On the Floor: A Hot Shop Education
By Gabe Feenan, Hot Shop Gaffer
A large part of what makes Museum of Glass such a special place is the people who work here. As anyone who has visited MOG knows, one of the most dynamic parts of the guest experience is the live glassblowing demonstrated daily in the Hot Shop. The MOG Hot Shop Team is one of the most visible and tightly knit departments in the Museum. Their daily displays of talent and technique invite audience members to witness the fascinating process of glassblowing and gain insight into how the works of art in MOG’s galleries have come into being.
My introduction to glassblowing was not exactly typical. I was not going to school for it. I did not know any artists. In fact, glassblowing was not even on my radar. So how did I learn about this medium that would come to define my career?
While living in a school bus in the California Bay Area in 1996 and needing to find a permanent place to park my house on wheels, I randomly found a spot across the street from what I would later discover were three glass studios. My room (bus) mate and I were both looking for work and he got a job at one of these glass studios as an entry-level assistant. I soon began to hang around the studio and glassblowing immediately piqued my interest. A couple of months later, I got my first job helping with coldworking, charging the furnace, taking out the garbage — you name it (all for $4.50 an hour).
One of the perks of the job, outside of the great pay, was we were allowed to use the shop and whatever glass was left over on Friday nights to practice and make our own work. This enabled me to develop basic hand skills, I eventually learned everything I could from this studio. I moved on to another production glass shop in Sonoma, California, where I met a guy.
That guy was Ben Cobb. We soon became friends, and I was beginning to learn a lot from him, which is why I was pretty bummed to find out he had accepted a new job starting a year later. He told me he would be working at a new museum and studio opening in Tacoma, Washington. I had heard of this area and knew it was the place to be for glass.
At this point, I had certainly been bitten by the glass bug and wanted more out of it than just production work, so I started looking at going to school for glass. Coincidentally, Ben reached out at the same time to say the Museum was looking for a starter on their Hot Shop Team. I didn’t think I was qualified, but I applied for the job anyway.
I was hired in August of 2002, about a month after the Museum opened its doors. Accepting this job was the best decision of my life — and the best education I could have asked for. I have not only learned the technical skills to make things, but also why artists make what they make.
This is in large part due to the Museum’s Visiting Artist Program. I have had the privilege to meet and work with artists from all over the world, develop meaningful friendships, and hear unique perspectives through artist lectures. There are so many memorable moments with Visiting Artists — it would take me the entire fuse magazine to share them all with you. But this is a very special program. I have been fortunate enough to benefit from it by meeting new people and pushing myself to help them realize their ideas.
Another Museum program that has shaped me as a maker is Kids Design Glass. It has helped me creatively think outside the box and taught me that there are no rules in glassmaking – the limit to what you can do does not exist. If someone can draw it, our team can figure out how to make it. And when the person drawing it is a kid with a limitless imagination, it makes it that much more fun.
The last, but certainly not least, major influence on my own education and growth as a glassmaker is the Hot Shop Team. Working with the same core crew of people over the years has taught me the importance of teamwork. Each member of the team brings a unique style and approach to their work that I continue to learn from. They are also just great humans to spend my working days with. We are like a family (yes, we also bicker like one). I have watched their kids grow up, attended their weddings, asked for advice as I started my own parenthood journey, and incessantly annoyed them with talk of my other passion outside of glass: softball. I cherish their support, both professionally and personally.
While my journey to glassmaking was unexpected, I know that without the Museum and its Hot Shop – the unique visions of Visiting Artists, the inspiring designs of kids, and the backbone of my Hot Shop family – I never would have received this lifelong education in the material that I love. I would not be where I am today as a maker and an artist.
Gabe Feenan. Photo by Chelsea Tornga Photography.
About the Artist:
Gabe Feenan began his glass career in 1996 working in production studios in the San Francisco Bay area. He has been a visiting and demonstrating artist at glass studios across the world including Verrerie Pierini in Biot, France, The Glass Factory in Emmaboda, Sweden, and Pilchuck Glass School, to name a few. Elegant and refined, Feenan’s personal work evokes strength and balance with their stacked geometric shapes. Relying on pure ability and technique, Feenan seeks to emphasize the importance of a skilled artist’s hand in a machine-made world.