David Wight Glass Waves

David Wight

David Wight Glass Waves

“Looking back, my first steps toward a life working with glass were taken on a trail in a Caribbean rainforest. The year was 1994 and I had hiked up a small trail toward the sound of moving water. Before me stood a waterfall, a hundred feet high, descending through the forest, ferns, and cliffs. It was a cascade from a painted dream, and I was mesmerized. I watched how the water began to gather in the river above and brake apart into segments as it fell, before collecting into a perfect pool below. As I walked away from the falls, the sound fading, my mind and body felt relaxed with a calm I had never experienced before. On a deep level I had the desire to bring the therapeutic flow of water into lives and homes. “---David Wight

Returning to his hometown after his Caribbean experience with a business degree and no formal art education, David accepted a good paying office job. Unable to find fulfillment or inspiration behind a desk, he left with the belief that life was too short to do something he didn’t love. He sat down to have a serious conversation with himself about what he was passionate about. His thoughts kept circling back to water, the source of all his most profound life experiences, and especially to that day by the waterfall. David wanted to share his inspiration by bringing the essence of water into people’s lives.

While working several odd jobs, David happened upon an ad in the newspaper for an open house at a glass shop around the corner. When he arrived he watched the glass, that amorphous solid at two thousand molten degrees and the way it flowed. That’s when he knew – this was the only material with the power to capture the movement of water.

After learning to blow glass, he began making fountains in an attempt to capture the moving water, but still, he desired to do more. David wanted to create a solid sculpture that embodied the essence and movement of water – not just a vessel, but the water itself. He experimented, and eventually began to utilize ancient Italian tools along with new tools he created to achieve the style of glass-work that he envisioned.

David continues to live in Bellingham, Washington, inspired by the beauty of the Cascade Mountains, San Juan Islands, and the Pacific Ocean’s crashing waves. He travels to Seattle where he personally sculpts each wave by hand.

Amidst the heat and the unexpected, he is constantly challenged by the molten medium of hot glass. With his glass sculptures, he works to freeze a moment in time; to capture the beauty, grace, and power of water in its most dynamic form: The Wave.

David Wight Sig