Powell - Stephen Rolfe Powell: Glassmaker

First, this book would not have been possible without my old friend Julius Friedman, who brought confidence and integrity to the creation of the book, and my long-time best friend Mark Looney Lucas, who has experienced the ups and downs of life with me and has tied the book together with sincerity and humor.

Special thanks to David Harpe for his hard work and outstanding photographic vision. Also, thanks to William Butler for the impetus to make the book in the first place. In addition, thanks to Kate Philips for her photographic contributions.

I would like to thank James Yood and Laurie Winters for their interest in my work and their ability to put into words what it is I do and why I do it. I am deeply indebted to Kenn Holsten, Marvin Lipofsky, Dante Marioni, Bonnie Marx, John Roush, and Lino Tagliapietra for the generous reflections they have contributed to this book. I sometimes wondered whom they were talking about.

I would like to acknowledge the terrific relationship that I have with Centre College. I owe much as a teacher and artist to the support of David and Marlene Grissom, John and Susie Roush, Richard Trollinger, John Ward, Michael Adams, Leonard DiLillo, Karin Ciholas, Milton Reigelman, Richard Morrill, and Rick Nahm.

Since starting the Centre College glass program in 1985, I have had generous support from Corning Glassworks in Harrodsburg, Kentucky; Philips Lighting in Danville, Kentucky; Corhart Refractories in Louisville, Kentucky; and General Electric in Somerset, Kentucky.

Special support for the Centre facilities and visiting artist programs has come from John Schiff and the Skyler Foundation, Ray Hazard, Jim and Laurie Seabury, Rob and Kim Rosenstein, Adele and Leonard Leight, Robert and Judy Ayotte, George and Nawanna Privett, Chuck and Carol Campbell, Ken Enos, Steve Tucker, Mike Geralds, Chuck Tyler, and David Smith.

A warm thank you to Lino Tagliapietra for enhancing my academic, professional, and personal life.

Also, a special thank you to Morton Kasdan and Mack Jackson for putting my arm back together and for their friendship.

The greatest thank you goes to my assistants over the years, with particular note of the enduring presence of Chris Bohach, Richard Garvey, Brook White, Paul Hugues, Ch Rhodes, and Patrick Martin. It has been truly a team effort, and I hope all my crew members past and present realize how much I appreciate their loyalty and hard work.

ASSISTANTS

Billy Anderson

Lauren Arnold

Perry Biddle

Chris Bohach

Jon Capps

Matthew Cummings

Jennifer Carswell Daniel

Mitzi Elliott

Stephen Finney

Alysia Fischer

Richard Garvey

Josh Harris

Paul Hugues

Ted Jeckering

Adam Kenney

Patrick Martin

D. H. McNabb

Ryan Montgomery

McKinley Moore

Paul Nelson

Peter Palmqvist

Brian Pavloff

Duncan Pitchford

Ch Rhodes

Amy Roush

Anne Rushing

Harry Schwartzrock

Brent Sommerhauser

Tommy Spake

John Stokes

Naomi Stuecker

Jonathon Swanz

Shane Urquart

Kurt Waechter

Laura Ward

David Watkins

Nathan Watson

Brook White

Stuart Worobetz

Ying Wu

Reader, turn the page. Its not that I dont admire my prose; Im as vain as the next writer. But if there ever was an art book where text might be superfluous, this could be it. If there ever was an artist whose work so completely and wonderfully said, Enjoy me, drink deep with your eyes, immerse yourself in the sheer pleasure of looking, let color flow over you, that artist is Stephen Rolfe Powell.

Van Gogh once noted that color expresses something by itself, and in discussing another painting, wrote that he had tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green. While Powell is too joyous an artist to believe that humanitys passions are limited to being terrible, we could otherwise position him in full sympathy with Van Goghs thoughts. Many creatures on Earth have eyesight, and some have eyesight more precise and powerful than that of humans, but no other species looks about so regularly for some kind of psychological and/or emotional sustenance. To take the most obvious examples, theres something coded deep within us that has us look with interest toward a sunset, mark the colors of autumn, take pleasure in flowers, garb our bodies with dyed garments. Color delights us from cradle to grave, it grooves some optical pleasure zone that seems almost beyond language, and it is everywhere celebrated in the almost irrepressibly vivacious glass sculpture of Stephen Rolfe Powell.