Caleb Siegler is an artist based in Phoenix, Arizona focusing on three dimensional sculpture using primarily blown glass and metal.
Artist Statement:
My current body of work deals with the pursuit of balance in a busy world. Through my process I explore small windows into the human condition, how we are all too busy for our own good, and how art can be a meditation for calming the soul. Fire. The vehicle I steer to move glass into forms that otherwise, it simply would not go. Growing up in Scottsdale, I never thought I’d become a professional glassblower, but looking at the events that led to it from the perspective I now have, it all makes sense.
The first time I can recall seeing liquid hot glass come to life at the hands of a skilled artist was the same place so many of us remember seeing the molten dance: the Renaissance festival. I was in awe at the sheer fluidity of a material I was most familiar with being very fragile, as most ten year olds would be. The man was making hummingbird feeders, I will always recall.
Life happened, high school happened, but the interest in glass was always on the back burner. I’m not sure if I was too naïve to assess all the possible points of failure, or if I was on a higher plane, acting out of guided instinct. My junior year of high school, I scraped together every nickel I had and sweet talked my supportive but nervous parents into letting me set up a glass blowing studio in their laundry room. I was in business. More often than not, I pretended like my homework was done so I could blow glass. I tried to make a teacher a set of shot glasses. When Christmas came around, I pretended like I knew how to make ornaments. At Mother’s Day, I made all my aunts and grandma’s vases. By the time I saved enough money to take a class and get some real instruction, the teacher said I could be teaching it. My self-teaching had paid off. My skills continued to grow through school, and by the end of it, I was able to support myself full time by my art. It’s the only ‘job’ I’ve ever known, and I feel very fortunate about that.
Glass has taken me all around the west coast on collaborative road trips. It has given me the opportunity to share, as I am now a master level teacher at the same venue I took my first class. It has allowed me to keep searching for the limits of this ancient medium. Let’s just say, I have yet to find them. My name is Caleb Siegler, and I have a glass blowing addiction.