This website, archiving glass works by artist/designer Richard Spaulding, presents an eclectic body of non-figurative work strongly influenced by 20th Century European and American painting as well as by the Decorative Arts of western Europe.

The majority of Spaulding’s work is commissioned and designed for private and public architectural sites, and is thus site-specific. Each work is unique in that the materials and techniques employed range from traditional to contemporary, and in that each draws not only on visual representation but on narrative and metaphor appropriate to its location. These works are non-religious yet in many cases recall the history of stained glass as a vehicle for spiritual expression.

Spaulding’s training has been experiential rather than academic. In recent years he has lived in the western United States and derived much inspiration from the landscapes of the Northwest and from southwestern deserts. His artistic direction, reflecting his identification with the independent Studio Glass movement, is to create models of design for the 21st Century that acknowledge tradition while applying a new esthetic vision.

Works archived were completed between 1975 and the present. Most were fabricated by the artist under the studio name of Spaulding Studio; late works were fabricated by other glass fabrication studios under the artist’s supervision and are noted as such. Spaulding was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1947 and is currently based in Seattle, Washington.