Robert Humphreys, glass artist, joins the Arkansas Craft Guild
"Art is a lifelong journey of discovery, experimentation, and growth— a language of expression accessible to anyone willing to explore, practice, and break a few pencils," so says Robert Humphreys, The Twisted Juniper, Little Rock, about his lifetime in the arts.
His sculptural glass may be purchased in the Arkansas Craft Guild & Gallery, Mountain View. He writes, "For nearly two decades, I have worked borosilicate glass in the flame, shaping organic forms from the natural world — trees, birds, and dragons that reflect my love of the outdoors and a lifelong fascination with anatomy. My work draws on technical study as much as personal passion, finding beauty in the structures that govern living things.”
"I am interested in the anatomy of things — the hidden structure beneath surface appearances. Whether in glass, graphite, or digital media, I am drawn to the place where the organic and the engineered converge: where a root system resembles a circuit diagram, where a bone suggests a landscape, where light passing through glass reveals a depth that solid matter conceals.”
Robert took classes at the University of Utah Corning Museum of Glass Studio. Previously he practiced at the University of Utah scientific glassblowing department, and Utah State University fine arts department. He learned his art by working with other artists and by his own path of discovery.
“My work does not begin with a concept. It begins with a mark, a gather of molten glass, a line in graphite — and it proceeds from there, shaped as much by material resistance as by intention. I am less interested in expressing ideas than in discovering forms that already exist, waiting to be found."
Explaining how he named his studio, he writes, “I am drawn above all to the juniper. Junipers grow where nothing else can, enduring wind, rock, animals, and every force imaginable, and still surviving. They turn twisted, burled, and crooked from all they have withstood — often clinging to a mountainside where a person can barely stand. My favorites grow at Dead Horse Point, near Moab, Utah. I feel a deep, longstanding connection to this tree, and it has been the subject of much of my work; what moves me most is its resilience — the way it stays flexible through struggle."
His beautiful website, The Twisted Juniper, also has examples of his drawings
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