I think the hardest part about doing glass
is probably cutting.
Either you can pick a pattern and make it according
to whatever the pattern is.
Or you can do what's called process art, where you actually
just flow with the process and see what comes out.
That's the art part.
The rest is a craft.
But you know the object is not necessarily to get things done.
Because the whole experience of working with the glass,
and touching it, and thinking about
it are good for the brain.
I grew up in the 60s during the Vietnam War,
and went to college in Madison and turned from a republican
into a radical anarchist--
maybe not quite an anarchist.
But I was part of the counterculture, I guess.
I've done so many different things in my life.
It's just too many to list.
I've worked construction.
I drove semis.
I worked at a steel mill.
I went to Los Angeles, and I lived there for 20 years.
I came back here because I had a daughter in Duluth
that had cancer.
Plus I grew up here, so I like it.
It's part of me.
I got interested in art seeing the progress that
was made in people recovering from various addictions
and low self-esteem problems.
It just amazed me.
It was like a little crack in the shell
towards feeling better about yourself.
Hugh was hired two months ago by our board of directors.
He is the executive director of the Guild.
His dominant art interest is in stained glass.
I taught a class.
We had 15 students sign up right off the bat,
with 25 more on a waiting list.
I'm most excited about seeing the individuals who
come in initially.
And then get really excited about it, and see them evolve.
The benefit of the guild is that we're there
for somebody who's interested to just walk in off the street
and be able to have somebody show them how to draw a line.
How to draw a figure.
What happens here?
Dominantly what we do is we display art.
We hold workshops that create art.
We seek to develop interest in art,
and support individuals who are artists,
or want to be artists, in evolving all forms of art
possible.
The benefit to society, and our community,
is that I think it makes us more loving.
It makes us socialize.
It takes us from our walled-in defensive position,
and shares things that you wouldn't share necessarily.
And it makes life better.
We have some very good artists that
were difficult to talk them into the door the first month or two
that we were in existence.
Now they're very avid artists and spend a lot of their life
here, and enjoy the art.
I never really felt like this was home
after I came back for a long time until I started this.
And then I took an interest in the community,
in what's happening to Hibbing.
And knew that I couldn't just sit around and let
things go by and happen.
I needed to be a part of it.
And that energy is filling me now.