Paul Marioni, one of three brothers with successful art careers, died at his home in Central Mexico at the age of 85. The father of Marina and Dante Marioni, he was born in 1941 and graduated in 1967 with a degree in philosophy from the University of Cincinnati before moving to the Bay Area when it was the center of a countercultural shift in the late 1960s. A pioneering artist working in glass, Marioni's aesthetic was shaped by everything from the personal meditations of the Beat poets, who originally drew him to San Francisco, to the earthy forms and tactile textures of the California Funk Movement in ceramics.
Marioni initially worked in stained glass, later expanding into various types of glass sculpture after he found his way to Seattle, where he became a key early figure in the Northwest glass scene, and a regular at Pilchuck. He was known for working across material, often painting on glass and incorporating photography.
"I work with glass for its distinct ability to capture and manipulate light," he has said.
Marioni's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Arts & Design, The Corning Museum of GLass, the Smithsonian American Art Museum.