“Large Love Sculpture – Turquoise”

Scott Hartley is a Kansas-based master glassblower who grew up artistically experimenting with all different kinds of media. Throughout his early school-days, he found he expressed himself most meaningfully with a set of graphite pencils. Two-dimensional art, he felt, was the only outlet for his life at the time.  Scott reflects, “I love art, and I knew that it would always play a huge role in my life.” He graduated Valedictorian from high school, then went on to attend Southwestern College in Winfield—a small liberal arts college, which has one of the greatest science departments in the area.  Scott’s priorities were to receive the finest education that he could, play basketball, graduate with a biology degree, and attend medical school.  In the end, he discovered that biology was his passion, so he went on to become a high school biology teacher at Kapaun Mt. Carmel Catholic High School.

After marrying his high school sweetheart, Gwen, and starting a family together, Scott felt that there was still something missing in his life. In 1999 he quit his teaching job to become a full time artist and has never looked back. He opened his own studio in 2003. The studio is located in a former blacksmith shop that dates back to the 1930s. Scott finds that glass is the perfect marriage of both art and science. There is more to the art of glassblowing than meets the eye. Simply seeing the finished product as a beautiful glass sculpture is not truly enjoying art glass. Just as watching your child grow from one day to the next, the process of glassblowing is part of the amazement and wonder of glass.