The World’s Most Distinguished Craftsperson
Beauty as Sacred

By Paul J. Stankard 

As a craftsperson working in glass for over 62 years, my journey began with my mom’s sharing her belief that nature’s beauty evidences a spiritual connection to God.

My father, an organic chemist didn’t understand why I was such a poor student. (In the 50’s and early 60’s dyslexia wasn’t diagnosed in the school system). Knowing I had good hand skills, papa learned that Salem County Vocational Technical Institute renamed Salem Community College was offering a diploma program in scientific glassblowing technology. His over-the-top response inspired me to visit the school and sign up for the program.

My training led to gainful employment crafting glass apparatus used by organic chemists in their laboratories. Despite a good-paying job, I wanted to be on the creative side. So, in 1972 I left industry and redirected my glass working techniques to craft floral glass paperweights, I focused on floral motifs, because as a child when I wandered through the woods and the marshes, I was attracted to the native flowers, and would pick them for my mom.

While still employed in scientific glass, I had been working part-time in my small utility room, and my glass paperweights started to attract increased attention among the glass collectors.
When I left industry to establish my career as a studio artist my first actions were to affix a crucifix above my workbench and say a daily prayer asking God to bless my work in ways that led to innovative hand skills so that I could craft significant work celebrated through floral paperweights.

My vision was to invent a personal vocabulary in flameworked glass that commemorates the plant kingdom. I came to believe that faith could advance my skills in ways that honor beauty as sacred. In the studio, I came to regard my work as my prayer.
By dedicating endless hours to a personal vision while pursuing excellence, through a disciplined work ethic, innovation, and skill, faith was my most cherished value.

When I crossed over to the creative side as an object maker, I continued to deal with the same chronic low self-esteem imposed by dyslexia, the same cloud that had hung over me in school, especially grade school and at times I was challenged by spelling on reports associated with my scientific glass career, but the power of prayer strengthened my confidence. Prayer reinforced my creative vision with a strong sense of purpose. In the studio, daily prayer helped me couple creativity with hand skills and craft personal work with a poetic point-of-view.

Over the years, spirituality has embedded itself in my studio, the bedrock of my professional life. Of all the attributes that have been part of my life experience, I have been most inspired by the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph as my main spiritual force. I focused on Jesus and petitioned God to grant me wisdom and a work ethic in ways that took advantage of self-directed learning. As a Christian, I’ve embraced praying to my Lord and Savior like a monk in my studio. I would pray to Jesus Christ through the intercession of Joseph the foster father of Jesus and Christ’s mother Mary.

Now at age 81, I continue to grow in my art and spirituality. Recently, my faith has been enhanced by two spiritual experiences. One is participating in a weekly non-sectarian Bible study group. Another activity has been my reflection on a letter to artists from Pope John Paul II. This esoteric letter, written in 1999, invited “artists to use their creative gifts to serve both the church and the world.” Pope John Paul II believed that artists are dedicated to creating new “epiphanies” that when shared, delight the soul.

With my renewed joy for the spiritual, I’ve initiated the series titled Celestial Bouquet, and within this series my latest effort The Jerusalem Bouquet. My prayer is to blend the earthly with the divine and my intent is to celebrate Mother Earth as evidence of the sacred, through my hand skills as a silent prayer. Working in glass over the years has increased my love of art making as my life blends into my enhanced faith nurtured by my Bible studies.

I’ve become introspective about how God is blessing me and my family, as I’m growing in the Lord. I take great pride in knowing that Jesus Christ was a craftsperson who apprenticed under his foster Father Joseph and that Christ worked with Joseph for most of his time on earth. My understanding of Jesus and his adoptive Father Joseph comes from the earliest biblical records describing Jesus and his Father Joseph as Tekton. This Greek word translates to skilled craftspeople in woodworking and stone masonry.

I imagine Jesus, working with his foster Father Joseph had spent most of His earthly life working in Nazareth doing construction work for people in the village. I believe that Jesus and Joseph drew spiritual inspiration from their work, both from its beauty and how it brought comfort to those who benefited from their labors.

I continually find joy in my art-making and meditate on Jesus my Lord, who offers me inspiration as an artist/craftsperson.
Looking back, I see that my art-making became an obsession while my wife Pat with her dedicated mothering skills nurtured the family’s well-being. Money was tight for many years but over time improved sales brought modest financial relief and eventually stability. Through faith, perseverance, experimentation, and sometimes painful lessons learned by failure, my creative point of view slowly evolved into my current philosophy that celebrates native flowers evidencing God.

Now, after a 52-year journey working in the studio, my primary focus beyond process is a personal belief system commemorating nature as holy. I love the idea that my hand skills can reinforce a belief system that is dedicated to excellence as a prayer. This attitude is both humbling and inspiring, and for me being an artist is a sacred calling.

I believe that infusing spirituality into art is what elevates a work of art into the realm of the sacred and that any artist will benefit from coupling hand skills with the divine.

Looking back over what was at times a difficult journey, I thank God for his blessings not only for my family but for the thousands within the American craft community who are building a beautiful legacy that brings joy to the viewers while celebrating our national craft culture and, in my view, creating works of beauty that are sent into the future as sacred objects.