Joel Philip Myers
Modern Glass
American, b. January 29, 1934
Joel Philip Myers has been an innovative figure in the highly demanding field since the Art Glass Movement started by Harvey Littleton and others began at the revolutionary Toledo, Ohio, glass seminars during the early sixties. His fervent independence has characterized a long and illustrious career centering on artworks that show a carefully evolved sense of shape, color, and texture.
He attended Parsons School of Design from 1951-54, and Kunsthaandvaerkskolen, Copenhagen, from 1957-58. He graduated from Alfred University with a BFA, and then earned a MFA there. An art-related career paralleled the development of Myers' style. He began as a graphic designer in New York State, became director of design at the Blenko Glass Company in West Virginia, and then went on to professorial positions in the art department at Illinois State University. He now works out of a studio in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Through continually refined series of glass sculptures, many of them hand formed, Myers has elevated the integrity of his craft while maintaining a healthy respect for his materials.
"My approach to glass, as it is today, is to allow the material an expression of its own," he has said (Craft Horizons, March/April 1974). "Press the material to the utmost and it will suggest ideas and creative avenues to the responsive artist," he insists, adding that when he sits down at the potter's wheel, he only has a "vague idea of what I will make. I permit, I welcome, the feel of a giving material in my hand, and I allow the clay to move and grow with the aid of my hands and mind.
(The World and I Online)
Modern Glass
American, b. January 29, 1934
Joel Philip Myers has been an innovative figure in the highly demanding field since the Art Glass Movement started by Harvey Littleton and others began at the revolutionary Toledo, Ohio, glass seminars during the early sixties. His fervent independence has characterized a long and illustrious career centering on artworks that show a carefully evolved sense of shape, color, and texture.
He attended Parsons School of Design from 1951-54, and Kunsthaandvaerkskolen, Copenhagen, from 1957-58. He graduated from Alfred University with a BFA, and then earned a MFA there. An art-related career paralleled the development of Myers' style. He began as a graphic designer in New York State, became director of design at the Blenko Glass Company in West Virginia, and then went on to professorial positions in the art department at Illinois State University. He now works out of a studio in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Through continually refined series of glass sculptures, many of them hand formed, Myers has elevated the integrity of his craft while maintaining a healthy respect for his materials.
"My approach to glass, as it is today, is to allow the material an expression of its own," he has said (Craft Horizons, March/April 1974). "Press the material to the utmost and it will suggest ideas and creative avenues to the responsive artist," he insists, adding that when he sits down at the potter's wheel, he only has a "vague idea of what I will make. I permit, I welcome, the feel of a giving material in my hand, and I allow the clay to move and grow with the aid of my hands and mind.
(The World and I Online)
Artist Objects
Glass Bottle 2005.10.1