| Glass at the Pass & Crystal Mirage Galleries presents the work of Jesus Garcia, who combines ancient glassblowing techniques with a contemporary sense of color and design. He creates a varied array of bowls, platters, vases, perfume vials, goblets and other pieces.
For his Fiesta series, he applies confetti-like chips of bright, multi-colored glass to clear crystal, then blows out the form.
His Perfume Vials feature a bubble of translucent color suspended in clear crystal. After they cool, he cuts "windows" front and back and etches the sides to create a striking black geometric design.
He favors vivid jewel tone colors, which are the result of special formulations of metallic oxides - such as cobalt, gold, copper and others - which are mixed into the molten glass.
Garcia creates each piece at the end of a metal blowpipe, manipulating and blowing the glass at temperatures in excess of 2000 degrees F. The glassblowing methods he uses are thousands of years old, with only a few, minor innovations such as cutting and polishing that reflect 20th century technology.
A third generation glassblower, Garcia was born in Mexico and has lived and worked in California since 1979. He studied glassblowing at the University of Southern California, and worked for Correia Art Glass and Fineline Glass (Kerry Feldman and Denise Bloch) prior to establishing his own glassblowing studio, Antonio-Garcia Studio, in Southern California. His work has been shown at galleries and juried exhibitions throughout the United States. |
