Glass Artist Biography

Michael Bokrosh was born 1953 in Mankato, Minnesota and grew up surrounded by the glass tradition of his father, Michael Jr.; a master glass craftsman for 00 years. At the age of 14, Michael began his glass apprenticeship under the guidance of his father at Zeno glass company in Mankato.

Eight years later, Michael Bokrosh accepted a position with Glass Craft Studio in Portland, Oregon. At that time, in 1975, stained glass was experiencing a grass root resurgence as an art form. Bokrosh’s apprenticeship training began in the drafting of glass designs used in the reproduction of stain glass lamps. Within six months Bokrosh had mastered drafting and design transfers, and his training continued with glass cutting. He was familiar with how to cut plate glass, having learned it earlier in his father’s business; however, the endless varieties and variations of the stained art glass medium required a flexibility and patience that would serve Bokrosh well in years to come.

Within a year, he advanced to the glass art repair and restoration division of Glass Craft Studio, and two years later, Bokrosh’s skill level was proficient enough that he could execute designing, cutting, and repairing art glass projects. He began offering a stained-glass art class to students of Portland Community College.

Bokrosh uncovered his intense interest in the beveled glass art form in 1978, and he began to teach himself the technical process. Developing this difficult skill, coupled with the growing demand for beveled art glass, lead Bokrosh to a chance meeting with an old world master of engraved and beveled art glass, George Smolcic. It was during this period at Glass Craft Studio that Michael Bokrosh realized he would become a glass artist.

His new mentor, George Smolcic, further solidified Bokrosh’s career path by arranging for him to train in Europe at the Brusinia Stakla factory in Pula, Yugoslavia. Michael studied at that old world factory the cutting and polishing of art glass for six months with George’s father, Duro Smolcic.

After his apprenticeship in Yugoslavia, Michael realized the value of the European glass master training programs. Subsequently, he applied for a position at the glass school in Orrefors, Sweden. Orrefors is a renowned art glass factory in the heart of the glass industry in Sweden. It was a significant move in Bokrosh’s career when, in 1980, the government-sponsored art school accepted Michael into its two-year glass masters program.

“I felt extremely fortunate to be able to attend the Orrefors Glass School,” commented Bokrosh. “The reputation of the school was excellent, and I would be studying under the well-known art glass masters who taught there,” he added. The technical art training at the glass school was systematic: Mornings were dedicated to learning how to shape hot glass art on the blowpipes, and the afternoons were spent learning the skills of cutting cold art glass.

With the first school year over, a Norwegian classmate found a summer job for the impoverished Bokrosh at a glass factory in Oslo, Norway. This summer work provided the artist the necessary funding to continue at the Orrefors Glass school. Bokrosh’s impressive work ethic at the glass factory in Oslo also earned him an invitation to come back and work there whenever he had a break from school.

Returning to the Orrefors’ the following year as a senior, his skills with glass blowing and cutting greatly increased. Bokrosh was now learning how to blow glass into graphite molds and within a few months he was turning out a significant amount of production glass. The advanced cold working training consisted of mastering the deep cutting and engraving of traditional and contemporary designs into heavy lead crystal. The artist’s steady hand and patience from his previous glass beveling experience served him well in this process.

Bokrosh slowly began to realize that working in cold art glass came much easier to him than working with hot glass. This realization triggered a conflict in Bokrosh that lasted for years. He had a mental and emotional image of himself as a flashy and exciting hot glass artist; and cold work was tedious, solitary, and often grueling. On the other hand, the cold-working glass artist can pause the creative process at any time, allowing him to turn a critical eye to the unfolding sculptural process. The patience required in the methodology for cold glass cutting suited the artist’s personality and creative expression. One of the hardest lessons for Bokrosh would come in resolving the conflict between his desire to be an extroverted glassblower and his introverted nature and patience for cold work.

