DANNY PERKINS

Danny Perkins is considered to be one of the most innovative glass artists working today. Crafting exquisitely luminous sculptures through an unconventional technique, the artist begins by blowing glass into a wooden mold, then breaks the newly cast sculpture into pieces, which he then reassembles, sandblasts to a matte finish and airbrushes translucent layers of oil paint onto the surface. The resulting vessel astounds with towering grace and dramatic luminosity. Danny Perkins apprenticed with Lino Tagliapietra and was a teaching assistant to both Paul Marioni and Dan Dailey at the famous Pilchuck School where he also studied as an Artist in Residence. His works are part of numerous important museum collections including the National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Washington DC and the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY. Perkins lives and works on Whidbey Island, BC.

"I am a student of the abstract expressionists in the sense that my work is based on emotions rather than representational references. Creating sculpture is the connection between my psyche and body. First it is a physical and group effort to blowand form my large fluid glass forms, thena solitary and intimate process of breaking these forms. The colors I use in my glass sculpturessymbolize emotion, love, sex, God, pain and joy. I have developed relationships with the colors over the years, so when I paint the shards the colors have faces that I know intimately..."  Danny Perkins

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