Robert Mickelsen

"The objects I create are narratives—personal vignettes that reveal the secrets of my innermost thoughts. These are often mysteries even to me until the creative process reveals them, and so the work becomes a form of self-discovery."

Robert Mickelsen loves nature and the expression of natural forms in glass. He has lived around the ocean for most of his life so sea life is of particular interest. Fish are his specialty and he tries to make them as close to real life as possible.

The material he works with—borosilicate glass—is particularly difficult to master. It has taken him a lifetime to be able to freely express what he wants. He works by melting rods and tubes of glass in an oxygen/propane flame. The pieces are freehand sculpted so no two are exactly alike.

Robert Mickelsen has been a professional flame worker for more than 50 years. He has taught extensively at important glass schools including the Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Crafts, the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Pittsburgh Glass Center. He has published numerous technical and historical articles on flameworked glass. He served for six years on the board of directors of the Glass Art Society and was their treasurer and vice-president. His work is exhibited in many prominent public collections including the Renwick Gallery of American Crafts at the Smithsonian Institution, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Tacoma Museum of Glass, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Mint Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of American Glass at Wheaton Village. At 72 years of age, Mickelsen continues to work every day pursuing his vision of art rendered in glass.