Duncan McClellan

Duncan McClellan is an American glass artist born in 1952, in Long Island, New York. McClellan’s multi-layered, stylized vessels combine intricately etched images with voluptuous, intriguing shapes. As with all glass art, his work takes on different attributes and meanings depending on the light source.

His fascination with glass began at age 5, when he visited a glass factory in West Virginia. He never forgot the image of the glowing, molten, mass being formed by an expert craftsman. After successfully working with leather and clay, he finally had the opportunity to learn to blow glass at a studio in Ybor City, Florida in 1987. He has studied the creation of larger forms with Fred Kahl and John Brekke, two instructors and artists working at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop. Duncan has also been honored as the second American invited to study and work at the ARS Studio in Murano, Italy.

McClellan has studied the creation of larger forms with Fred Kahl and John Brekke, instructors and artists working at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop. McClellan has also worked in an additional facility, Sigma Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida. When producing larger and more complex forms, assistance is used to provide an extra pair of hands during the blowing and polishing processes.

After moving from Tampa and working out of a newly renovated tomato plant in Midtown District of St. Petersburg, Florida, he redesigned a 7,800-square-foot building to have plenty of space to work and host events for local non-profits. It was here that he established Duncan McClellan Glass and was one of the first tenants of the Warehouse Arts District, as it features works by McClellan himself and another 60-some artist from around the country. There’s a working studio (with the requisite super-heated furnace glassblowers call a “hotbox”), and a classroom where public and private school kids can learn the art of glass blowing. Parked out back is a “mobile glass lab” for taking the process directly to schools.

His processes enable him to place imagery on the inside and outside (and in some cases both) of his glass vessels. In his one-of-a-kind or series works, images are juxtaposed to articulate the message or idea. The focus is centered around the internal graal technique and overlay techniques, incorporating hand cutting, photo resist and computer graphics. They look like modern-day Grecian urns of antiquity – their colorful undercoating shows through the monochromatic surficial shapes and lines. The daintiness of the lines carved and the glimmering, refracted light shimmering through their polychromatic materials give the artworks a unique preciousness. “The ideas of the pieces primarily have to do with the connectivity of things in nature,” says McClellan. “I’m inspired by nature.”

To finish these works, acid etching, fire polishing, and a six-stage grinding & polishing technique are used. His work depicts emotions relating to family, personal growth, and the spiritual connections between each of us as souls. Learning these techniques and through experimentation with the medium has allowed me more freedom of expression, to “better draw the viewer to what I envision and hopefully touch similar emotions" stated McClellan.

His work has been shown all across the United States and can be found in numerous public and private collections.