Chuck Lopez (Seattle, WA)
Digital Photograph on Lightbox, edition of 5
Also available on paper
30”h x 40”w

Please contact the gallery for a larger image.

“1999 was a pretty good year for me. I finished the MFA program in glass at Alfred University in western New York. I moved to Seattle and started a job at Pratt Fine Arts Center. And I received a two month residency at Pilchuck Glass School that fall.

The image is of an installation that I did during that residency. The original piece, Light as Object #1, consisted of five latex weather balloons that were set up on a pond up at Pilchuck’s campus. The balloons were anchored and floated right at the surface of the pond and during the first night of the installation they were faintly illuminated from below.

The lighting was subtle and the objects and their reflections formed a perceptual challenge to the viewer. It was hard to detemine what is was that you were seeing.

This image of the installation was shot the following day, and it has been modified if the most direct and basic way to once agin challenge the viewer’s perception. The image is inverted (upside down) from what the installation was in reality. This inversion upsets the viewer’s sense of perspective.

Since the image has been modified, all be it in the most basic of ways, I consider the image to be a work unto itself but directly based on the 1999 installation.”

- Chuck Lopez

Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Chuck Lopez started working with glass in 1989 at a production studio Boulder, Colorado, where for seven years he learned all facets of the business. Through this experience, he gained grounding in the fundamentals of working with glass and the practicalities of producing work.

He has been involved with Pilchuck Glass School since 1994 as a volunteer, student, summer staff member, teaching assistant, Emerging Artist in Residence, and Centerpiece Designer. His involvement with Pilchuck has provided him with exceptional experiences and was where he first saw the full potential of glass as an artistic material. He also worked as the Glass Studio Technician at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle from 1999 to 2003 and currently teaches there on a regular basis.

With an educational background in computer science, mathematics, and philosophy, Chuck received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1995, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Alfred University in Alfred, New York, in 1999. He currently resides in Seattle, Washington, where he teaches and continues to pursue his work.