David Patchen

"I find glass as seductive as it is challenging. The challenge of designing and executing complex work satisfies me as both an artist and a craftsman. I find it exciting to spend days creating a piece, and then watch it come to life in the fire."

David Patchen creates art glass that explores pattern, color, and transparency through the use of multi-layered cane and murrine. Each piece is begun by meticulously planning color combinations and patterns. To create the intricate stripes and patterns for which his work is known, Patchen first has to create the necessary cane and murrine by layering multiple colors and stretching hot glass into rods. Patchen then cuts and arranges the rods to design the final work, a process that can take days. The compositions are fused and wrapped around a bubble of liquid glass to begin the blowing process.

Patchen thinks of the graceful shapes of his vessels as three dimensional canvases on which to explore how glass holds elements in suspension and bends light. Patchen is influenced by textiles, patterns in nature, and the marine environment he explores as an avid SCUBA diver. Through the medium of glass, Patchen plays with the ideas of contrasting transparency and opacity and the creation of "windows" with views into or through his pieces.

David Patchen's work has been exhibited in juried shows in the U.S. and Canada. While primarily self-taught, Patchen has studied with talented artists including Afro Celotto, maestro and former assistant to Lino Tagliapietra in Murano, Italy.