Wednesday Arts Speaker Series

Percy Echols II is a Pittsburgh-based Artist, Alchemist, and Educator who pioneers the development of Neon and Plasma Light Art at the Pittsburgh Glass Center and is the creator and host of the Podcast Taming Lightning.

He began working in glass in 2011 when he took his first Glassblowing Class at Illinois State University, although his interest in plasma began in 2014 at Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA. Here he was introduced to the medium of plasma light sculpture through furnace glassblowing in a class taught by Patrick Collentine and gained a friend and mentor. He continued working in plasma while pursuing his BFA in Studio Glass at Illinois State University. After graduating he moved to Pittsburgh in 2016 for a year-long apprenticeship at the Pittsburgh Glass Center which quickly became his new home.

Here he was gifted with an opportunity to make use of donated neon equipment and a growing network of artists, where he studied, built, and developed studio equipment and programming. This allowed him to not only make his artwork, but to allow PGC to provide workshops, classes, and private lessons, as well as allow for commissions, services, and collaborations for Plasma and Neon.

Percy currently pursues the goal of formalizing methods and knowledge he has put into practice for plasma and sharing them with the greater community of interested artists, makers, and engineers and encouraging accessibility through public art institutions

Coming up:

February 15 : Vanessa Maltese ( International Randall Chair)

February 22 : Art History (Bernstein, Childers, and McInnes)

March 1: Joey Quiñones with Artist Panel from the Fosdick-Nelson Gallery exhibition Perhaps Home is Not a Place