Set of Five Glass Leaves

"What's past is prologue" from Shakespeare's The Tempest is one of my favorite quotes because it encompasses how I view life and glass work. In other words, what you are doing in the present is a process of creative evolution in which you build upon (and hopefully, learn from) the experiences of the past. "

Even before she became a torch worker, Jacqueline McKinny was fascinated by glass. She remembers taking field trips to local hot shops and watching the flame worker at the mall during her youth; she thought that being a glass artist would be the best job ever. Once she began to work with glass herself, the experience soon turned into a lifelong passion and career. One of the dualities McKinny enjoys in her work is the process of constantly expanding her skills while simultaneously refining her techniques.

Drawing inspiration from natural, organic forms and the inherent optics of glass, McKinny creates each piece by transforming lengths of solid glass rod or hollow glass tubing in the flame of a torch. All of McKinny's pieces have an organic quality, whether in the shapes of the leaves, the landscapes of stars and galaxies, or the wisps of metallic fume.

After graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2001, McKinny began her career with an apprenticeship at a local glass production shop. She has since had many opportunities to expand her knowledge base, both by watching the artists who came through the shop, and by taking workshops from artists such as Robert Mickelsen, Sue Ellen Fowler, and Bandhu Scott Dunham. A variety of glass competitions and collaborations with other artists have also influenced her artistic development.