I paint on glass because I cannot paint on air.

Ordinary window glass is the best surface to take paint and allow the most light to go through. When I first figured out the technique (1982) I tried acrylic sheet/Plexiglas; but it sagged in the middle, scratched easily, was a dust magnet, and the edges had to be sawed and sanded.

Glass was a practical choice: it costs less than plexi, is harder so that cleaning it doesn’t create scratches, is more rigid so it doesn’t sag when supported by its corners, is less electrostatic, and is easier to cut by simple scoring-and-breaking. It is also beautifully green when assembled in layers -- that was an unexpected plus.




What pictures of the work may not convey is that these assemblages and stacks of painted window glass hold the illusion of actual 3-dimensional objects (such as teapots, shoes and fish)


that change perspective as the viewer moves around or up and down; which images disappear when the viewer is edge-on to the glass layers.


how I do it

I developed the technique in 1982 in order to solve design problems of my stacked steel bar sculpture 3-dimensionally. . But the solution, at first using plexiglas layers, was so interesting in itself that I decided to commit myself to making it into artwork.

In order to know exactly where to put the paint on each layer of glass I devised a Rube Goldbergesque “contour device” that allows me to take the needed outline (for each separate layer) from an actual object or a model I make, such as a clay figure.




why I do it
When I began to work with the technique I wanted to restrict myself to representational imagery because I felt abstractions would be too easy in this technique. Much of the imagery I chose involved objects one would want and expect to touch, such as telephones, wineglasses and cups,




to establish a tension between the touchableness of the actual object and the non-tangibility of the image painted on the layered sheets of glass.

Using glass was new for me in 1982. I had to invent my own techniques because I thought there were only 2 artists using glass: me, and Larry Bell. I started within fine arts...






...and found myself involuntarily shifted sideways into a crafts label because of my material.



recent and ongoing work

The glass works got bigger after I designed a way to hold the glass sheets spaced and vertical.




For several years now I have been interested in wedding the industrial with the ethereal by using slumped sandblasted glass and steel fencing and woven steel and copper.




Visual references are made to clothing and to grass/fur/feather in these pieces, exploring the contrast of the rigid glass and flexible assemblage.


....and the requisite picture of the genius in the studio.

If I don’t answer the phone, I may be out on the road.



Please let me know by email if you are interested in acquiring some of my work. All of the glass work I have made since 1987 is in private and public collections, so there is nothing available as readymade, at my studio. But as I mentioned above, I am taking commissions and would enjoy hearing from you.