Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, June 29, 2 p.m.
Fritz Dreisbach has been called the Johnny Appleseed of the American Studio Glass movement. For more than 40 years, he has acted as a crusader for glassblowing, spreading the excitement, techniques and science of the craft through demonstrations and workshops all over the world. A pioneer of the American glass-forming in the 1960s and 70s, Dreisbach has shared his knowledge of glassmaking freely, encouraging countless artists and students to experiment with glass as a medium. Dreisbach was a founder and former president of the Glass Art Society. In 2002, he received the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award for his unique and significant contributions to the world of glass.

"My glass is a balance between absolute control of the material and the spontaneity of a liquid medium. I always try to show movement and gesture in all my hot-worked glass. For my residency I will make large Mongo pieces. I can't make these pieces everywhere, and the Museum equipment and skilled crew offer a great opportunity." The Mongo Series started in 1979 as a reaction to the tightly controlled, more symmetrical work Dreisbach made in the middle 1970's.

Conversation with the Artists: Sunday, July 6, 2 p.m.
Brothers Einar and Jamex de la Torres's art combines influences from both high and low culture. This intersection of contrasting elements reaches deep into their identities, which have been profoundly shaped by both their Mexican and American experiences. The de la Torres describe themselves as Mexican-American bicultural artists, influenced by "the morbid humor of Mexican folk art, the absurd pageantry of Catholicism, and machismo" on the one hand, and fascinated by "the American culture of excess" on the other. They do not hesitate to confront preconceived notions about artistic materials, cultural identity and political borders.

This Visiting Artist residency will be the de la Torres' second at the Museum, following a visit in 2005 concurrent with an exhibition of their work, Einar and Jamex de la Torre: Intersecting Time and Space.

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, July 13, 2 p.m.
Jiri Harcuba specializes in portraiture. A renowned engraver and teacher, he uses sculptural and optical effects to create psychological studies of major historical and contemporary figures. His engravings on glass can be seen in museum collections around the world.

Harcuba was born into a glassmaking family in the Czech Republic. He studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and later taught as assistant professor to Czech artist Stanislav Libensky. In 1971, Harcuba was forced to resign for political reasons. After establishing his own studio, he worked freelance until 1990, when he was recognized by President Vaclav Havel and appointed director of the Academy. Harcuba lectures and demonstrates internationally and is a frequent teacher at Pilchuck Glass School. In 2007, he received the Glass Art Society's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, July 20, 2 p.m.
Chad Holliday has been working in glass for over 10 years. He received a BFA at Emporia State University in Kansas and an MFA in glass at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Chad was the lead hot shop technician at the Museum of Glass when it first opened in 2002 and has assisted notable artists Paul Marioni, Martin Blank, Dale Chihuly, Charles Parriott and Maya Lin.

Chad's residency at the Museum follows a Fulbright Fellowship in the Czech Republic where his research at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenicky Senov is focused on glass cutting and engraving-the techniques, history, teaching style and tradition of the Czech Glassmakers.

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, July 27, 2 p.m.
Susanne Jøker Johnsen utilizes traditional Scandinavian design techniques in her work, characterized by an exploration of color, pattern, texture and form. The bowls and vases she creates possess textured and colored surfaces that, when combined with clear crystal, make the objects appear both organic and well defined in form.

Johnsen was trained at the Kosta School in Småland, Sweden and apprenticed with Swedish master Jan Erik Ritzman. She divides her time between making her own work and teaching at the Glass and Ceramic School in Bornholm, Denmark. Her work can be seen in galleries around Europe and the United States.

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 3, 2 p.m.
Susan Plum has lived in both the United States and Mexico and considers herself an American/Mexican. Her bicultural experience has given her an appreciation of folk art that has strongly influenced her work. She weaves glass to create an elegant interplay of light and color which reflects her passion for life. Her Metamorphosis Series: Tejidos XIII is currently on display in the Museum's Contrasts: A Glass Primer exhibition, representing the "light" side of the light/heavy pairing.

