At December’s 2300°: Salsa, guest artist Pablo Soto created vibrant blue glass vessels in front of a lively crowd. I caught up with him after the show to see what he’s been working on lately.
What did you work on this evening?
This evening we worked on a piece from a silhouette series that I started making a number of years ago. The series developed from pure line drawings, very elongated, accentuated forms. Then we moved on to a newer line of work that involved a little scarification and a substantial amount of crystal – an enlarged martini shape. And we ended up with a little bit of time at the end so we made a Roman footed bowl.
And you’re here visiting from Penland?
I’m from Penland, and I grew up in Texas. My parents were potters and ultimately they exposed me to glassblowing. I attended Alfred University and became acquainted with The Corning Museum of Glass through that capacity. I love it here. The Museum is so incredible and the Rakow Library. I have lots of good friends that blow glass here today so I’m really honored to be back.
Pablo Soto at The Corning Museum of Glass
Tell me more about your background in glass.
I first saw glassblowing when I was about 5 years old watching Lino Tagliapietra at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. It was that experience that solidified my love for it. My grandmother was from Deer Isle, Maine so I would return every summer and watch him blow glass until I was about 13. That really shaped a lot of my path in life.
Pablo Soto at 2300°.
I know you’ve worked with a lot of big names in glass.
Yes, I have been very lucky. I was an intern at Benjamin Moore’s Studio in Seattle, and every week it was someone fresh. Dante Marioni, Richard Royal, Preston Singletary, Dale Chihuly, Dan Dailey… just a wonderful rotation of artists from week to week. That experience of visually being a part of so many different processes has really carried me through my career. I’m really lucky that way.
You said that your parents worked in ceramics – did that influence your work?
Yes, growing up as a potter’s kid. I was enveloped with all of this information, the idea of form and shape and the processes are so related. But once I got engaged with glassblowing I really enjoyed the physicality of it: the movement, and the obvious qualities, the translucency, fluidity. But that relationship between ceramics and glass – I still see them as partners.
The vessel made by Pablo Soto at 2300°: Salsa, December 2012.
Tell me about your style.
I’m not what you would call a lover of fluid glass that is kind of out of control. I tend to be a little bit anal with my shapes, very focused on center. It’s kind of a mid-century modern aesthetic. But, I’m starting to welcome more texture and patterning in my work as of late, so that’s a new direction for me.
So what’s next?
I’ve been focusing a lot on the refractive qualities of glass – drawing, scarifying the surface and projecting images with the glass itself, so it’s a very different direction. I also want to experiment a lot more with print making on glass surfaces, so, we’ll see, we’ll see.