
Toyama City Institute of Glass Art
January 1st, 2009 | News
Toyama City Institute of Glass invited me to lecture this past December. It was really a case of visiting old friends as I’ve known many of the instructors there for over 15 years. TIG has long been a leader in glass education in Japan and have invited artists from around the world to lecture and demonstrate at their excellent facilities. The Head Instructor of TIG Ryoji Shibuya is also a practicing artist as is Senior Instructor Jin Hongo and Instructor Makiko Nakagami/Ivy. Visiting Instructors Lada Semecka from the Czech Republic is teaching casting and Robert Lewis from the USA has been teaching glassblowing at TIG. Other teaching assistant staff are Mami Tokizawa and Chicaco Ogawa. I will introduce Makiko Nakagami/Ivy’s and Mami Tokizawa’s works along with TIG Advanced Research Student Work and TIG 2008 Graduation Works first and add images of the other instructors soon.
Makiko Nakagami
Mami Tokizawa
Ai Umino
Kyoko Sano
Erika Asano
Marie Imai
Fumi Amano
Saki Nishio
Tae Kajita
Tamaki Yamamoto
TIG 2008 Graduation Work
Hiroyuki Kawaharabayashi
Itsuku Hosokawa
Kao Asada
Kazuya Yoshimura
Kei Yamaguchi
Keiko Yoshimura
Kouhei Kishimoto
Runa Kosogawa
Youhei Goto
Itaru Miyazaki
Haruka Ishizuka
Kookmin University’s Glass Program, Seoul, Korea
November 28th, 2008 | News
Kookmin University’s Graduate Glass Program is vibrant and active. Program Head Ki-Ra Kim one of Korea’s best and brightest educators is working with some of Korea’s most talented and experienced artists to educate the next generation of Korea’s artists working with glass. Kookmin instructors include Joon Yong Kim, Hyewook Huh, Kyou Hong Lee, Hag-Ju Lee, Sunho Lee, and Jung Sun Oh.
Korean Glass is on the rise!
Former Graduate Students include Kyoung Ryoung Kim, Dong Sun Kim, Myong Ho Kim, Seon Min Park, Jung-hun Yoon, Jiin Kim, JoonHo Hwang.
Currently Graduate Students are Seung Hee Jung and, Won Hee Cho.
The following is a visual introduction to the program.
Ki-Ra Kim
K Hyewook Huh
Joon-Yong Kim
Hagju-Lee
Kyou Hong Lee
Sunho Lee
Former Graduate Students at Kookmin University.
Dongsun Kim
Jiin Kim
Junghyun Yoon
Junghyun Yoon
Kyoungryoung Kim
Myongho Kim
Seounmin Park
Current Graduate Student at Kookmin U.
Seung Hee Jung
TAMA Art University Graduate Student’s Work
November 27th, 2008 | News
Here is an introduction to graduate student’s work from TAMA Art University in Tokyo. Tama has long been at the forefront of Japanese glass art education. Makato Ito, Japanese glass pioneer has headed the program for many years along with Kazumi Ikemoto who will be the next program head. Other noted faculty are Yoshihiko Takahashi and Michiko Miyake.
I must note here that Makoto Ito will retire this year from teaching at Tama! A milestone not only for him but for all of studio glass!
Recently I was invited to lecture and participate in a critique at Tama. I must say that to critique graduate student’s work with Makoto Ito was a great honor and a distinctly memorable experience for me. The following are works from Tama’s first and second year graduate students. The first two students are first year students and the rest second year students currently working towards thesis exhibitions.
Moe Hatanaka
Syogo Nakagawa
Hiroko Fujino
Kojima Natsumi
Sakiko Tsugawa
Akemi Kurita
Megumi Yoshida
Yasuhiko Tsuchida visits OUA from Venice
November 26th, 2008 | News
Yasuhiko Tsuchida is visiting Osaka University of Art from his home and studio in Venice, Italy. He is working on a large fused glass panel work with the help of OUA Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students. After fusing Tuschida will laminate the fused glass panels to a large sheet of plate glass for an architectural installation.
Tsuchida was born in Tennoji not far from the university. He has lived in Venice for the past 20 years where he maintains a studio for not only glass but also painting and multimedia. He will lecture tomorrow on his work and professional practices in Europe.
