Artist Highlight: Laurel Grey, Renaissance Glass Artist

Laurel Grey grew up in Japan, Germany and Texas and spent most of her adult life in Washington State and the central coast of California, moving to Wisconsin in 2007. Her glass reflects a blend of all these various geographies and cultures. She’s particularly influenced by the Japanese aesthetic of bringing the outside in, in close harmony with the natural world. Her work includes coffee tables with glass leaves, branches and stones under glass; strands and windchimes of floating glass leaves; window and wall panels made with glass leaves, stones and cultured seaglass.

Her current 3 dimensional “ClearWater” series evokes the experience of gazing into a cool rippling stream and seeing fallen leaves, rocks, branches, flotsam, undulating strands of moss and maybe a minnow or two under water. Bringing the outside in.

What Laurel loves most about working with glass is the zen-like freedom that comes from letting go of the outcome. Unlike other mediums, with glass, the artist is never truly in control. Glass has a mind of its own, ever changing with its environment. 

Laurel currently resides with her two dogs and two cats in Onalaska, Wisconsin, surrounded by woods and with a winter view of the Mississippi River and Minnesota after the leaves have fallen.