Image courtesy of James Harmon.

James Harmon

American artist and educator James Harmon (1952– ) earned his BFA in 1975 from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied glass with Dale Chihuly. He established himself as an independent artist and pursued graduate studies in glass at the University of Illinois from 1975 to 1979. In the mid-1980s, as a working artist at New York Experimental Glass Workshop (NYEGW; later UrbanGlass), Harmon was an active participant in the workshop’s initiatives and was instrumental in developing an educational partnership between NYEGW and New York University. In addition, Harmon was the director of the artist planning committee during the transfer of NYEGW from Manhattan to Brooklyn and the artist representative who worked with architect Jeffrey Beers on the new studio. Harmon moved to Pennsylvania in 1993 and since 2014 has been an assistant professor at Keystone College, where he directs the Regional 3-D Design Center.

Works

Untitled (Double Vessel), 1979. Glass. H: 7.75 in, W: 7 in. Collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Elmerina and Paul Parkman (2000.106.1).

Green Vase, 1985. Image courtesy of James Harmon.

Niijima Green, 2012. Image courtesy of James Harmon.

Jim Harmon discusses teaching the “teamwork aesthetic” in glassblowing.

Playing0:59 Transcript
Jim Harmom

Jim Harmon discusses teaching the “teamwork aesthetic” in glassblowing. Oral history interview with Jim Harmon by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, February 8, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length 00:59

Jim Harmon: It is—it is like a dance. Because you have to be careful of the way you move, and you never walk in front of the gaffer, you never walk between the gaffer and the glory hole. And if you go behind them you make sure that they know you’re there. You never back up without looking first. These are all things that I teach my students now, that I learned from doing this for so many years. And one of the things I actually teach them nowadays is, when we’re working on a piece in the studio, I try to teach this teamwork aesthetic, where it’s like an apprenticeship aesthetic, I guess; or maybe a combination of the two. And I always make them focus on the piece itself, so I say, ‘You’re not really making the piece. We are all making the piece and the piece is what’s important.’ So it wipes away some of the ego that gets involved with—and that’s really the best way to work.

Permalink

Jim Harmon discusses NYEGW’s relationship with New York University.

Playing00:55 Transcript
Jim Harmon

Jim Harmon discusses NYEGW’s relationship with New York University. Oral history interview with Jim Harmon by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, February 8, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:55.

Jim Harmon: We tried to make a connection with the—some of the universities around New York City—And NYU was sort of a perfect fit for us because they already had a very full-blown ceramics program there, with Judith Schwartz, who actually just retired from there. And she was a Diamond Chair, I think; I’m not sure exactly what her chair title was, but her position there was very high up by the end of her tenure. And she and I were very excited about bringing glass to NYU, and they couldn’t afford to build a studio. They are obviously very expensive to make. And so we joined together with them, and that started our relationship many, many years ago.

Permalink

Jim Harmon discusses glassblowers learning techniques from Lino Tagliapietra.

Playing00:55 Transcript
Jim Harmon

Jim Harmon discusses glassblowers learning techniques from Lino Tagliapietra. Oral history interview with Jim Harmon by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, February 8, 2018, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 00:55.

Jim Harmon: I mean at least all the glassblowers that were of any quality were—realized that he [Lino Taglipietra] was giving us information, detailed information, about techniques, Venetian techniques that—if you go there as an artist and visit for a week or a month, you’re never going to pick up all these little subtle details of how something is handled as much as when he came here, he really devoted his time and effort to showing everybody exactly, ‘This is how you put this on,’ and, ‘No, you don’t do that, you do this. This is what the temperature is like.’ When you’re visiting a factory, they really don’t let you get up close that much in Venice.

Permalink