The resolution came in 1982, when Michael Bokrosh returned to the US from the Orrefors Glass School with his technical certificate and was hired as a glassblower by the Glass Eye Studio of Seattle, Washington. Together with his new glass blowing partner artist Norman Courtney, Bokrosh created solid glass paperweights that featured a variety of intriguing shapes and colors on the inside of the glass orb. Between the art glass paperweights and Christmas ornaments Bokrosh’s efficient methodology soon caught the attention of The Glass Eye Studio’s management and Bokrosh was asked to bring his efficient skill and training to the production line. Eventually and painfully so, Michael Bokrosh began to realize that his glass art blowing skills were not keeping pace with the other glass blowers in the studio. This was the beginning, for the artist, of the agonizing process of letting go of that self image he had been holding in his mind and heart of becoming a famous glassblower.

Years before, while working in Portland, Bokrosh had met a man with some glass grinding equipment for sale. Bokrosh called him and eventually purchased all of his cold glass working equipment. This was the first step of a major change in the artist’s life. Instinctively, he knew he had the skill and the talent to bring the magic out of glass. Now he was finally ready to choose the path less taken or desired; devoting himself to becoming a cold glass art worker.

A New Beginning: Bokrosh Studio opens in Seattle, Washington

Bokrosh Studio opened in 1985, and Michael Bokrosh launched into fabricating pyramid-shaped glass skylights; drawing on his experience in welding and stained glass. While the skylight was a work in progress, several glass artists asked if Bokrosh could perform some cold work on their blown glass vessels. This led to an unexpected new market for Bokrosh Studio: providing cold glass art services to other glass artists. Bokrosh’s talent in glass restoration (the repair of damaged glass art sculpture) was highly desired, and strong demand lead to the establishment of a glass repair and restoration division at Bokrosh Studio.

In 1986, glass artist Greg Engelsby brought a piece of bright, clear, optical glass into the studio. This beautiful glass was being produced in the United States and readily available as an art medium. This exposure had a dramatic affect on Bokrosh. He ordered the raw material, and new fountains of creativity were unleased as he began to unlock hidden figures inside crystal blocks of optical art glass. He intuited, visualized, and sketched out sculpture designs; and before the end of the year he had completed his first full production line of optical art glass paperweights.

With a beautiful product line to promote, Michael Bokrosh began outreach to available galleries. Bokrosh traveled to California where his optical glass artwork was well received. He was exhibited by Gump’s in San Francisco and Geary’s in Los Angeles, as well as other respected glass art galleries.

Bokrosh received a scholarship to attend Pilchuck glass school in 1988 and underwent glass artistry training by the famous Italian glass art masters, Loredano and Dino Rosin. The Rosin brothers specialized in the combination of solid hot- and cold-worked sculptural glass art. Working with these masters heavily influenced Bokrosh’s next career move: the creation of fine sculptural art glass.

Bokrosh shifted his artistic focus in 1990 towards fine art and spent months creating a series of large, optical art glass sculptures. He reached out to specific fine art galleries with color slides of his new glass art sculptures and letters of introduction and received positive responses. The period from 1990 to 1995 saw the artist’s work shown in more than 12 established and respected art galleries nationwide, including four solo exhibitions of Bokrosh’s optical glass art sculpture.

In early 1996, Bokrosh began to dream of creating optical art sculptures on a grand scale. He design and constructed a machine to cut and polish optical art glass on a scale not previously seen. Recall the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.” Bokrosh built his huge glass-grinding machine and purchased, from Pilkington Glass of England, one very large piece of transparent gold optical glass that weighed over 3,500 pounds! This enormous piece of optical glass gave Bokrosh the opportunity to fully engage his vision, and he proceeded with sculpting the optical art glass with intricately cut facets.

Bokrosh’s first sculpture in the Monumental Glass Series was completed in the year 2000 and is titled Mergingold. Since then Bokrosh has added several works to the Monumental Glass Series plus other interesting and creative monumental glass art sculptures.

The future is bright for glass artist Michael Bokrosh. He holds the intention to be sacredly balanced within his artistic life, and the finest creations have only to wait patiently to be released by his hand.

The past 27+ years have also seen corporations such as Boeing, Paccar, Washington Mutual Bank, and the Seattle Mariners contact Michael Bokrosh requesting custom and/or corporate creations. These corporate opportunities are yet another vehicle for creative glass art expression for Michael Bokrosh.

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