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Born in 1962 in Bialystok, Poland, glass artist Mariusz Rynkiewicz knew his calling from the first moment he saw the czarist glass collection of Venetian Masters in St. Petersburg, 1977. That same year he began to work and study at the Bialystok Glass Works and later Krosno Glass Works. He left Poland in 1987 and settled in Seattle the next year. He knew very little English, but he soon found work in the glass arts and studied under Lino Tagliapietra at Pratt Fine Art Center, where he would later teach glassblowing. In 1995, Rynkiewicz opened his own studio in Everett, Washington.
Rynkiewicz’s design is driven by his preoccupation with color; holding objects up to the light as he works, Rynkiewicz muses on what new shape or object can capture the essence of the color he has in mind. His incredible technical skill and finesse allows him to do with glass what few others can, and has earned him recognition for his beautiful glassworks around the world.
In his own words: "Color drives my design. I always have more ideas than I can create. What is the shape that can hold this color red? I've studied the traditional forms, and I understood their importance, but always I want to add myself to them. I learned to blow glass in the factory, to master the tradition, and now to make the pieces that have never existed, new shapes that combine the old with my ideas of beauty and dimnesion is good. The form begins in my soul, with the ghost of the piece in my mind. Beauty is what is in your mind."