Gary Bodker

Gary didn’t set out to become a glassmaker — when he originally enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design, he was a scholastic refugee from Tulane, where his freshman year was preempted by Hurricane Katrina. Thinking he would study architecture, Bodker stayed on at RISD instead of returning to New Orleans, until a short course in glassmaking offered a window on a different sort of practice. “I was immediately, like, ‘This is amazing,’” Gary says. “The functionality of the glass is really what drew me to it, making cups and bowls and other useful things.” At the end of the six-week course, he decided to major in glass. Now Gary channels those same impulses into his work: an appreciation for beauty foregrounded by an abiding appreciation for usefulness. With his nesting bowls and Gems series of large and small glass vessels, he looks to make work that is both handmade and well made, two often antagonistic qualities in glassware. “To me, the greatest compliment is when somebody buys something and actually uses it,” he says. “If I can make beautiful, utilitarian things, then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.”  Gary is now based in Portland, Oregon.