Tom Patti originally experimented with glass by blowing laminated glass cubes into spheres, capturing a bubble inside while retaining the squared edges outside. This progressed into constructing glass "wings" that supported the blown bubble. His meticulous forms are compact yet monumental, suggesting giant columns reproduced in miniature.
Luce Object Quote:
"The opening for me is the hidden complexity of something solid that has an interior, a thin wall within a thick wall. The opening appears and disappears as your eye moves over the piece; it's not asking you to look in, it's a three dimensional volume inside a series of two dimensional forms." Tom Patti, American Craft, 1983
Credit Line:
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Eleanor T. and Samuel J. Rosenfeld