Prague born artist Martin Rosol has had a long and unique journey to the creation of his own studio space in the woods of Massachusetts. Rosol began his career and found his love for glass in his home country of Czechoslovakia, (now the Czech Republic.) Growing up, Rosol’s father was a painter but he had an eye for sculpture as well, even designing a few pieces Rosol went on to execute. This grew in a young Rosol a love for art and creation from an early age “I knew I really wanted to make something with my hands” he said of his search for an apprenticeship at the beginning of his career. After looking around at various mediums, it was glass he found himself drawn to. Rosol was drawn to was the coldworking glass process which is traditional in Czech glass.
Martin working in the shop at Corning Museum. He was scheduled to teach there again this August.
“When I teach at Corning I always try to explain, if you do hot you are always adding and blowing out, but if you make cold glass you are chiseling and grinding - cutting materials off instead.” – Rosol says of his process.
It is a precise procedure to laminate two dyed surfaces together, without the laminate marring the outer surface of the glass. Martin has honed his techniques and timing through years of practice and hard work.
In his studio instead of a furnace, you will find various carving and grinding tools, industrial strength adhesives, dyes, and large solid blocks of glass. His process is a slow and solitary one, which he often compares to stone working for its messy nature.
He developed his skills over 10 years in Prague, working his way up from apprenticeship in small series production and functional glass. He was creatively stifled by the inability to execute his own designs. This led to his journey to the United States in the early 80’s by way of Yugoslavia, Austria and then a final two years in Germany before receiving the student visa that was to bring him stateside. Martin located his family to the United States, knowing that leaving his home country meant, “…they would make a bad example of me – sort of propaganda”. But regardless he followed his heart in pursuit of a place where he could make work of his own. Saying that when he finally came to settle in the U.S. and establish his workshop his ability to explore his creativity freely for the first-time lead to a breakthrough in his work in the 1990’s.
Working at the polishing disc, through many grades of diamond dust wheels to first cut, then polish to the smoothest surface, takes hours of focus… and a strong back!
These days, as public radio streams in the sounds of classical music, Rosol can be found working away in the studio next to his home, slowly developing his own creative vision and body of work. His work is created without assistants or a team making his process very personal. Tending towards simple shapes and “…very clean lines, not much decoration and a simple balanced base”, he often rotates between a theme of two forms within his work; the spherical and rectangular. Rosol breathes new life into how we explore these basic forms through the shimmering glass. He is also now able to explore working in a larger scale as well within his own studio space.
Three new works have come to Schantz Galleries recently which Rosol created during his time in quarantine. Beginning them before the crisis began then finishing them during the quarantine, he said “I can work like usual … but with everything going on I did not have much desire to work, that was how it affected me”. We are all grateful for these uplifting sculptures that Martin was able to create during this challenging time.
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