Rich small
Campbell, CA

Rich Small began writing stories at a young age, but has always been interested in other forms of expression. He was first drawn to glass as an artistic medium upon seeing an exhibit of Dale Chihuly chandeliers at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC. The exhibit took up the entire upper story of the gallery, and spilled, as Chihuly’s works will, down onto the first floor. He walked in through the front doors, and saw the bottom, the very tip, of a chandelier hanging down in the center of the room. As he walked into the room the chandelier appeared, an upside-down iceberg of multicolored flowers and spires.

He had been fascinated by glass since he was a child. But at the Chihuly exhibit, he saw glass in a completely new way. After much exploration, he went to a local glass art show, and was invited to drop by the studio. “To watch,” they said.

He didn’t just watch. He was a moth to the furnace flame.

Rich likes to create objects that have stories to tell, objects that draw you into them, begging questions, yielding few answers.
His glass objects have unexpected textures, both tactile and visual. Often the objects incorporate metal in unexpected ways; a metal leaf seeming to blow through a snowstorm on the surface of a pumpkin, a heart crusted with still-molten metal, what appears to be copper cladding on an ancient urn. All of these objects have stories to tell. You just have to ask.