history X

If you want to know where you’re going you need to know where you are from? Wise elders, scholars and generous educators have repeated this special plug of info so that we may evolve. There is power in those words. So I am left looking deeply at the tracks I have left behind me. I look in the sand at the sandy shore only for them to be washed away with the tide. Its intimate for me as I am now going forward because thats what I have to do. So with that in mind, occasionally I stop and look at the tracks left behind in other ways.

My path is leaving tracks of beauty with the glass shining bright and inspiring joy anywhere its seen. An event in the past happened and in that moment it made an impact. Sometimes the glass I make/made is gifted to friends and family. Sometimes I keep them in my studio until the moment and person come along at the opportune time. But each one has a story and emotion frozen like ice. I will always find a way to make new glass creations to share with lovers of beauty. The countless hours I have spent practicing my craft has led to a variety of outcomes and I know too much now to stop. It is my history.

So I find a way to get in front of a glowing furnace to gather up a gob of molten glass to create memories never to be forgotten. I travel back in time remembering how to blow glass, remembering where my heart once was. I gather glass to dance with the fire and give the gift of making art - glass. Thanks for reading and feel welcome to look around or contact me anytime with questions or comments. ~ Zach

Pozole

Home made Pozole is a warming soup in the cold winter months. The bowl it’s in was a commission for a private collection.

“Captans Log”

Pozole is a wonderful soup stew from Central Mexico. I remember the first time I had Pozole. It was at a Holiday Party I crashed by accident. It was Margarita Ville in the Capitola Village and I unexpectedly descended on their holiday party. A friend of mine was their chef and had cooked up an enormous pot of pork stew with a beautifully rich red hue with stunning fluffy grain balls and meat. It looked so filling. My friend insisted I take a big bowl and he ladled me up some stew. It looked like magic coming out of the pot and cascading into my bowl. He then garnished it with thinly sliced cabbage, diced onions, lime, and a corona on the side and handed it to me. It was so good! The sensations were tangy, spicy, crunchy, sour, and chewy. That was the best bowl of Pozole I ever had. But since then every bowl of Pozole is good with its own time and place in a different context.

I’m happy when two or three worlds collide and create what is art. Life is art. And how we all have a choice to make these moments sacred in our lives. It culminates from a place of doing what we must do. Our expressions come out when we do the most essential tasks in life, like in cooking it becomes a display of beauty and grace. It is my honor to be the glassmaker that holds such amazing gustatory delights. And thats all I have to say about that. For now anyway.