The Dogs Turn

"I want to share the fun and joy that I experience as an artist with everyone. To remind me of that, the artist statement that hangs on the wall of my studio is written in crayon and reads, "I Like to Make Things." Sharing my work with the world completes the creative process for me in a profoundly satisfying way."

Piper Foreso was blessed with an idyllic childhood playing in the woods and on the construction sites that she often went to with her carpenter father. Two of the lifelong gifts she received during this time are a love of tools and a can-do attitude. As an adult, these gifts have provided invaluable support in negotiating the challenges inherent in living life as an artist.

She began her art career making stained glass windows and glass and silver jewelry, working in these materials for more than twenty years before expanding to include industrial metals in her work. She uses traditional techniques gleaned from those fields, and added welding and plasma cutting to her resume more than ten years ago. In a nod to our digital age, she uses computer design and laser cutting to produce various steel and stainless steel components incorporated in her work.

Piper is a self-taught artist. After detours in a variety of jobs and educational pursuits, she settled on art when she turned forty. Ten years after she started her stained glass business, she reached the pinnacle of that experience when she fabricated three windows for Martin Scorsese’s mausoleum. More recently, she has found a way to include her love of birds in her art. When she’s not hand feeding many of the wild birds that live around her, she’s making colorful, enchanting feeders for them.