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ART GLASS
Glass is a mysterious material. Few people understand how art glass is made. From sand to glass, artists can create objects of beauty using nothing but fire and simple tools and techniques that have been handed down though the ages. In this short presentation you will see some art glass works of American born artist David Sandidge. David Sandidge's work incorporates primarily two style of glass making.
The first style is called “lampworking”. This process uses a torch or “lamp” as was used hundreds of years ago to heat glass rods to a molten state then shape and form by hand.
The second style is called “off-hand” glassblowing. This process uses molten glass which is gathered on the end of a steel blow pipe out of a furnace that is heated to temperatures in excess of 2300 degrees Fahrenheit
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BIOGRAPHY
David Sandidge was Born into a military family in 1964, His family moved from one duty station to another. By the time he reached 13 years old the family had settled in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His older brother found a job at a local glass factory where they were training young apprentices to make small glass figurines. In 1979 when David turned 15 years old, he joined his brother at the factory.
It was there that he would lay the foundation for a life long career as an artist in glass.
Although factory work would not be his ambition, he went to college to study aviation. The factory job helped him pay for the education. Eventually, he would come to realize that his passion for glass and art glass work outweighed his desire to fly airplanes. He excelled at the factory mastering his technique and designing new products. David was no longer doing production work, he was training, designing, and overseeing production.
About 15 years into his career at the factory he was approached by the Arribas Brothers Company who handles the glass blowing operation at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. They offered him a position as the principal artist. He began to expand on his work. He was given artistic freedom to create much larger and complex pieces, as well as the job of producing high-end limited edition Disney Characters, custom commissions, and corporate awards
Eventually, he would travel the globe producing beautiful one-of-a-kind art glass sculptures. He has worked in Disneyland Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and California. He has made numerous trips to various parts of China teaching his designs in several factories.
After leaving Disney in 2015, David began working out of his own home studio where he teaches one-on-one workshops for glass students and he produces his artwork for galleries and fine art festivals.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“In the medium of glass, the personal expression can be infinitely diverse. I reveal myself with humor, satire, sarcasm, dark foreboding, happiness, and perhaps every personal emotion that my heart, mind, and soul may have experienced from one day to the next. In all of my work, I strive to convey these emotions with, movement, bold colors, and personality.”
"When you buy from an artist, you are buying more than just a painting, a sculpture, or a song, you are buying hundreds of hours of experimentation and thousands of failures. You are buying days, weeks, months, and years of frustration and moments of pure joy. You are buying nights of worry about paying the rent, having enough money to feed the children, the birds, the dog. You are not just buying a thing, you are buying a piece of heart, part of a soul, a private moment in someone’s imagination. Most importantly, you are buying that artist more time to do something that they are truly passionate about, something that makes all of the above worth the fear and the doubt, something that puts the life into the living". - author unknown -
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