Interview by Jessica Bright

An early pioneer of the studio glass movement, expert glass artist Richard Royal channels raw experience into intricate pieces that evoke the duality of life.

Jessica Bright: Where are you from?

Richard Royal: I grew up in Olympia, Washington. I’ve lived in the Northwest my whole life, and I moved to Seattle in about ’78.

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JB: When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?

RR: I don’t remember ever really wanting to be anything in particular.  I suppose I wanted to be like my dad, who was a dentist, but it was pretty obvious early on that that stuff really bored me. I always did artwork, but I never really thought of art as a career…In fact, I got into this kind of serendipitously, anyway. It kind of fell in front of me, and I pursued it.

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JB: How and when did you get started in glassblowing?

RR: 1971. In Central Washington State College, which is now Central Washington University…I never took an art class until I left high school, until I graduated. I never took art class until I went to college, and I mostly did that to avoid being drafted for the Vietnam War. You got a 2-S deferment if you went to school.

JB: What did you do before glassblowing? What is your background?

RR: I had a ceramics studio that I started with a couple other artists. We did production, pottery…mostly production work, coffeepots, candlestick holders, we made dishware, place settings, that kind of thing.  Kind of got off at the end of that into making tile countertops and bathroom sinks, that sort of thing, kind of architectural sort of stuff. As a real job, while I was trying to figure out what I was going to do I worked in a furniture factory building office furniture. Which was a great job, I loved that job. I mean, it was kind of crappy work but I learned a lot about working with my hands and working with tools and equipment, stuff like that. It was really great. And construction too. I kind of just picked up jobs here and there.

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JB: What was your inspiration to go into glassblowing? Did you study under anyone?

RR: I studied under a lot of people. I took my first class in 1971 at Central Washington. The only reason I did it was because of the way they had a rotating registration system so that the R’s came first in this particular quarter and there were two spots left open in the glassblowing…I didn’t really know what it was, more than I just knew that they blew bubbles and somewhere I guess I had an idea what glassblowing was. I had to get special permission to sign up for it, because I was a sophomore and had to be a junior to take the class. So, they said I could do it.

I worked for glass for a year in 1971, and then the teacher was killed in an auto accident and they shut the department down. His name was Michael Whitley. Michael was a student with Dale Chihuly at Wisconsin with Harvey Littleton. This was back in the early sixties, and that was the first studio glass department at Madison, Wisconsin; University of Wisconsin, Madison. Michael came and the campus at Central Washington just had received all this money from the Kennedy administration for a new arts building, new English building, technical arts building…the whole north campus was all brand-new. And they had all this money. My lab fees for glassblowing were like twenty-five dollars. For a quarter. It was ridiculously cheap. But we didn’t know anything, it was just like we were trying to reinvent the wheel in this period of time. So anyway, Michael Whitley died in this car accident after the first year and they closed the department down because there wasn’t anybody else really available that knew how to run a glass studio. There were so few glassblowers at that time who were interested in studio arts. It wasn’t until about five years later that Gary Galbraith, who was the wood sculpture teacher there figured out how to do it and they reopened the department.  At that time I was long gone. In ’78, I was asked to come work at the Pilchuck Glass School. That’s really when I left ceramics behind, left woodworking behind, and started just concentrating purely on glass.

JB: How have you added your own voice to glassblowing?

RR: The people I’ve worked with, and I’ve worked with a lot of well-known artists – Dan Dailey, Dale Chihuly, Billy Morris, Ben Moore – I’ve met so many people and especially with my experience at Pilchuck, and what all of us do is we all have a unique idea of what we want to see happen in the material. Because the glass community is so open and does a lot of sharing we get to see how other people realize their ideas. We all have kind of our own individual voice that we express in the material.

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JB: What is unusual or unique about your approach to glassblowing?

RR: In the beginning, I guess it would be that I’ve been doing it for so long and I’ve been around for a good portion of the whole studio glass movement, so I’ve had the experience of seeing what some of the pioneers of the movement were doing firsthand, as well as seeing what new and up-and-coming artists are doing with the materials.

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JB: How has the art of glassblowing evolved since you started?

