ABOVE: "Glass is ubiquitous in that it's all around us," Dailey says. " But in the hands of the artist, it's magical. Just from melting ordinary materials, it assumes liquid form that no other material achieves." Photography by John Carlano. BELOW: "Le Joyau" is one in a series of works Dan Dailey created for Cristallerie Daum using the company's version of the pate de verre process. Photography by Dan Dailey.

DAN DAILEY: RACONTEUR OF GLASS
The Artist's Colorful Narratives In Glass Engage The Viewer With Their
Beauty, Whimsy and Surreal Sensibility

nternationally renowned as one of the most celebrated "stars" in the art glass world, Dan Dailey has been heralded as an accomplished designer, a studio glass pioneer and an influential teacher. However, it is art critic and historian Dan Klein's characterization of him as a "brilliant raconteur" that most aptly describes the artist, whose portfolio of work spans more than three decades.

"If there is one common thread, it's that every piece tells a story," Dailey says. "I like to engage the viewer and cause a reaction. Most of my work tries to communicate an idea."

ABOVE: "Spitting Horses" was inspired by a drawing of a stallion by famed car designer Ettore Bugatti. Photography by Bill Truslow. BELOW: Paying homage to the French sculptor Armand Albert Ratteau, "Ratteau's Jaguar" table features a cobalt-blue pate de verre jaguar stretching its body across a trio of branches. Photography by Bill Truslow.

An opportunity to experiment with glass blowing while attending Philadelphia College of Art led Dailey to choose this elusive material as his vehicle of expression." I'd tried other media, but glass was so different from wood or clay that it could only be described as magical," he fondly recalls. "No other material comes to life with light like glass. Color, transparency, translucency are all only accommodated through that one medium."

Dailey's long involvement in the glass industry has influenced the techniques and processes he has perfected over the years. Upon graduating from Rhode Island School of Design with a master's degree in 1972, Dailey received a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy, where he worked at the Venini glass factory on the island of Murano. Thereafter, he went to work for a glass factory in West Virginia. Throughout the past 20 years, he has also worked as an independent artist/designer for Cristallerie Daum in France.

A stickler for quality, Dailey travels across the country and between continents to create one piece from beginning to end. "I blow glass in Seattle, acid polish in West Virginia, cast bronze in a foundry in Monterey, Calif., and finish all of my work in my studio in New Hampshire," he says. "Add some work in France and Italy, and you've got a fairly complicated methodology, but it's the only way I can really get the best quality workmanship and materials."

Dailey's repertoire in glass is as diverse and refined as his creations. His pieces often combine varying techniques and materials, including blown glass and metalwork, with acid-polished, sandblasted or patinated details. Often inspired by the streamlined elegance of the Art Deco period, his pieces portray people and animals in scenes that are beautiful, whimsical and surreal in their stylized adaptations....continued on page 2

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