A Jolley Guy

Richard Jolley is an Oak Ridge transplant from Kansas and has a pretty unique art form (or at least I think so...): blown glass. The medium of glass has fascinated me from a young age mostly because I watched a "How It's Made" episode on how marbles were made. Though marbles are not necessarily blown glass, they are still made with similar techniques. 

Jolley focused his education on art and received a Bachelors of Fine Arts and has sought teachings from Michael Taylor and Richard Ritter (apparently these are also big names in the blown glass world but this blog is about Jolley). Student turned teacher, Jolley works with at-risk youth and teaches them about the concepts behind art and blown glass. 

Jolley opened a glass studio in Knoxville in 1975. Over his career, Jolley has had 65 solo museum and gallery exhibitions and has displayed his work across the United States, Europe, and Japan. Jolley is known for crafting animal and human figures in ambiguous scenes that leave the context entirely open to the viewer. Currently, there is an exhibit in the Knoxville Museum of Art titled "Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass" that focuses on other artists expanding on the work of Richard Jolley and providing their own interpretations of innovative ways to transform glass into art. 

Here are some of his glass-blown pieces: