Trey Cornette
 
Biography
 
Growing up on a farm in Kentucky I was always the creative child, from carving vessels to sail in Harrods creek to building forts in the wooded valley behind the horse barn. I was always actively involved in creating fantastic stories and surrounding them with artifacts of my imagination. This creativity followed me to the University of Kentucky where I searched through the various humanities programs looking for a spark to light my soul. Creative writing, Theater, stage design and lighting were all explored and cast to the side. None of these imaginative directions held the power to capture drifting soul. Then one day I discovered a large metal building down by the railroad tracks and next to the university maintenance building. Inside a group of dirty young students were beating, heating, welding and grinding away at various metal forms in the effort chase down the creative muse. The courtyard behind was full of large brick kilns belching flames and smoke. Ahh! Fire and metal, I had found a home. I spent several years studying Sculpture and Ceramic arts under the Tillage of my mentor, Sculptor and Professor Jack Gron. Finding inspiration from classic sculptors such as David Smith, Alexander Calder, and Alberto Giacometti I explored my artistic expressions and earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture in 1996. Through my artistic endeavors and excellent Scholastic achievement I was offered and accepted a full scholarship in the Florida State University Masters of Fine Art program. As a part of my studies I was asked to teach undergraduate classes in 3D design and sculpture. I found that I greatly enjoyed sharing my knowledge and interaction of teaching would become a big part of my life. I earned a Masters of fine arts degree in sculpture from FSU in 1998 and accepted an Associate Professor/ Teaching technician position At the Herron School of Art In Indianapolis Indiana that same year. While teaching 3Design I met a student who was taking a glass blowing class at The Indianapolis Art Center and invited me to come check it out and play with some glass. The bug bit deep and drew blood! I had found my muse. GLASS! I continued teaching , taking Furnace Glass blowing classes and began exploring how I could do glass for a living. Running a furnace and glory hole were much too expensive to run on my own and I just was not getting enough studio time at the Indianapolis art center. In 2000 I found the answer on a trip to Wisconsin where I met the marble maker Chuck Pound. He introduced me to lampworking and the concept of working glass on a much smaller scale in a torch. When I returned home from this trip I bought my first torch, A Major Burner, and a small kiln and began making beads and marbles. While exploring this new medium my enthusiasm for teach began to wane. I found I still loved the teacher student interaction but the politics of University Career I found to be not of my liking. In 2003 after long consideration and thorough discussion with my wonderful wife Amy I decided to leave the university a pursue lampworking full time. I have never looked back.
 
In recent years I have given up creating sets of beads for the jewelry industry and concentrated on “One of a Kind” Art glass Focal Beads. Influenced by Aboriginal forms and designs juxtaposed with the graffiti images of the inner city I find myself caught in density of repetition and expressing it through scrolling patterns and script like designs of my “Urban Graffiti” series. In “The garden” series I present my love of gardens and flowers. It has been a tradition in the men of my family to have large plots of Zinnias in their vegetable gardens. I adhere to this tradition in both my gardens and my work. My expressions of sun forms and explosions of colorful florals are influenced by studies of Impressionism and Pop Art. I enjoy the fluidity and color of Van Gogh, the Contrast of Peter Max, the softness of Seurat and attempt to capture some of their essence in these forms.
 
As I continue to grow as an artist I seek to find new directions in glass, explore new ideas while pushing the old to higher realizations. I have recently moved back to the country to a rural farm and hope to bring more influences of the natural world to my palette.

Handmade Lampwork Artglass
                 by
          Trey Cornette

http://treycornette.com/