Here is documentation of his project.
Osaka University of Art Faculty and Staff
November 25th, 2008 | News
There is Hiroshi Yamano, Yuki Uchimura, Etsuko Nishi at the top and Tsuyoshi Inoue, Kentaro Senuma, Toshikazu Kobayashi as part time instructors. The Staff here is phenomenal! Risako Yahagi, Ryo Sekino, Shohei Yokoyama and Misako Onishi facilitate everything and make sure the trains run on time! I feel fortunate to be working with such a talented group of artists. It’s an extremely serious pace they all set here but they somehow make it all fun and a really good time! Enjoy their works!
Yuki Uchimura
Etsuko Nishi
Toshikazu Kobayashi
Tsuyoshi Inoue
Kentaro Senuma
Risako Yahagi
Misako Onishi
Ryo Sekino
Shohei Yokoyama
A Day at Osaka Art University
November 23rd, 2008 | News
Hiroshi Yamano demonstrates glass blowing and hot glass techniques in this case how to make a stingray. Yuki Uchimura is holding court in the casting studios. Students are working hard and I’ve never before seen such a busy kiln forming studio.



Uchimura’s Court
RIT/SAC Glass Program’s Graduate and Senior student work.
October 30th, 2008 | News
Here is an introduction to the Rochester Institute of Technology’s School For American Craft Glass Program’s Graduate and Senior student works. First find the work of second year graduate student David Fox. Read the rest of this entry »
Osaka University of Art Glass Program Meets RIT/SAC Glass Program
September 30th, 2008 | News
This project’s aim is to introduce the Osaka University’s Art’s Glass Program to The Rochester Institute of Technology’s Glass Program by posting images of Graduate and Senior student work from both schools for students to see what their counterparts are doing 7000 miles away from each other! I’ll begin by introducing OUA’s Glass Graduate students.
Tomoe Adachi
Noa Tanaka
Kaori Nakajima
Ayumi Honda
Takada Kenzou
The following is an introduction to OAU’s Senior student’s work beginning with…
Shiho Matsui
Akiko Sakaguchi
Haruka Hamamoto
Narumi Yoshida
Fujiwara Sawako
Kanako Naito
Yuka Oshimoura
Hitomi Takeuchi
Satoko Tanigawa
Kazuyuki Morishima
Kensuke Kawano
Ryou Fujita
Marie Maeda
Miki Kitamura and Tomomi Takahashi
Azusa Nakagawa and Ayano Hamamoto
Kanako Togawa
Curating a Japanese Glass Art Exhibit
September 8th, 2008 | News
Currently I’m acting as curator for a Japanese glass art exhibition next year in Portland. Five artists are interested so far and all are past students at Aichi University of Education near Nagoya where I taught for 11 years before returning to the USA. One of the artists in this group Masahiro Sasaki has just started teaching at AUE this fall as head of the glass program there. The other artists are also all very active in the field, Masayo Odahashi, Hiroki Niimi, Megumi Esaki and Koichi Matsufuji. I would like to introduce these artist’s work as I continue to work on this project. I’ll be more specific as to where and when as soon as details are firmed up.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sabbatical in Japan
July 13th, 2008 | News
In August I’ll travel to Osaka, Japan where I’ll be an artist in residence at the Osaka University of Arts till January. Hiroshi Yamano has extended this opportunity to me and I’ll be working with Etsuko Niishi. I’m looking forward to catching up with past students and colleagues of mine while there as well as developing a new body of work. My colleague Rich Tannin a professor in the Wood Program at RIT and I will travel for two weeks in Japan and plan to visit Ise Jinga, Kyoto, and Isamu Noguchi’s studio in Mure.

















































































































































































































































