Chris Hawthorne Artwork

BIOGRAPHY 

Though Detroit native Chris Hawthorne had no formal training in art, he grew up in an art friendly environment. His father was an architect, many family friends were artists, and his parents always encouraged art as a viable career choice. He began making glass art while working as a commercial fisherman off the Oregon Coast in the mid 1970s. Through a mutual friend, he met Dale Chihuly who encouraged him to further explore the medium. At the Pilchuck Glass School he studied with a number of leading Contemporary glass artists. They supported his efforts to develop a colorful and painterly approach to creating glass sculpture. In 1985, he built his own hot glass workshop near the small fishing and crabbing town of Port Orford, located on the Oregon Coast about 70 miles north of the California state line.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I prepare to work in the studio much like preparing a special meal. The ingredients are ready, the plan is formulated and now the focus, timing, spontaneity and intuition must carry from beginning to end. Hot glass has a rhythm and cadence that is dictated by scale and design of the finished piece. It cannot be rushed or delayed. It must be caressed into existence with determined persuasion and precise timing. Working with glass allows me the luxury of uninterrupted focus on something I love to do. When a piece is produced with all the preparation, work and timing assembled like the presentation of a fine meal, the end product is something I am delighted to share.

•  Chris Hawthorne Artwork