Scott Darlington
Biography
Scott Darlington makes life-size glass versions of everyday objects, from tools and sushi to skateboards, trophies, and pallets. A glassblower for more than 35 years, he works from his studio in Seattle, making commissions and original pieces. See his available work or learn about commissions.
Scott earned his BFA at the Appalachian Center for Crafts, then moved to Seattle, where he assisted many different artists and served as Hot Shop Coordinator at Pilchuck Glass School for 6 summers. He spent four years in Japan as an Associate Professor at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, and received his MFA in glass from The Ohio State University in 2007.
After teaching at Bowling Green State University from 2007 to 2011, Scott and his family returned to Seattle, where he managed the glass studio at Pratt Fine Arts Center for nine years. He has completed two residencies at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and taught workshops in Canada, Japan, and at Pilchuck and Penland. Scott is now an independent artist.
To talk about a piece or a commission, get in touch.
Artist Statement
Glass is wonder.
I recreate everyday objects in the glassiest way I can, to see if glass celebrates the object or ridicules it. Does a glass clothespin have a different feeling than a glass gun? Is one a trophy? Is one a lampoon? The Glass Pallet is the perfect example: heavy, invisible, fragile, ridiculous, tariff, stuff we get, commerce, money, ghosts, everything. I want to see what glass has to say about objects, then blend that with my own intuitions and motivations to give it a new voice. I want my work to transform an otherwise ordinary object and have it ask questions about itself, in a celebration of the known and the unknowable, the obvious and the mysterious.
I work glass the way I used Legos and Tinker Toys as a child. I make vast numbers of parts to assemble and construct. Even when I make the same component again and again, I expect it to be different every time. Glass has endless variations and possibilities, mystery, and chance. It is fragile, ghostly, heavy, and substantial all at once, and those contrasts say things and ask questions about the objects I make.
Repetition boils down my inspirations and leads me to variations and other ways to express an idea. Once is seldom enough.
