Final Video Proposal

Final Video Project Proposal
Nolan Callahan

My own obsession with blowing glass can probably be traced back into my childhood, but mainly began in high school. I was 16 years old, watching Netflix with friends, and came across the documentary “Degenerate Art”. The year was 2011, and after having my entire world opened up to the possibilities of flame worked glass, it was obvious that I had to try this. Around the same time, I began to become more intensively involved with lacrosse, and the subsequent spring season, and summer recruiting circuit garnered much of my attention. I spent long hours traveling between recruiting events, summer tournaments, and college visits, and much of my time was spent looking at Instagram. My feed was filled with glassmakers, and I stared at their work for hours on end, wondering how it was possible to manipulate glass into such beautiful forms. The first glass I found myself looking at was glass pipes. The form was beautiful, the function was illegal, and the entire energy and community surrounding glass pipes was compelling. From Grateful dead parking lots to some of the finest galleries and exhibits in the world, glass pipes has certainly elevated lamp working as a whole, and the impact that the pipe movement has had on glass art will endure. About 5 years after watching Degenerate Art, I finally found myself behind the torch. The first day was one of the most intimidating things I have ever done in my life. I had never experienced heat like that in my life, and in the first few hours, I thought that there was no way I could ever do something like this. After i settled in, i managed to be on the torch for a solid 8 hours and created my first objects out of glass, a small glass cane and a tiny marble that still resides in my grandmother’s collection. I was officially hooked. At the end of that summer I found myself at Rutger’s University, and tried to seek out the scientific glassblower featured in the Science Department directory. I made my way to the tiny shop in the basement of the old biology building on Busch, and after about 5 or so attempts where I found the door locked and no one there, I finally turned the corner to see a huge flame coming off of a torch mounted to a lathe spinning endlessly. This lathe was operated by a stout dreadlocked man, and I met him with “Dreadlocks? I must be in the right place!” He laughed and introduced himself as Jake Moskowitz, and after six hours of getting to sit there and watch him make some delicate scientific repairs we made arrangements for me to head up to his shop in Roselle Park. That was a bit over two years ago now, and we have grown into close friends. Our relationship of master/apprentice has become blurred more into brotherly love. Jake has given me every resource and opportunity to realize my ideas in glass, and his experience has helped guide me through the ever frustrating process. Prior to meeting Jake, I wanted to be a pipe maker just like the ones I had seen in “Degenerate Art” and on Instagram, but Jake quickly shook that idea out of my head by exposing me to the larger world of glass as a material industrially, artistically, scientifically, and beyond. Glass truly is one of the most amazing materials in the world, and it has given me life. Glass supplies me both a purpose, and a vibrant artistic community to be a contributor to. It allows me to attack pretty much any project my mind can conjure up, and only rewards patience, practice, and humility. The finest glass pieces I’ve made come from a place of my purest intentions, when I can let go of all else that could’ve been bothering me in that moment and find another level of focus where it is just me and the glass. This is a video on glass, and my process, but it really is a video about my life. Where I draw inspiration from, my approach to making an item, and the fragility of the medium are all in themselves ways for me to communicate my thoughts and feelings about my own life. Glass has given me life, and I no longer could imagine a life without it.