DAVID WALTERS

“I’m inspired by many different artists and could give fine examples of those, but what I find most inspiring is the human story. The things we intend to do seem to serve as the footprints in the journey toward the larger idea, which is to find meaning in our lives. The work we choose to do then more or less becomes a detail, though an important one, so long as the intention that gives it wings has integrity. I believe that’s where the soul of a thing stirs. I see fascinating examples of it every day. In art, music, science and people who display great selflessness. It is the intention of things that has worth and inspires.”

BIOGRAPHY

David Walters was born in rural central Pennsylvania in 1968. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he received a BFA in Glass in 1993.

After graduation he moved to Seattle Washington to work for Dale Chihuly and many other prominent glassworkers in the Seattle area. He was the head Gaffer at Chihuly’s Boathouse from 1999-2001. In 1994, while employed at Chihuly Inc., he met Lino Tagliapietra. He began working with him and has assisted Lino for the past 14 years working and traveling with the Maestro. He’s been part of the core of Lino’s team since he began, and continues to be.

David has received several scholarships and gaffing positions from Pilchuck and two residencies from the Creative Glass Center of America in Millville, NJ. One in 1995 and one in 2004. He also completed a residency at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma in the summer of 2007. He is in several prominent, private, and museum collections. He’s also traveled and demonstrated extensively around the country at several colleges and glass programs, as well as around the country and the world with Lino.

David’s own work focuses on the narrative. Utilizing familiar children’s stories, or fairy tales, he weaves into the stories a more personal interpretation in an allegorical and metaphorical style, while integrating blown form and image toward a common theme.

David Walters begins by blowing a milky white glass into serpentine vessels — distorted eggs at times festooned with hats, hyperbolic pitchers and vases, toy cars, and other fantastic shapes. They become the canvas for his minimally-colored, exquisitely-rendered drawings. Though the work uses a deeply personal vocabulary, we are all able to relate to the struggle to overcome darkness and embrace the hope of the human spirit. Walters shows us that we need to look within, not without, to find our own fulfillment.

EDUCATION

2005   Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA
1997   Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA
1994   Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME
1993   BFA Glass, RISD, Providence, RI    
1991   Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA
1987-88   Four quarters in Sculpture, Silvermine Guild of Arts

SELECTED AWARDS

2022 Biot International Glass Festival- Honored Artist alongside Lino Tagliapietra and Julie Legrand.

2022 Centre d’Art du Verre Pierini- Artist Residency

2019 Star Works Firefest Featured artist and residency Star NC.

2019 Ignite Artist Studios Artist Residency Chicago Ill.

2017 FOCI Artist Residency, Minneapolis Minn.

2017 Henry Ford Museum artist residency Dearborn Michigan

2016 Fuel Their Fire Residency Museum of Glass Tacoma

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2021 Traver Gallery-Seattle, WA-“Not So Funhouse” Solo Show

2019 Anno Domini Galleries- San Jose, CA- “Transmutation” Group Show

2018 Hawk Gallery Group Show with Nancy Callen and Rik Allen, Columbus, OH

2016 International Traveling Show, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA

2014 New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut- “21stCentury Glass” June/September

2014 Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin- “Once Upon A Time: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, and Contemporary Art” May/Sept

2011 Traver Gallery Seattle August/September 

2010 Museum of Glass- Tacoma, WA- "Fertile Ground" Group Show

2010 Schantz Galleries- Stockbridge, MA- Group Show

2010   Museum of Glass- Tacoma, WA- "Fertile Ground" Group Show

2008   Living Legacies: Homage to a Maestro, Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA 

2007   Museum of Glass Tacoma WA – Lino Tagliapietra Living Legacies Show, Painting with Light: Artists that paint on and with glass, Palos Verdes Art Center, Ranch Palos Verdes, CA

2003   Creative Glass Center of America, show of past fellows, Millville, NJ, Group Show

2001  Lino & Friends Show, Fuller Art Museum, Brockton, MA

1997   Paintings on Glass, Creative Glass Center of America, Millville, NJ