Artist Statement

I find glass as seductive as it is challenging. As a particularly unforgiving medium it exposes an artist’s vision in designing for its unique properties and their skill in executing work. I’ve always been captivated by how glass can hold elements in suspension, bend light, and layer color in three dimensions as well as the process of working with it in its liquid state. 

My current work is an intensive exploration of detailed patterns, colors, and transparency created through multi-layered cane and murrine (colored rods and patterned cross-sections of glass). Creating my work begins with meticulous planning and designing of colors and patterns. After I pull the cane and murrine, I carefully compose these elements to design the final work, all days prior to blowing it. I enjoy this process of thoughtful creativity and the contrasting intensity of executing work in the hotshop, where the limited window to shape molten glass requires precision and urgency. The dual challenge of designing and executing complex work satisfies both the artist and the craftsman in me and I continually find it exciting to create a piece I’ve poured days over, watching it come to life in the fire. 

While varied in composition and design, I most often create work within a series of simple forms that I consider three-dimensional canvases. The diversity and variation in my work reflects my desire to explore a variety of ideas simultaneously. Some visual themes that recur include windows with views into or through a piece, contrasting transparency and solidity and disrupted repetition. Colors in contrasting and/or complimentary tertiary tones woven into complex patterns challenge expectations of the amount of detail glass can carry and its place in the art world. My indirect influences include textiles, ethnically distinct colors and shapes as well as the marine environment.
Biography 
Born and raised in New York, David Patchen now resides in San Francisco. While a musician for two decades, he now exclusively directs his creative energy to glass. David has learned from a wide range of talented local artists as well as at the studio of Afro Celotto, maestro and former assistant to Lino Tagliapietra in Murano, Italy.

In 2006 he was awarded a scholarship for artistic merit to attend a juried class at the prestigious Pilchuck Glass School, founded by Dale Chihuly and John and Anne Hauberg in Stanwood, Washington. In 2009, David was invited by the Seto City Art and Cultural Foundation to spend a month in Japan as Artist in Residence, lecturing, demonstrating and creating work to be shown in the Seto City Museum of Art.

David is actively involved in the glass arts community as Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Directors at Public Glass and former member of the Board of Directors, Glass Alliance of Northern California. David maintains a studio adjacent to Public Glass in San Francisco where he creates his work. David enjoys and finds inspiration in international travel, SCUBA diving, photography, architecture, science and nature. His work is available at select galleries in the U.S., Canada and Europe.


Exhibitions, Shows
•    Temple Arts Festival, Nashville – Invited artist, Apr. 2010
•    Seto City Museum, Seto City Japan; Artist in Residence Exhibition, Mar. 2010
•    Stewart Fine Art, Boca Raton - Simple Addition and Subtraction, Dec. 2009
•    Vienna International Art Show - Vienna, Austria, Nov. 2009
•    ArtSpan - Private Preview Gala (Juror's Choice Award), Oct. 2009
•    Sausalito Art Festival – Juried artist, Sept, 2009
•    Pismo Fine Art Glass, Aspen – New work: Stig Persson, David Patchen, July, 2009
•    The Bender Gallery, Asheville - June 2009
•    Art Forte, Seattle - Into Nature, June 2009
•    Art Forte, Seattle - Zen Organic, May 2009
•    Gump's, San Francisco - Pearl; Inspiring Design and Desire, Apr. 2009
•    SOFA (Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art) Chicago, Nov. 2008
•    Pilchuck Annual Auction, Seattle - Oct. 2008
•    Judy Youens Gallery, Santa Fe - Opening show, Jul. 2008
•    JRB Art At the Elms, Oklahoma City - Glass Invitational, June 2008
•    Micaela Gallery, San Francisco - David Patchen, David Ruth, Julie Lazarus - New Work, Nov. 2007
•    Pismo Fine Art Glass, Denver - Murrine Mystique (group all-murrine show), Oct. 2007
•    National Liberty Museum, Philadelphia - Glass Now Auction, Oct. 2006
•    Gump's, San Francisco - California Creations, Jul. 2006
•    Glass Art Society - Annual Conference, live auction (juried), Jun. 2006
•    Santa Barbara Museum of Art - Annual Auction, May 2006
•    ArtsFest, San Francisco - Spectra Ball (juried), Apr. 2006
•    Santa Barbara Ballet - Arts Fundraiser, Apr. 2006
•    Artexpo; Javits Center New York, Mar. 2006
•    Public Glass, San Francisco - Not So Clear (juried), Oct. 2005
•    Gump’s, San Francisco - Lead artist in California Transformation, Jul. 2005
•    Public Glass, San Francisco - Keep Us Hot (juried), Apr. 2005 – 2007
•    ArtSpan - Open Studios exhibitor, demonstrator, Oct. 2003 – 2008
•    Bay Area Glass Institute - Annual Live Auction (juried), Jan. 2004 – 2010

Publications
•    Nashville Arts Magazine, interview, March 2010
•    Kurier, Vienna, Austria, October 31, 2009
•    Etihadinflight, Etihad Airways, September 2009
•    San Francisco Art News, Sept. 2009
•    Explorations in Murrine (book), June 2009
•    San Francisco Magazine, June 2009
•    Arizona Republic; Arts Nov. 2008
•    San Francisco Weekly, Sept. 2008
•    San Francisco Chronicle - Home & Garden section, Apr. 2006
•    San Francisco Arts Monthly - Oct. 2005


Events, Demonstrations
•    Seto Cultural Foundation Artist in Residence Lecture and Demonstration, Jan. 2010
•    San Francisco State University – Demo, Apr. 2009
•    Artspan, Tour des Artistes, Lecture & Demo, Aug. 2009
•    Glass Alliance of Northern California, Lecture & Demo, Mar. 2009
•    Bay Area Glass Institute - Third Thursday Artist Lecture and Demo, July 2007
•    Assisted Afro Celotto, Public Glass – Nov. 2006
•    Public Glass - various demonstrations at Open Studios and other events, 2004 – 2009
•    Public Glass New Furnace Celebration - demonstration, Jul. 2006
•    Gaffed for Marvin Lipofsky demonstration, Apr. 2006