Michael Schunke (at right) assisting Pino Signoretto. The two co-taught a two-week workshop at WheatonArts last month. photo: wheatonarts.org
The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with leading American glassblower Michael Schunke during the two-week workshop he taught with Pino Signoretto at Wheaton Arts last month. Students spent the first week studying the making of a Venetian goblet with Schunke, and then switched gears in the second week to investigate solid sculpting with Pino. The class ended on August 21st, with an Italian Celebrazione benefit dinner honoring Pino as well as celebrating Wheaton’s 40th anniversary.
Kim Harty: Is this different than most of your teaching experiences?
Michael Schunke: I’m always sort of amazed by it, you know, because it’s not so new to me anymore. But to see the level of “Wow, that’s how he did that!” It’s really humbling. I’m always humbled when I’m asked to come teach a class.
KH: What are you working on in the studio?
MS: I’m really trying to change the focus of what I do because the world has changed so much in the last 36 months. Nine Iron Studios has taken up all my time making stuff for Barney’s and making stuff for Bloomingdales and all that. But all that stuff has gone down so much, it has presented an opportunity to shift gears and make more one-of-a-kind things. I’m really interested in doing lighting in conjunction with this metal work that I do, lathe work. And then the goblets, too. ... I haven’t had the time to really think about that, things are coming to my mind right now for sculptural ideas.
KH: Where do you find inspiration?
MS: The answer is in the dirt, in the doing. All of my ideas for design work, lighting or sculpture, always come to me through getting in there and doing it, or making a pot of risotto or something. I mean, it’s usually stuff that I see everyday that I think is beautiful and I want to expand on it. I want to talk about the texture of this wood, or this concrete, that the stuff that gets me, the stuff that I see everyday that I’m always walking by. I just want to take a moment to go “Wow!” I’m not much of a conceptualist.
KH: Can you talk a little bit about your designs?
MS: I have very specific ideas about the design work, about how it should look. We do these bottles, for instance, that are in my line. They’re just these bottles, in different colors, but I’m very specific about the proportions of them and how they have to look. It’s one of those things with people who make things. They just have to look right, and sometimes . . . it’s not words that I can give you that tell you when they look right, they just do. And I think that’s why I make things: because it’s a visual language for me, and it comes so much more naturally than a spoken one. But I’ve done that for a long time, the Nine Iron stuff, the design work, and it’s not that I’m tired of it, it’s just that . . . its had its run, and I’m going to have to do it for pragmatic reasons, you know my kids need things and I gotta pay mortgages and cars and all that good stuff. But it’s really, this sort of change that’s happening now, its been 10-12 years of doing it, and I’ve had enough. Either that, or I’m going to take it down from 10 pieces to maybe four or five. What better time to stop than when things are slow? Is so hard to see the opportunity these days, because work is so infrequent, I think you have to look at it in a broader sense and say: maybe its the universe talking to you to say slow down with this stuff and go somewhere else, and maybe that is what is best for you and your family, not seemingly on the surface the most pragmatic approach.
KH: What’s next for you?
MS: I think what’s next is a little less time being a glass-blowing machine, and a little more time on the lathe and little more time on the phone, a little more time drawing, and seeing what can come to me that way. I think I might have made the mistake in the past of go to the well and pump the handle harder. I think what I should be doing is spend more time at the bottom of the well coming up with a more full bucket, and I think that I’ve been a little bit confused because I’ve gotten where I’ve been as a glass maker by just working really hard, making 20,000 avolios. I think when you say “Okay, this got me here,” now its time to say, “Well, that’s over.” Not that it’s over, but that it’s in place, it’s time to take that rigor and focus it in another way.
KH: Where can we see your work?
MS: I will be an Artist in Residence at the Toledo Museum of Art from fist week in September. Then, I’ll be at SOFA Chicago, and will be represented by a gallery from Ferndale Michigan called Next Step Studio and Gallery. I’ll be in Toyama Sept 27th – Oct 3rd being a visiting artist and giving a workshop.And you can go to nineironstudios.com and can see the design work.
KH: What does meant to work with Pino?
MC: There aren’t words for it, I have so much respect for Pino and what he does, even though I can’t always get in lock-step with what he is doing. It’s so obvious to me that he has a different kind of rapport with the glass, it’s speaking to him in a way that I just don’t . . . I can’t feel it. I can watch him do it, but I always think, when I’m watching him work, how is he seeing that, how does he know? Part of it is repetition, but part of it is just intuitive. It’s that thing that just can’t be taught, and I think he is a very special talent. It means everything to me, it really does, it’s that thing that goes beyond work. So if Pino needs help and I can give him help, I will always say yes.