From Glass to Canvas: How Stained Glass Still Shapes My Art

Before I ever poured paint onto a canvas or tilted a surface to watch color run wild, I was cutting glass. For years, stained glass was my medium — a precise, soulful craft that taught me how light, color, and contrast could tell a story without a single word. Each piece of glass had its own juju, its own energy, and learning to shape it without breaking its spirit still guides how I create today.

Though I no longer offer stained glass as part of my services, that influence flows through every painting. You can feel it in the way I layer color, embrace transparency, and let shapes emerge from movement rather than control. I don’t use brushes — instead, I let the process take over. Hair dryers, dripping, tilting, and other nontraditional tools help me channel emotion into form. It’s all about finding the right rhythm, the right flow, the right moment to let go.

Stained glass taught me that beauty often lives in the in-between — the spaces where intention meets improvisation. That philosophy is baked into everything I make. The materials may have changed, but the juju is the same: vibrant, unpredictable, and always chasing light.