Artist Statement: 

Glass undergoes a transformation from solid to liquid : liquid to solid.  Throughout the process of working this material a glass artist must also undergo a transformation.  Tuning one's natural rhythms to the glass is to be sympathetic to it. Without the Artist, the material lies dormant yet full of Potential.  Without Glass...we have an empty furnace, nothing to Inspire us.  
I am excited to be a part of fusing of energy and action into form.  The finished product is born in fire and brought out of the experience of the hotshop.  Art that speaks on a number of levels contains more potential for experience.  That interaction is what my work is about.   It becomes a dialogue between the artist / art / participant.  At a distance and over time it will still resonate.   


Biography: 

Chad first started working in Glass in Minneapolis in 1996 as a balmy summer job.  “I’ve been chasing it ever since.”  Following "hot glass" to the headwaters of the Mississippi river, to Seattle, and then to Louisville where he was invited to be a resident artist at Louisville Glassworks; producing art, teaching classes and building mobile glass studios.  In 2012 he started Chad Balster Glass and began construction of The Hotbox, a mobile glass trailer studio.    


Education:

2000-2002 University of Wisconsin, River Falls Glassblowing.
1995-2000  BFA Honors in Painting and Drawing.  University of Minnesota.  Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Summa Cum Laude. 
1994-1995 Worthington Area Senior High School.  Worthington, Minnesota.  
1993 Wirtschaft Gymnasium, Crailsheim Germany.  Sister City Exchange Ambassador between Worthington, Minnesota and Crailsheim, Germany. 


Work Experience: 
 

2012: Construction of “Hot Box”, Building a Glass Studio from the ground up in  the Germantown/Paristown nieghborhood ofLouisville Ky.  This project Incorporates “studio glass” principles and will develop into a whole armada of mobile glassblowing equipment studios. 
 

2012: Glassblowing Instructor, Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York Summer Session, “Introduction to Glassblowing” 

2010-2013 Teachers Assistant.  Mark Matthews, “Advanced Color Systems in Glass”.  Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York. Assistant to Mark Matthews (http://markmatthewsglass.com/) for a weeklong course of color theory and it’s application in glass, particularly marble sculptures.

2004-2011 Glass Instructor, Louisville Glassworks. Taught mini “Blow Your Own” 5-minute workshops (ages 7-90), 1-day workshops (ages 18+), Weekend 2  day Glassblowing Retreats, 1-Week Intensive Glassblowing Classes, and 
5-Week Courses (Beginning Glassblowing, Glassblowing I & II).  

2003 Visiting Artist, Summer Kids Retreat.  New York Mills Regional Cultural Center.  Summer art classes for kids aged 9-15.   

1999-2000 Teaching Assistant, University of Minnesota, David Feinberg.  Drawing, Painting, 3-d painting,