Artists selected for the 2009 BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass are:

Artist Statement
When I was a child, our house underwent a remodel.  The yard was messy, full of piles of soil and mud; in short, a boy’s paradise.  A favorite pastime of the neighborhood kids was engaging in dirt-clot throwing wars on our backyard battleground. One day, while preparing for a battle, I picked up a pile of ammunition and began to fashion it into what would be the perfect muddy weapon.  Slowly and deliberately I shaped it with my bare hands until the amorphous clot of mud began to take the form of a ball.  I became obsessed, shaping for probably an hour, and eventually created a perfect sphere. To me, this tennis ball sized object seemed much to perfect to sacrifice in battle, so I placed it in a small glass dish, and hid it inside the tool shed.  There it lived, until one spring day when I decided that I would impress my fellow combatants. Upon revealing the sphere, not a single one of my comrades believed that it was merely dirt. They were all sure that it must be some object coated with mud.  I pondered the options: return my treasure to the shed, or break it open and impress my friends?  Looking at the broken pile of earth, I felt a sense of pride that I had created something so perfect, and a sense of loss that I ruined it.  Gazing upon what was left, clearly a broken sphere, rounded edges still intact, with the rough inside sections splayed out on the concrete casting shadows, questions arose: Which is more beautiful; intact or sectioned, outside or inside, shapes or shadows?  Perhaps all was not lost. The glass sculptures that I make are related to this experience. They are an exploration of external and internal form; an expression of the relationship that exists between form and light. I strive to create objects that push the material itself beyond its simple inherent beauty.   When I look at a finished piece, it should be apparent to me that it could only exist in glass.

Biography
A native of Seattle, Washington, John Kiley began blowing glass professionally in 1992, at the age of nineteen. He has been a principal member of Lino Tagliapietra’s glass blowing team for fifrteen years. John has taught glassblowing at The National College of Art and Design in Ireland, The Bezalel Academy of Arts in Israel, and Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle.


Resume
Education and Apprenticeships
Lino Tagliapietra, Murano, Italy
Pratt Fine Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA
Penland School of Crafts, Penland, NC

Work Experience
1994-Present  Team Coordinator/Assistant to Lino Tagliapietra Lino Tagliapietra Inc., Seattle, WA

1996-2000  Assistant Dante Marioni, LLC, Seattle, WA, Dante Marioni and Janusz Pozniak at Dante Marioni’s private studio

1994-1998  Glassblower/Gaffer Chihuly Studio, Inc. Seattle, WA - Only glassblower to work in all venues for the Project, “Chihuly Over Venice”  including Finland, Ireland, Mexico, and Italy.  Promoted to Chandelier Gaffer at the age of 21.

1997-2000  Glassblower, Benjamin Moore, Inc, Seattle, WA

1998 – 2000  Gaffer The Manifesto Corporation, Seattle, WA

1993-1994  Glassblower/Coldworker, The Glass Eye Studio, Seattle, WA

Selected Professional Experience
2008    Featured artist - The Museum of Glass –Tacoma, WA

2007    Visiting Instructor - The Bezalel Academy of Arts, Jerusalem, Israel

2003 & 2005  Visiting Glassblower - Waterford Crystal, Waterford, Ireland

2000    Instructor - Pratt Fine Art Center, Seattle, WA
Teaching Assistant - Teaching Assistant to Dante Marioni at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
Assistant - Lino Tagliapietra at Kent State University, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and Pilchuck Glass School

1998    Visiting Instructor - The National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland

1996    Teaching Assistant - Lino Tagliapietra and Checco Ongaro at The Pilchuck Glass School

Working Travel Experience
Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Turkey

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