Josh Fradis

In my life, I have always loved art. So, it was only appropriate that I fell in love at first sight
when I stepped into the glassblowing studio in college. The fluidity, motion,
movement, and outcome of transforming something clear and liquid into something
beautiful and solid, all attributed to my immediate fondness of the art form.
When I drew my first gather, dipping the cold steel rod into the molten,
red-hot, honey-like, 2000°F blazing hot furnace, it was a beautiful experience.
To create something beautiful from my bare hands, metal tools, blazing fire, and
notebook drawings or an image in my mind, out of clear, formless, melted sand
is incredible to me. I know that this love of mine for the involvement and
process of creating in glass, drives and inspires me to make my art glass
creations. I love creating; I get to make people happy with beautiful, bright
colors and fun shapes from a medium that is 4,000-years-old. I simply love the
beauty of the medium.

Each piece that I make is the evolution of the process and my personal journey in glass. All of
my artwork signifies and represents the dedicated effort that I’ve put into my
skills as a glass artist over the past 20 years. I learn something new about
the glass every time that I work with it. I absorb the world around me and take
the bits and pieces that I want to take and put it into my artwork. For
example, the beautiful colors I see around me on a daily basis in Mother
Nature, like in the sunset, the colors in it can vary anywhere from
monochromatic gray and black to the most colorful rainbow you can imagine of
oranges, yellows blues, and purples. I don’t expect to make anything as
beautiful as Mother Nature can, but all I can do is try.

The history of glassblowing and the fact that it has hardly changed over the past 2,000 years
is what I respect and admire. The only thing that has changed is technology and
how we achieve our heat. Glassblowing is an art form that not anybody can do at
any time. You cannot go to the art supply store and buy the equipment and
materials needed to create a beautiful piece of glass and begin tonight. It is
a relationship that you build and nurture over a lifetime in a very uninviting
and intimidating environment.

What is beautiful and captivating is the way the glass and light interact with each other. This
harmonious interaction is something that you cannot achieve in any other
medium. This process is such a personal interaction between medium and artist
that no two glass artists can create anything in the same way, shape, or
feeling of expression. Almost like an interpretive dance, everybody has their
own way of expressing their individual “olé!” that is different from everyone
else. It is not necessarily better or worse, just different so you just have to
go with what appeals to you.