Michael Mikula

Architectural details, the built environment and restless energy of cities and their cultural variations point the way for this body of work in blown glass. The unique decorative traditions of any culture tell us something about who they are or were, how they wish to be remembered and what they valued or aspired to. These physical remnants create a connection for us to the life of those who created it.

As a designer-craftsman, I’m particularly drawn to the optimistic quality that these traditions reflect. This serves as my cue for reinterpreting them in glass. Beyond a life-long obsession with anything architectural, the inherent qualities of glass fascinate me. Its transparent fluidity simultaneously captures light, rigid form and sense of movement so beautifully. This and a well developed vocabulary of material and form provides the framework in which I create.

Multi-part graphite molds are used as a tool to shape the glass in a positive/negative interplay. With a jazz-like sense of improvisation, I compose each mold from a large and ever-expanding library of interchangeable parts that I cut and carve by hand. As a result, no two compositions are ever alike.

Once cooled, these deeply dimensional blown forms are cut open and apart, polished and thoughtfully recomposed in related sets within an integral metal armature of anodized aluminum and stainless steel. Up until now, these metal components have been made by others under my direct supervision.

I complete all final assembly and each work is one of a kind.

A series of related sculptural blown vessels and decorative objects were the genesis of the current glass and metal pieces. I continue to make these individual blown objects.

Thank you for your consideration.