Chad Holliday
Visiting Artist Summer Series Residency: July 16 - 20
Lecture: July 20, 2pm

Chad Holliday was the first Hot Shop technician at the Museum of Glass. The original day tank furnace and Hot and Cold Shop equipment that are still in use were built and assembled at his hand. He returns to the Museum as a Visiting Artist this week following a Fulbright residency in the Czech Republic and prefacing a full time teaching position in Texas.

“The work that will be created during this residency will be made of blown glass & sand cast glass, which will be finished with cutting and polishing. This work is based on geometric concerns related to the figure and architecture.”

In the Czech Republic this last year, Chad did research in glass cutting, polishing and engraving while teaching and attending classes at the oldest glass school in the world, The Secondary School of Glass Making, Kamenicky Senov in the Czech Republic. Prior to his time in Europe, Chad worked in Seattle, WA as a practicing artist, technician, educator and consultant to national and international glass artists. He received a BFA in glass from Emporia State University, and an MFA in glass from Rochester Institute of Technology followed by an artist’s residency at Grand Crystal Studio, Taipei in Taiwan.

Artist Statement
I sculpt forms in glass and mixed media in ways that express my ideas about the relationship between individual identity and the collective consciousness. There are curious psychological differences between isolated people and members of groups. I have many questions regarding the self as part of society. My work is about the process of discovering a correlation between what I observe, feel, and the resulting reactions.

My creative process is to utilize contrasting forms, textures and materials. Glass can be manipulated in an almost infinite amount of ways, hot and cold, solitary and combined with other substances, transparent and opaque. I utilize this capacity for change to create a visual language that describes the complexities of human relationships. The chosen shapes, textures, space, and forms are often used in contrast to one another, controlled and random, geometric and organic, representational and abstract, dense and distanced. I bring these elements together to create a harmony out of opposition, and as a metaphor for the harmonious qualities of human interaction.

Liz Stockhausen Cepanec
Visiting Artist Program Manager