Stephen Nelson

This Pennsylvania artist does glass artwork inspired by history, literature and music. He draws the idea on paper before going into the hot shop. Some pieces are blown and put together hot, while others demand that they are constructed after they have cooled. Traditionally, the craft of glass blowing, is one in which an artist is assisted by apprentices. Stephen’s assistants, who are artists themselves and experienced in glass blowing, help him with the tasks that are outside of the creative process. Their responsibilities, depending on the work being made, vary from heating up pieces of color rod, to reheating pieces so Stephen can work on their form, to grinding the bottoms of pieces.Some of Stephen’s work incorporates cast bronze. He makes the original with clay and wax and found items, whatever he needs to create what he has envisioned. He then takes the original to another artists bronze foundry and assists in the process of turning his original into bronze.One series of his work involves a blown glass head with two different facial expressions on opposites sides; one is of a kiss representing desires and the other is of contemplation representing the search for knowledge. The sculptures are inspired by a story I read by Deepak Chopra about two goddesses that reside in the heart of us all. One is the goddess of wealth and the other is the goddess of knowledge. In the story it says to love them both, but if you pursue, love and give your attention to the goddess of knowledge, the goddess of wealth will become jealous and follow you wherever you go.One of Stephen’s most recent series of work involves blown glass teapots. Inspired by his mother, who was an avid collector, these pieces reflect both whimsy and history.Stephen has always been inspired by the image and concept of DNA. He is amazed by the discovery of the double helix strand and its responsibility in determining our individual makeup. Sweetgrass baskets and early American rope rugs were his early inspirations for the shapes of his DNA series; he noticed that they shared similarities to the DNA strand in their construction. He uses a fuller formed vessel shape to present the color strand in an alive way. It is his hope that the viewer will enjoy the sense of wonderment that these pieces were inspired by and reflect upon the beauty that is in and around us.