Martin Blank talks about the hiring of Lino Tagliapietra to work on the Venetians. Oral history interview with Martin Blank by Barb Elam, conducted via telephone, January 31, 2020, Bard Graduate Center. Clip length: 01:18.

Martin Blank: This blow is probably like the, maybe the second or third Venetian blow. And so he hired Lino to come in and work on this body of work, and so it was a rare opportunity for us to work with a real master from Murano—started when he was 10. So we were all just tickled pink, like whatever Lino wants, Lino gets. And we all were bringing our A game because, you know, here’s one of the world’s greatest living glass workers, and we get to work with him. And so it was really focused around Dale and Lino. And then my job was to facilitate Lino—make it easier for Lino to blow and create the vessels. So I had a very minor artistic role. I had a very large role in the success of the piece, but not artistically, more physically during the manifestation of it. And—it was very physical and hard, hard, hard work. Lino was in complete control of the artistic composition through interpreting Dale’s drawings. And so it was really about Lino and Dale. And then they had me, who they trusted and loved, that knew I had their back and would do everything I could to make sure I could facilitate the creation of the piece.