(From left) Mountain Spring; Golden & Crimson Fall S-Curve Sculpture. Amanda Taylor, artist
By Gina Malone
Glass artist Amanda Taylor tells a story from her childhood in Calgary, Canada that exemplifies her creativity and her approach to life. “My mother told me that when I was about two years old, she was gardening outside with me beside her,” Taylor recounts. “I got up and walked over to one of her huge peonies, grabbed it with both hands, stuck my face in it and proceeded to pull the flower from the stem, plunked myself on the ground and started to examine the flower. This early childhood story speaks volumes about how I live my life: Take it firmly in both hands, immerse myself completely in it and then take this experience with me on my journey through life.”
Winter Forest on Blue. Amanda Taylor, artist
She grew up near the Canadian Rockies immersed in her parents’ creative pursuits, and in her teen years she was driven to find out what she wanted to create, teaching herself antique furniture refinishing, and signing up for classes in photography, ceramics, painting, metalsmithing, fiber arts, stained glass, fused glass, gardening, wood burning, printmaking, wood block carving and cooking. “My thirst for creating was endless and still is to this day,” Taylor says.
This desire to create coexisted with a career as a geophysical technologist in the oil industry for more than 30 years. “The whole time I worked in the oil industry, I also had creative outlets,” she says, “and for the later part of that period I had my own studio in my home.”
Taylor became fascinated by glass as soon as she discovered it. She began taking classes in kiln formed, or fused, glass in 1994 and traveled all over the US and to Italy to learn from some of the best artists in the world. Another way she absorbed the process was volunteering her time as an assistant to prominent glass artists. Once she became proficient in working with kiln formed glass, she found herself drawn to landscapes.
In 2007, she and Lance Taylor, whom she met at a Hot Glass Horizons gathering in Corning, NY, founded Oatka School of Glass in Batavia, NY, and saw it become an internationally recognized glass school. There they hosted workshops educating beginners, professionals and every level in between, taught in-house classes on a range of techniques and offered community outreach programs as well.
In 2015, the couple decided to move to the Cattail Creek Community of Burnsville. “We found this amazing property with two hewn log structures,” she says. “One is a 400-square-foot tiny house that we live in and the other was a completely empty 1600-square-foot, two-story structure that we turned into my glass studio.”
Amanda Taylor, artist
Taylor says that her friends call her the Energizer Bunny. She still teaches classes year-round and works at her craft every day. During the pandemic, she discovered that she enjoyed documenting her processes via live streaming and she now creates videos for her own YouTube channel. She also writes and sells e-books on techniques. “To put it simply, I absolutely love what I do and where I am in my life,” she says. “I feel blessed to be able to do what I do and to be in charge of my own way of working.”
All of the elements within Taylor’s glass sculptures are composed entirely of glass—no paints or enamels—whether she is creating smaller pieces like vessels or sconces, or larger works like the wall panels she created for the Prince of Wales Hotel in Ontario. The pieces require building elements of the design—a tree, for instance—in layers and then fusing them to 1,490 degrees Fahrenheit. “With these forms, I want to achieve a visual depth which would allow the viewer the sense of walking into and through the crafted landscape,” she says.
Her work may be found at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York and Fallen Leaf Gallery in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. Regionally, she is represented by Southern Highland Craft Guild’s (SHCG’s) four galleries; Toe River Arts, in Spruce Pine; and Twigs & Leaves Gallery, in Waynesville. Upcoming events include a demonstration and reception at SHCG Biltmore Village on Saturday, April 9, from 2–5 p.m.; open studio hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Mars Landing Galleries in Mars Hill on May 14; and participation in the Toe River Arts Studio Tour June 3–5.
“I feel that everything I have accomplished in my lifetime has been a creative journey,” Taylor says. “Each moment in my life has brought me to this point and I happen to love this point.”
To learn more, visit OatkaGlass.com. Visits by appointment can be arranged at Oatka Glass Studio, located at 311 Old Sawmill Road in Burnsville, and at Satellite Studio at Mars Landing Galleries in Mars Hill. Find Amanda Taylor on Facebook (oatkaglass, oatkaglassstudionc), on Instagram @amandataylorartist, @oatkaglassstudio and @oatka.glass.studio, on Pinterest at Oatka Glass Studio, on Twitter @oatkaglass and on Patreon (patreon.com/oatkaglassstudio).
