Artist's Statement

I look for the unexpected in my work, and make a deliberate effort to cultivate surprises. My ideas are driven by subconscious thoughts, spontaneous fantasies, and dreams. I have learned to say things and express ideas with glass that I cannot in voice or word, and so my work ends up educating me, as long as I am willing to pay attention.

I have come to resent and rebel against the traditional forms that glass has always taken. By breaking my pieces down to their most basic elements, form, surface, color, texture, I have discovered a vocabulary that is truly my own. This discovery has in turn liberated a torrent of feelings and ideas which are being expressed through my glass in ways that I have never experienced before.

Some recent work features layering of colors combined with resist sandblasting to create images, a technique called ‘graal’. Other new work emphasizes my interest in organic shapes and surfaces by sandblasting to achieve a specific texture which I then highlight with color gradients done in oil paints. The resulting surfaces are translucent, glowing, and invitingly touchable. Both of these techniques have moved my vessels further away from their utilitarian roots and toward a purely sculptural form.

Most recently I have elevated my ideas above the process I have loved for so long so that I no longer look solely to glass for my means to express them. The resulting pieces use other mediums in concert with glass, a change in my work that tends to remove me from the safety of process into a realm of danger and insecurity. Ultimately, I hope my work will be seen as something more than flameworked glass and that I will evolve into something much more than a flameworker.

RESUME

ROBERT A. MICKELSEN

MICKELSEN STUDIOS, INC. 700 Atlantis Road #304 Melbourne, FL. 32904 (321) 956-1222

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

 Early Education at Punahou School, Honolulu, Hawaii; Humboldt State University, California.

 2 Year Apprenticeship 1975-1976 Steven L. Sebaugh, Glass Impressions, Greeley, Colorado.

 Lampworking Class at Penland from Paul Stankard 1987

 Glassblowing Class at The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass from Bill Gudenrath 1999, 2000

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS: (selected)

 The Corning Museum of Glass permanent collection

 The Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution - permanent collection of American Crafts

 The Pilchuck Glass School permanent collection

TEACHING EXPERIENCE (selected)

 Pilchuck Glass School - Summer Session 2 - 1994 “No Fear - Flameworking on the Edge"

 Pilchuck Glass School - Summer Session 2 - 1995 "Flameworking - Quest for Fire"

 Flameworking workshops taught in home studio - Spring, Fall 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001

 Frabel Studios - Atlanta, GA. - Workshop on color application. - July, 1997

 Penland Crafts School - Summer Session 6 - 1997 “The Vocabulary of Flameworking”

 The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass - “The Vessel in Borosilicate Glass” - July, 1998  The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass - “Dreams and Secrets” - August 1999

 Urban Glass, Brooklyn, NY - “Surface and Form” - July 2000

 The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass - "Seeing and Feeling" - August 2001

SPECIAL HONORS

 Selected for inclusion in the 1993 Corning Museum of Glass New Glass Review, vol. 14

 "Sangre del Iguanazul" goblet purchased by Corning Museum of Glass - 1993

 Niche Awards 1995, 1996, 1997 - First Place - Non-functional Glass, Lampworking, Teapots

 Selected for Annual Pilchuck Exhibit at Seattle-Tacoma Airport - 1995, 1996

 Best of Category – Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show – 1997, 1998

 Elected to the board of directors of The Glass Art Society - 1999 - 2002

 Selected for inclusion in the 1999 Corning Museum of Glass New Glass Review, vol. 20

 “Organism Series - Carnivore” acquired by The Renwick Gallery for their permanent collection. 1999

SELECTED RETAIL AND WHOLESALE SHOWS

 Buyer's Market of American Crafts - Philadelphia 1989 - 2001

 The Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000

 ACE Craft Show - Baltimore 1994 - 1995, 1998, 1999

 Washington Craft Show - Washington DC 1999

PUBLISHED WORK  Glass Line - Volume 2, Number 6 - 1990 : Footprints

 Glass Line - Volume 4, Number 4 - 1991 : Stand and Deliver

 Glass Line - Volume 4, Number 5 - 1991 : Decorating with Shards

 Glass Line - Volume 4, Number 6 - 1991 : Casing Glass for the Lampworker

 Glass Line - Volume 5, Number 5 - 1992 : The Soft Touch : An Introduction

 Glass Line - Volume 5, Number 6 - 1992 : The Soft Touch : Making Beads

 Glass Line - Volume 5, Number 8 - 1992 : The Soft Touch : Basic Techniques

 Glass Line - Volume 5, Number 9 - 1992 : The Soft Touch : Advanced Techniques

 Glass Line - Volume 8, Number 6 - 1995 : Working with Northstar Borocolor Glass

 Writes a regular feature column for both Glass Line and Common Ground: Glass on Flameworking.

Wrote and published a “web-book”, Mondo Fiamma - A Global Overview of Flameworked Glass Art with co- author Jennifer Frehling Zamboli. (www.global-flamework.com)

 Vetro Magazine - Volume 1, Number 0 - 1998 : A Brief History of Lampworking

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

 Chicago International New Art Forms Exposition - 1992, 1993

 Sculpture Objects and Functional Art (SOFA), Chicago, Illinois - 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001

 William Traver Gallery, Seattle WA : 17th Annual International Pilchuck Exhibition - 1994

 Habitat Gallery, Pontiac Michigan : International Lampworked Glass Exhibition - 1994

 Glass Lover’s Weekend, Wheaton Village, Millville, New Jersey - 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997. 1999  Belvetro - Miami Beach, Florida - Solo Show - 1995, 1997

 Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (SOFA), Miami Beach, Florida - 1996, 1997

 Society for Arts and Crafts - Boston, Massachusetts - Out of the Flame - 1996

 Gallery Lara - Chicago, Illinois - Solo Show - 1996

 Craft Alliance - St. Louis, Missouri - Survey: Flameworking ‘97

 Miller Gallery - New York City, New York - Flameworking Show - 1997, 1999

 Vespermann Gallery - Atlanta, Georgia - Solo Show - 1997

 Philabaum Glass Gallery - Tucson, Arizona - Regions of the Flame - 1997

 Tucson Art Museum - Tucson Arizona - Calido! - 1997

 Miller Gallery - New York City, New York - Figurative Show - 1997, 1998, 1999

 Habitat Gallery - Pontiac, Michigan - International Glass Invitational - 1998

 Mostly Glass - Englewood, New Jersey - Toffolo/Mickelsen - Ethereal Glass I, II – 1998, 2000

 Center of the Earth - Charlotte, North Carolina - VISTAS IV - A Glass Invitational - 1998, 1999

 Stones Gallery - San Francisco, California - Dreamscapes in Glass - Flamework Invitational - 1998

 Wheaton Village - Millville, NJ - The Human Form in Allegory, Metaphor, and Myth - 1998

 Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery - Pittsburgh, PA - Flameworking Show - 1998

 Cool Arts at The Gallery - Corning, New York - Solo Show – 1998, 2001

 Habitat Gallery - Boca Raton, Florida - International Invitational Show - 1999, 2000, 2001

 ERL Originals - Winston-Salem, North Carolina - Solo show – 1999, 2001

 Gallerie Dorita - Atlanta, Georgia - Joint Show with Cesare Toffolo - 1999  Kane-Marie Gallery, Virginia Beach, Virginia - Solo show - 1999

 Contemporary Museum of Art at First Hawaiian Center - Honolulu, Hawaii - Solo Show – 2000

 Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida – Solo Show - 2001