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Spirit House)
Kaleidoscope in Blue)
Pyramid in a Space WarpBorn in Baltimore, Jak grew up in Florida and received his bachelo's degree from the University of South Florida. In 1968, he became a student of Mark Peise's at the Penland School of Crafts, and soon thereafter set up his own studio in St. Petersburg. Four years later Jak moved to the small mountain community of Zionville, NC, and built the studio where he now works.
Jak's pieces are about purity of line, clarity of color, and play of light. He explains his love of glass as follows: "Glass to me is magic. You take various materials that in their original states are mere rocks, dirt, or sand, and apply fire to them. Presto, you have produced a liquid crystal that can be blown, poured, stretched, molded, twisted, added to, colored, textured, cut or any other thing our limitless imaginations can think of to express the ideas of the mind. In my present work, I'm concerned with the reflective qualities of the material. My "fantasy crystals" reflect my own fascination with the magical worlds of fantasy and science faction as interpreted by contemporary writers, and enable me to play Magician."
