am most proud of these recent collaborative explorations. We have also been designing and creating glass yarn spools that elicit the colorful spools of yarn found all around our house. It is a pleasure and a privilege to run a studio like this and be able to continue making my own work.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Society needs to keep looking to artists for the enrichment of their daily lives. Go out to artists studios and see what they are making and try to collect it for yourself. Instead of going to a big box store and buying glasses for $2 that you really don’t care about, go to your closest glass studio and buy glasses that will enrich your experience of daily life every time you pick them up. Supplement your world with things that inspire your mood or help you into a space of contemplation. We also need to continue supporting our public arts institutions. This is the place where access to the arts for a more diverse community can happen. When funding for arts institutions begins to fail we start to fail our communities by not truly reflecting the diversity that is found among them. Society also needs to realize that great artwork takes time and a lot of thought. There is a feeling among some who are not creatives that making art is just fun all the time. However, making art and learning to finely craft objects is very difficult, time consuming, and takes long term dedication.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
For me, using glass as an artists material started as a desire to learn to control this molten liquid. I felt a strong need to be able to make a drawing and then force the glass to look like my drawing. A lesson I had to unlearn was this need for control of the material. AS I have continued in exploring this material I have found that letting the glass have a voice in the outcome can be most rewarding. If you try to to control the glass too much it becomes forced, tooled and overwrought. It is the balance and flow of glass in its molten state that can capture is most wonderful aspects. Sometimes we simply try too hard and need to get out of our own way!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.joegrantglass.com
- Instagram: @joegrantglass
- Other: www.starworksnc.org