Alan Goldfarb

Alan Goldfarb began working with clay at the age of thirteen and has been blowing glass since 1983. When he first saw the glassblowing "maestros" (as he later called them) at work, he imagined a headline that read: "Unknowing Neophyte Stands in a Puddle, Steps on Raw Current, Hat Blown Irrevocably to Kingdom Come, Lives to Tell the Tale." For Goldfarb, glass undergoes a magical transformation while it is worked, and he uses his studio to rediscover glass history by studying and applying traditional glassmaking skills. His work falls into two categories: "Historical Derivations" based on classical designs, and "Historical Revisions" that combine significant themes from ancient glass with elements of pop culture.