Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Gorman.
Nathan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I moved from Texas to Atlanta with my family at the age of eighteen and attended the State University of West Georgia while working in the restaurant/bar industry around Atlanta. Working at The Capital Grille in Buckhead, my walk to work followed a row of art galleries where I would stop in and visit when I had a few extra minutes. Over time I grew to know the art and the people inside these galleries. David, who owned the glass gallery representing Frabel glass art, became a very close friend. Spending time in his gallery visiting and talking about the artwork proved to be my first real introduction into the glass art world. I ended up personally meeting Frabel and becoming friends as well. I learned about his colorful history with glass and somewhat famous standing in the art world which really fascinated my interest in art. Fast forward seven years and I’m looking to transition from working nights into finding a day job so that I could spend more time with my family in the evenings. I found a part-time job landscaping and worked in a few galleries in my neighborhood, but mostly, I was in between paychecks.
With a little extra time on my hands, I offered to landscape the property around Frabel’s studio to help him spruce it up. Every Thursday for a few months, I worked there manicuring the property making improvements that people in the studio noticed and seemed to appreciate. That led to an opportunity helping the studio break down a show in Richmond, VA. They needed extra hands and I was eager to work, so I went along and spent a week breaking down and packing up the art from the show. Within a few days upon returning from the trip a position opened within the studio under quality control and I was hired. I was ecstatic to be working full time and with my friend in what was for me a fun new environment. As a quality control, I inspected the glass for imperfections and performed a handful of other odd jobs around the shop. Within a few years, I found myself taking on a myriad of duties one of which included performing the sandblasting work, which was mostly frosting sculptures and sand carving plaque awards. In my free time, I practiced and explored working with the tools and materials in ways that interested me more so than the studio work. Specifically, I explored deep multidimensional carving. This technique produced unique results that the other artists were impressed by, saying they had never seen glass work like it before. Without realizing it, I was becoming an artist.
The turning point in finding my path to becoming an artist came when a local collector brought part of his collection to show off in the studio. He opened his hard case and inside sat some of the most elaborate pieces I had ever seen. They were small spheres, no larger than a tennis ball, and made by Japanese artists I’d never heard of. I was in awe at the sight, but even more blown away when I heard the price tags upwards of $10,000 for an individual piece. These were “contemporary marbles” and a niche market existed of collectors who were ready to pay that kind of money for something so small and obscure. There was nothing left to do but sign myself up like a marble maker and start carving into spheres. For years, I worked solely with spheres practicing and learning my craft. With no definitive starting point and no lines to measure from the sphere proved to be a challenging yet rewarding shape to work with. Fortunate to sell what I made, I began affording tools and materials that I needed to start working for myself.
Today, I am recognized as one of the best glass carvers around. I have participated in the Marble Masters by invitation each year for the past four years as one of the top twenty makers in the world. The Japanese artists now not only know my work, but we’ve collaborated on pieces together and some of them have obtained my art for their own collections. I’ve been published in numerous glass magazines and journals and participated in shows around the country. My work has shown alongside Frabels at the Mckee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach, FL during his Reimagined Exhibit. In 2017, I was fortunate to demonstrate at the Chrysler Museum of Glass by invitation of The Glass Art Society.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Accolades came quickly but they didn’t come easy. Glass is a relentless medium, you know, it likes to break. Carving glass as subtractive sculpture greatly increases the chances for chipping and breaking. If any piece is imperfect, I won’t sell it. Most art mediums are additive such as paint, clay, wood, and even hot glass. Something goes wrong, just cover it up, add to it, or completely replace the mistake. Not so with glass carving. It’s been a struggle learning through the do’s and don’ts with all remnants of broken glass as a reminder of how painful it is to put in weeks of work at a time with nothing to show for. Despite the pain that has come from loss, I very much enjoy what I do and for me creating the work is where it’s at. I wish it would sell itself but inevitably at some point I needed learn how to sell, market, photograph, account for finances, build social media presence, and so on in order to form a business. Each entity is no joke, I mean people make careers out of becoming proficient and in turn their expertise attributes to making businesses very successful. I needed to balance my time between learning how to form a business and continuing to produce art pieces. My mind was all over the place. I felt like I needed to be good at everything all at once. As time progressed, everything fell into place. Now, the business side is much more intuitive, I can check things off the list with less time and energy giving myself more time to be creative.
Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
For many years, I strictly made marbles. Doing so allowed me to hone my skills and sell my wares at the same time. In order to grow as an artist and business, I’ve spent the last few years working with new shapes and overall larger pieces. I’ve offered abstract art, carved beer growlers and wine decanters for the spirits enthusiast, vases, and functioning pieces (pipes). “Of course, the pipe is the modern-day goblet” I was told by the museum aid when I asked if I could display one of my pipes for the audience I was demonstrating for. Today, many of the great glass artists are making the occasional pipe and Museums like The National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia are hosting shows based around these functioning pieces. I’m moving in a direction to work almost solely with galleries and interior designers. By having these two entities represent my work to their clients I will have more time on the creative side producing work. I have a current collection titled “Illuminated” that incorporates new materials like wood, metal, and stone along with light sources to illuminate the glass. By presenting the glass carvings in this way, I will invite a broader group of collectors/clients to include homeowners, retail, restaurant, office space, or anyplace that would like to introduce light incorporated into glass art. The pieces in this collection are designed for numerous display options including wall mounted, ceiling mounted and hanging, to sit tabletop, or stand weight off the floor.
As with all my work, every piece is made by hand without computer generated images or the use of CNC machines. The glass blanks come from any one of a multitude of sources but primarily, I work within a network of glass blowers where I can commission specific pieces of glass to fit my need. The wood I use is sourced from a supplier in Atlanta (Carlton’s Rare Woods, ask for Richard) and respectfully use the rarest most beautiful, exotic woods he can find. The mixed materials are incorporated together by hand milling the wood and glass so that all the components including electrical fit together seamlessly. By nature, this work has a uniqueness that sets it apart from other similar products. Someone else could be doing the same thing somewhere in the world but it still won’t be just alike. This is what really sets me apart as a company, we are the one and only one. Feeling it instills pride into the workplace and motivates me to push forward more than ever and continue evolving.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Having been invited by the Glass Art Society to demonstrate at the Chrysler Museum of Glass has been the proudest moment in my career.
Pricing:
- Pricing $500 – $15,000
Contact Info:
- Website: Website dedicated to carved marbles- NathanGglass.com
- Email: nbg1909@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Nathan Gorman and Yuri Federman
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
