my first glass piece

When I was 17 I was accepted to the prestigious art institute of chicago. I was unable to attend due to financial reasons so I spent a year landscaping while my friends went off to school with daddys credit card.. In that year I worked like a demon--I taught myself to etch glass (before the internet)--- I was one pissed off and determined artist. This is the first glass piece I ever made, I sold it in a gallery when I was 20 for $10,000.00 (the day after I moved in to NYC with 20 dollars left in my pocket.) If anyone tells you anger is bad they are a fool. I work like a crazed person, anger gets me up anger is the reason I have made over 10,000 pieces of art-- anger got me on TV and in the papers and anger kept me going when all the chips were down and I had no friends and no food. Anger is a gift.

for most of my adult life I could never even look at this piece as all I could see was its faults. Now that I look at it I can see that it has the faint aroma of gardega which sometimes has a smell similar to the peculiar odor of genius.

The best thing that ever happened to me was the very thing I cursed, not being able to go away to school as I wished gave me a fiery eye and heart that I still carry with me and separates me form the doughy- eyed lifeless stare of my art- comrades.

VIVA GARDEGA!