This is a collection of autobiographical essays by Paul J Stankard, recognised widely as one of the world's master glass artists. Stankard is particularly renowned and respected for his flame-worked floral motifs expressed in crystal paperweights, rectangular columns, and orbs. Paul was trained in scientific glassblowing and worked in industrial scientific glass during most of the 1960s. Challenged by an inner sense of creativity and the need to establish his creative independence, he started making paperweights in the early 1970s. Attracted to the emerging studio glass movement, recognised as a maker of fine paperweights, and driven by an intense and incessant pursuit of excellence, Paul was -- by the 1980s -- recognised as a highly accomplished glass artist, a member of the pioneering generation of glass artists in America. As the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of his art matured, and as he continued to develop new techniques for expressing his art, he also assumed more prominent influence in the development of educational programs and institutions that celebrated and expanded art in glass.

Throughout his life, Paul also wrestled with, and learned how to succeed in spite of, a learning disability -- dyslexia. The book presents the author's record of his life as a struggling, then highly successful, artist; reveals insights into the challenges he faced as a dyslexic and how he came to understand, then circumvent, his disability; and records his perspectives on the history of the studio glass movement in America as he witnessed and experienced it during the past fifty years. This book will be of value to readers interested in the life of a major American artist and the history of the glass art movement in America, as well as to those looking for an inspirational story of how, in one man, the human spirit faced, addressed, and outwitted a learning disability and climbed the steep road to success to become a master artist in glass.

Table of Contents:
Foreword; I Have two Names; Learning Scientific Glassblowing; My Small Bite of the Big Apple; The Dream of Being Creative; Beginning in the Utility Room; The Patron Saint of a Struggling Artist; Learning About Kitsch; The Studio Glass Movement; Meeting Littleton; Continuing education; From Wheaton Village to WheatonArts; Penland School of Crafts; Back to Salem; Living Amidst a Personal Collection; The Twenty-First Century; Poetry in Glass; It All Came Together; Epilogue; Index.

Author Information:
Paul Joseph Stankard was born in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, and, during his teens, moved with his family to Wenonah, New Jersey. He graduated from Pitman High School in Pitman, New Jersey, and Salem County Vocational Technical Institute in Salem, New Jersey, and then worked for a number of firms in the scientific glass field in New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania until he went into full-time paperweight-making in the early 1970s. He soon became an established and accepted artist in glass, and today is recognised throughout the world for the quality and beauty of his intricately detailed objects of nature -- especially floral assemblages -- that are expressed in glass. Paul also regularly participates in programs at such iconic centers of glass-art education as WheatonArts, Salem Community College, Penland School of Crafts, and the Corning Museum of Glass. For nearly forty years, Paul, with is wife Pat and their family, has lived and created art in Mantua, New Jersey.

This is a collection of autobiographical essays by Paul J Stankard, recognised widely as one of the world's master glass artists. Stankard is particularly renowned and respected for his flame-worked floral motifs expressed in crystal paperweights, rectangular columns, and orbs. Paul was trained in scientific glassblowing and worked in industrial scientific glass during most of the 1960s. Challenged by an inner sense of creativity and the need to establish his creative independence, he started making paperweights in the early 1970s. Attracted to the emerging studio glass movement, recognised as a maker of fine paperweights, and driven by an intense and incessant pursuit of excellence, Paul was -- by the 1980s -- recognised as a highly accomplished glass artist, a member of the pioneering generation of glass artists in America. As the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions of his art matured, and as he continued to develop new techniques for expressing his art, he also assumed more prominent influence in the development of educational programs and institutions that celebrated and expanded art in glass. Throughout his life, Paul also wrestled with, and learned how to succeed in spite of, a learning disability -- dyslexia. The book presents the author's record of his life as a struggling, then highly successful, artist; reveals insights into the challenges he faced as a dyslexic and how he came to understand, then circumvent, his disability; and records his perspectives on the history of the studio glass movement in America as he witnessed and experienced it during the past fifty years. This book will be of value to readers interested in the life of a major American artist and the history of the glass art movement in America, as well as to those looking for an inspirational story of how, in one man, the human spirit faced, addressed, and outwitted a learning disability and climbed the steep road to success to become a master artist in glass.

Nice book with the personal story of his life as a glass artist and the American history on flame work and paperweights and the Studio Glass movement until now. Good readable text as logbook with at the back of the book a photo album with snapshots with Stankard, his family and friends, colleagues, assistants, students and schools and works.
A paperback one should have in one's library to understand the development of glass art in general and that of Paul Stankard in particular.
Enjoy!
Angela van der Burght