In 2003, she traveled to Patampan, Michoacan, where she saw hundreds of handcrafted clay pineapples in various shapes, sizes and complexity. "My Museum of Glass residency will give me the opportunity to create a body of work inspired by these artisans and incorporating their vision in clay into my vision in glass. I intend to use the pieces as components for installations as well as exhibit them as individual objects of beauty."

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 10, 2 p.m.
Michiko Miyake received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from California College of the Arts. She is a part-time faculty member at Tama University in Tokyo.

Miyake has been influenced by the interplay of light and shadow in her work. Recently, she became interested in the martial arts and the idea of Ki (chi, energy) and that all things are connected. "I use my hands to create my work. I sometimes feel that my energy coming out from my hands might stay in my artwork. So, I have become interested in how people use their hands."

During her Museum of Glass residency, Miyake plans to create a series of mold-blown glass human hands. "Instead of casting, which does not transmit Ki energy, I've decided to use blown glass, because glass is formed by breathing air into it." These forms will be used in an upcoming installation of her work.

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 17, 2 p.m.
Dorothy Gill Barnes is a sculptor who uses wood, bark, branches and roots to weave sculptural vessels, often basketlike, that incorporate the unique characteristics in the wood. She will come to the Museum following her artist-in-residence session at Pilchuck Glass School, where she will bring freshly harvested local plant life to the glass studio. Her discoveries at Pilchuck will determine the direction of her MOG residency. "I hope to relate to materials in nature in Washington State. My intent is to construct vessels or related objects using materials respectfully harvested from nature-from heavy wood to delicate moss."

Barnes's work has been exhibited internationally and is in the collections of the Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Arts & Design, New York, and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, New Zealand.

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 24, 2 p.m.
Cork Marcheschi is a San Francisco native who has been involved in the fine arts and music scene for over 40 years, incorporating energy, light and humor into his work. He has taught sculpture, critical studies and art history at the University of California at Berkley, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Minneapolis College of Art. He currently writes a weekly online column for Fine Art Registry (www.fineartregistry.com).

Marcheschi has had over 130 solo art exhibitions throughout the world and 50 public sculptures "littered about the American landscape." He most recently completed work for the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore and City Hall Plaza in Reno, Nevada.

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, August 31, 2 p.m.
David Levi began his study of glass at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating with a BFA, Levi traveled on scholarship to Sweden and apprenticed with master glassblower Jan-Erik Ritzman, whom he continues to consider his mentor.

In 1985, Levi was a founding partner in Ibex Glass Studio in St. Louis with the mission to make glass with clean geometric shapes and bright colors. He became sole proprietor and moved the studio to Whidbey Island, WA in 1993. For the past two years, Levi has been working as a designer for Steuben Glass in Corning, New York.

His work departs from traditional vessel forms and explores more abstract territory. "The best ideas often seem utterly obvious. In my work I try to strip away the static to reveal the bones. Some messages are universal-the flood, the emperor's clothes. I have a fantasy that I will make the perfect shape, the most perfectly obvious thing, and then no one will be able to resist."

Conversation with the Artist: Sunday, September 7, 2 p.m.
Michael Fox received a BFA from the California College of Arts. He moved to Seattle in 1998 where he began his work with local, well-known artists including Dale Chihuly, Benjamin Moore, Richard Royal, Dante Marioni, Preston Singletary and Dan Dailey. He continues as a glassblower and studio manager for Benjamin Moore, Inc. Since 1999, Fox has been the owner and curator of Bubba Mavis Gallery, an independent exhibition space in Seattle.

Fox has been affiliated with Pilchuck since 1992, first as a student, then as a teaching assistant and summer-staff member. In 2007, his centerpiece design was selected for the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School Annual Auction.

His own work intertwines psychological issues and semantic absurdities derived from personal history and contemporary life. "I see glass as an inflatable sculptural medium. My work attempts to convey ideas about language and its definition of objects."