Warm Glass Studio Profile
by Colleen Bryan
C
ast glass artist Walter Gordinier approaches his work with two
main convictions. The first is that art need not occupy a space
removed from the viewer but can be enhanced by daily interaction.
The second is that the most interesting work for an artist often lies
behind the job he is asked to bid, when he enters into a holistic
dialogue with client teams and lends his artist’s perspective to the
challenges they face.
Gordinier works in a recognizable modern abstract style, casting
brightly colored painterly slabs from his Portland, Oregon, studio.
He marries the glass with other local materials to produce work that
fits authentically into its environment. His studio generates glass
paintings and functional architectural glass, although the last two
decades have seen a concentration on the architectural glass and
glass sculptures.
Migrating to Glass
Gordinier graduated in Ceramics Sculpture from Pacific Univer-
sity and exhibited works of art in clay for a dozen years at shows,
museums, and galleries throughout America. When he encountered
monolithic stained glass constructions on display, he “really didn’t
care for the stuff.”
The artist grew impatient with the exhibit cul-
ture. “Nobody could touch or get near the artwork.
It would sit for months or years in a space apart
from the viewer. If, in time, a piece sold, the maker
lost 50 percent of the sale to the gallery. It seemed
silly somehow, and I found myself more and more
annoyed. I needed to find a way to cut the deal-
ers out of the distribution loop and to reduce the
distance in the relationship between the viewer
and the artwork.”Walter Gordinier
Charting a Deeper Collaborative
Dialogue between Architect,
Artist, and Client
Walter Gordinier, Conference Table, cast
glass and aluminum, 4-1/2' x 14' x 1-1/2",- Corporate, Oregon.
Walter Gordinier, Sticks and Stones,
4-1/2' x 7 ' x 1‑1/2", 2008. This painting is on a
rolling track and can be pushed into another
room for viewing. Private, Washington.34 • Glass Art TM • May/June 2016 http://www.GlassArtMagazine.com