Richard Jones

medium: glass

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3 Friends of Winter Vase 2008 Glass	Red Drum Vase with Ikebana 2007 Glass	Bird in Hand Vase 2008 Glass
Goblets 2009 Glass	Small "Bamboo" Vase with Ikebana 2009 Glass	Enso Mei Ping Vase 2008 Glass
Gingko Vase 2008 Glass	Wave Vase 2008 Glass	Bee Vase 2008 Glass
Lotus Plate 2007 Glass

Contact information
2051 Winnebago St
Madison, WI 53704
Email Address: info@studioparan.com
Web site: www.studioparan.com

Artist statement
All of my work is hand blown by myself and one assistant in my Madison studio. We generally begin with a small piece of densely colored glass on a blown pipe and gather clear molten glass melted at 2100 degrees. The glass is then carefully blown out and details such as colored trails, silver leaf or tiles with sandblasted or enameled designs are added. Using traditional tools which have not significantly changed for 2000 years, I further blow and shape the piece. Once the bottom half is finished it is transferred to a solid rod and broken from the pipe so that it can be reheated yet again and the top completed. The work is then put in a kiln at 900 degrees and slowly cooled to room temperature.

Glass glowing is often compared with dance, for its physical nature and demanding timing. There is a play of elements which must come all together perfectly in order for the work to succeed, seeming at once enviable and vaguely unsettling.

My work is grounded in the faith that insight which is beyond words can manifest itself through physical creation and the belief that artwork with integrity has the capacity to communicate something beyond the sum of its parts, which is wordless--that a work is able to be a finger pointing at the moon. My inspirations come from other vessel making traditions, particularly east Asian decorative arts, but mostly from trying to ask the right questions and letting myself be surprised.

Biography
Born in Clemson, S.C.
Tutored privately in art from the 2nd grade until 7th
Attended magnet high school for art in Raleigh, N.C.
Attended North Carolina governors’ school for art, where I heard my first John Cage concert
BFA in glass from Rhode Island School of Design, 1988, where I actually saw John Cage himself give a performance
Have been making art glass professionally since 1989
Partner in Studio Paran, 1990-2002
Sole owner Studio Paran, 2002-present

Exhibits nationally and sells though a wide variety of venues, from Tiffany and Co. to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.