I have spent my entire cognitive life immersed in the arts. As a kid, I enjoyed spending endless hours drawing and being in nature in upstate NY. When it came time for college, I was accepted into RIT and RISD. I made the choice to go into the arts and develop my artistic skills at Rhode Island School of Design rather than become an engineer (much to my father’s dismay). While there at RISD, I was studying Illustration until I made my way down to the glass studio which was then run by Dale Chihuly. Once I saw what was happening, I was inspired to become involved, and was accepted by the glass crew as an artist.  Quickly I began learning how to use glass to make my art.

The Glass Arts movement was just beginning at that point in the United States. RISD was one of a handful of studios throughout the entire country which had a furnace in place and rudimentary glass shop equipment. Equipment was being developed as we went along. Because of no set rules being in place for making glass art, the glass world was open to everyone’s own interpretation of how to use it. And what glass could be.