RR: In the beginning we didn’t know anything about it; we didn’t have any experience other than what was available in production factories in West Virginia and in places that did production work; Corning and those kinds of places. It wasn’t really until some European masters started coming to visit the Pilchuck Glass School that we realized that there was a true art form to actually blowing glass. Mostly the Italian masters that visited. That was about ’79 when that happened. And so, it’s changed immensely. There’s a whole peripheral industry that’s developed around the whole studio glass arts scene; I mean, there’s people who just make color for glass, there’s people who just make tools for glass, equipment for glass. There’s people who just do research to find new technologies in order to make glass art. We’ve become quite diverse that way.

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JB: What’s on the cutting edge right now?

RR: I don’t know. I really don’t…the studio glass movement started in 1962 or thereabouts. For the first twenty-five, thirty years it was all about experimentation and what could be done in glass. I think somewhere in that period, people started to focus more on just artistic expression and less on technique. So, I think what’s on the cutting edge is more the idea, rather than new technologies that are kind of one-trick ponies.

JB: What advice could you give to people who are trying to find their own voice in the world?

RR: If you find an artist or some artists that inspire you, and you choose to do work similar to theirs that’s fine, as long as you can find at some point in your process a tangent that makes you realize that it’s becoming your own voice and you follow that tangent rather than trying to pursue [theirs]…I encourage people to just pay attention to what inspires them and find their own voice in that. And work hard.

JB: Have there been any challenges that you’ve overcome through your work?

RR: Yeah, most of my work is about my own personal experiences, in life. A lot of my earlier work was about recovering from alcohol and drug addiction. It’s therapeutic, doing the work. Glass is a funny material. It’s extremely strong but it’s extremely fragile at the same time. It’s kind of contrary in and of itself. That’s kind of the way life is. It just seems to suit me. I really kind of understand the material.

JB: In which venues have you exhibited?

RR: I show at the Traver Gallery here in Seattle, I’ve had numerous museum shows, and exhibitions at museums. I’ve shown in Japan, and Australia, and in Europe, but mostly in the United States, a lot of galleries.

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JB: When was a moment when you felt most proud about a piece of work?

RR: There’s been a lot of moments. There’s an annual revue, done by the Corning Museum called New Glass Review, and I’ve been accepted into that four or five times. My [National Endowment for the Arts] grant was a really proud moment.

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JB: What made you decide to set up your studio in the Bemis Building?

RR: There’s a building over on Third Avenue called the Lofts now, which are condominiums. It used to be just empty warehouse, and I had a studio there for thirteen years. Then, somebody bought it and started to renovate the condos, and   so I had my studio in my home here in Seattle and I needed a space. I was actually looking for a building to buy in Seattle when David Huchthausen, a part owner of [the Bemis Building] told me about his project here. I came before there were any walls up or anything in the Bemis Building, and I told him that I’d rent a space if I could have this corner. I’ve been here since ’95, ’96, whenever they took occupancy.

JB: Why are you doing what you’re doing? Is there a larger story that you want to tell?

RR: I’m doing it just because it just seems to fit right, it just feels comfortable to me. The thing that’s always attracted me about working, particularly with molten glass, and doing blown glass objects is that you have to work with other people in order to accomplish it. There’s this natural community that’s build around it, and I really enjoy that interaction…they’re all artists that I work with. I guess I’ve just always believed that if you’re true to the gifts you’re given then you’ll be happy. I’m pretty happy in my life, and what I do.::

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JB: How do work and art combine in what you’re doing?

RR: It doesn’t feel like work when I’m actually working with the material and creating things. When it does feel like work is when I’m putting together packets for presentations and doing bookwork, and doing all the kind of other business things that you have to do in order to be successful as an artist. I have somebody who helps me with that. That seems more like work. But actually working with the material, it just feels like creative expression; it doesn’t feel like work. But at the end of the day you’re pretty tired.

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Richard Royal is located in studio 411 of the Bemis Building at 55 South Atlantic Street in Seattle. His work is regularly featured in galleries and art exhibitions throughout the United States and Japan. For more information, please visit his website at www.richardroyalstudio.com or call (206) 343-2814.

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Credited.

Photography. Provided by Richard Royal Studio