I’m Peter. I live in NE Portland, Oregon with Susan, my wife. I now know that retirement can be a blessing or a curse. I’m pretty restless and used to being really busy in my long business career. I managed to stay occupied the first few years by remodeling two of our homes, my brother-in-law’s home, then my mother-in-law’s triplex. After that I said “no more” to hard labor!
So with time on my hands and an overly-active imagination, a tool collection, and a chance encounter with a glass artist, I took to experimenting with recycled glass then “painterly” style photography. The goal? To make something beautiful as well as unexpected and unusual.
My first glass project took shape when I embellished a door in my studio with a glass-on-glass piece. I wanted to let light in but have a little fun in the process. Then there was the window I made for letting light into our own home but screening out the neighbor’s house from my wife’s office. Another piece gave us both light and privacy in our bedroom. The next thing I knew, I was picking up old windows left out on the curb for disposal, digging through glass recycle bins and frequenting thrift stores and garage sales for interesting glass pieces to adorn my artwork. But when we didn’t have anywhere else to put them, my wife insisted I “cease and desist” until I had a plan for moving them along. (She meant for money, lest there be any confusion.)
So I was cutting the bottoms off wine and liquor bottles to use for my glass window art, and it seemed pretty wasteful to throw the rest of the bottle out, hence I started fashioning bottle lamps and drinking glasses out of what was left. My friends, family and neighbors have enough of them, now, so it’s time to make them available to the rest of the universe.
I like to take pictures, and friends tell me I’m pretty good at it. But what the heck do I do with them? Most people don’t really like to hang photography on their walls that isn’t of their children, grandchildren or pets. But colorful art? Of course people like that. So I took to making my photographs into more artistic forms, to be enjoyed as artwork, with more softness, warmth or vibrant color than the original photo provided.
