In my work I am trying to convey a sense of a time, mood or emotion. I am not intending the viewer to get an instantaneous response. The work should invite contemplation rather than reaction. Ideas are distilled from visceral sensations and selective memory. Refinements are guided by a concern for formal aesthetics. I can consider work successful when it suggests a feeling of universality in language and anonymity in form.
“Blaise has been working quietly and haphazardly in the northern section of North America the past couple of decades or so. For a tall person he has been able to successfully fly below the radar. He makes thoughtful and understated works that satisfy mostly his own interests. His approach to both aesthetic and technical problems is both quirky and well informed. Whereas he is well respected by his peers, he deserves more recognition both from the great-unwashed masses and the cognoscenti with money: and he can dance.”
BIO
Blaise Campbell was born and raised in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He was introduced to glass in 1987 while studying furniture design at the School of Crafts and Design at Sheridan College and subsequently shifted his major to glass. Blaise followed up his formal training with a three-year residency at the Harbourfront Centre Craft Studios in Toronto where he now serves as a studio advisor.
In the interest of becoming more technically proficient at his craft, Blaise set out as an "itinerant journeyman glass blower". He traveled throughout the United States working with renowned glass artists such as Dale Chihuly, William Morris, Michael Schenier and James Mongrain among others. During this period, Blaise worked at the internationally renowned Pilchuck Glass School over several seasons as an educator as well as a professional crafts person in residence. He was awarded a fellowship at the Creative Glass Center of America and a Pilchuck Emerging Artist Residency.
Blaise returned to Canada in 2002 and began teaching glassblowing at his alma mater, remaining there until 2009. He joined the Jeff Goodman Studio in 2013 as its principle glass blower. He has traveled throughout his career, having made glass and taught glass blowing workshops in Europe, Asia and North America. Blaise currently resides in the Greater Toronto Area.