Massimiliano Caldarone | Glass Artist
Born in Turin, Massimiliano discovered glass torching in his teens, when he admired a live exhibition of a Murano glass master at work. The danger of the flame and the fluid viscosity of the glass got hold of him deeply, and gave him a life ambition: to become a glass artist! Massimiliano pours in his crafts all his passions and his desires, creating pieces that seem to be vibrating with life.
YOU CAN SUPPORT MASSIMILIANO BY VISITING HIS SHOP WHEN YOU’RE IN VENICE
Techniques
Starting from Murano glass rods, every step of the crafting is entirely performed by hand by Massimiliano following the traditional Murano glass torching and glass blowing techniques.
In order to set his creativity and energy completely free, Massimiliano has recently developed own techniques that complement the traditional Murano ones, giving him and his works an even greater flexibility and making his pieces absolutely unique.
Philosophy
Massimiliano’s works are the outlet of his passions and desires, making the creative process a moment of introspection and meditation that fully liberates the artist’s mind. The extremes of the human passions that house in the hearts of all of us, are set free in Massimiliano’s work: fire, water, devils and angels fight or join each other in search of a delicate equilibrium of glass.
When I am working, I’m in front of an open flame at 800-900°C, so I must be fully focused on what I’m doing. This is my own form of meditation.
I’m Massimiliano Caldarone. I was born in Turin and I’m a Glass Artist.
When I was 16 years old, I saw a Master from Murano transforming glass from solid to liquid using fire, and I fell in love with it. I fell in love with this job.
The technique I use is called lampworking: propane and oxygen are combined for feeding a flame, which is then used for transforming glass sticks (sticks that are purchased in multiple colours in Murano by all those who do lampwork) from a solid state into a liquid state and can then be modified into anything we desire.
In my case, it depends on what I am creating. For a glass like this one, with a figure, I need at least 2 to 2,5 working hours. If I want to create a more complex composition like this one, where an abstract Gondola is ridden by two figures, I need at least 2 days of work. And then if I create extremely complex pieces, like the one I am currently working on, which as you see is made of multiple elements which have to be combined, a very particular frame of mind is needed, for it is extremely stressful to work on it. It is not possible for me to work constantly on it for more than a certain amount of hours every day.
Let us say that with such pieces, I know when I am starting, but I don’t know when I will be done.
In my work I get inspired by the human nature, by the extremes of the human soul: Love, Hate, Sexuality, Fears, and Emotions. Human emotions.
As I was showing you before, a connection to Venice is obvious. I love the colors of Venice, I love Venice, and even just walking to coming to work is often a source of inspiration.
The nicest compliment I have often received is to be told that my creations seem to be alive, that they have a soul… and this really pleases me so much!
A memory from the past is when I first came to Venice as a teen, when I was 16, and went around looking for a master that would teach me. Unfortunately, I found none, because at that time Murano was very close-minded, so I had to make it self-taught.
As of now, Venice for me is my little Paradise. While the rest of the world seems to be haunted by violence, daily violence, violence of monitors everywhere, publicity, chaos, car horns, Venice gives you the possibility to just be walking around where there is History, Arts, Culture and as I say to be in the only place in the world where the streets, instead of being streets, undulate!
I love liquidity. What I love the most about my work, is making use of fire to transform something as glass which is usually cold and still, into something liquid. This contrast between fire and water is what I love the most. Another very important thing for me is that when I’m working with fire, I am dealing with a flame of 800/900°C: I need to be fully focused on what I am doing, and I feel this as my personal form of meditation.
An important message for you all is to pick your credit card and come contribute to my work! 😀
[That’s right!]
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