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