“Play each note as though it were a prayer” Emilio Pujol
I started my professional career as a music teacher and the above quote was the most important lesson I took away from a classical guitar master class taught by Pujol.
Life has presented other choices.I changed my medium of artistic expression, but the lesson still applies.
I started kiln formed glass about 15 years ago,for fun. I can’t recall how and why the fascination developed, but, in it I found my ‘voice’. I learned the kiln forming techniques from; Bullseye Research and Development Center in Portland, Nationally known teachers brought to The Glass Art Guild of Utah, and lots of mistakes and self teaching. The concepts of; color form, theme,etc. I transferred from my musical training.
There is one more teacher who was central to my artistic endeavors,my father, John C. Stoumbis. He was a well known painter in Northern New Mexico and the Southwest. He studied art at the Hill and Canyon School of Art in Santa Fe. He brought his first born,Christine, home to an art studio being rented from his instructor, John Sloan. My entire life has been filled with art and all of it’s furnishings. My Father’s legacy to me, when he passed, was to build me a studio where I spend my time now that I’ve retired from teaching.
There is a story, symbolism,a prayer, with each of my pieces.