Michael Mikula

Architectural details, the built environment and restless energy of cityscapes 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 to the lives of those who created it.

As a designer-craftsman, I’m particularly drawn to the optimistic quality that those 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 beautifully. This and a well developed vocabulary of material and form provides the framework in which I create.

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 in graphite. As a result, no two compositions are ever alike.

Each glass segment is created with its own aesthetic and optical qualities and is then recomposed in a logical order with its neighbors.

A thin layer of colored glass (the first applied to the blowpipe) lines what once was the blown interior surface. The exterior side, formed against the graphite is in high relief. The cut edges are polished. Each surface offers a unique view into the implied “spaces” within the glass, creating a positive/negative interplay.

These deeply dimensional blown forms are then thoughtfully recomposed within an integral metal armature of anodized aluminum and stainless steel.
Commissions are welcomed.