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Dan Siroshton
Dan Siroshton is a
native Oregonian, born in Eugene on September 18,1947 to parents of
Ukranian heritage. Dan inherited his love of art from his mother, who
painted Ukranian eggs and oil paintings with very little formal
instruction.Dan experimented with wax in a high school art class and developed a
technique of dripping wax onto canvas. At the age of 16 he sold his first
piece of wax art. The piece he named "China Town" is the only one he knows
still exists and it hangs in his daughter's home in Portland.
After graduating from Pleasant Hill High School in 1966, Dan spent the
next four years serving his country in the U.S. Coast Guard stationed in Juneau,
Alaska. While in the military, he painted wildlife scenes in oils. Most of
his paintings he gave away to friends.Raising a family took most of Dan's time for the next 20 , years, but he
continued to love to work with his handsand create. He and his wife of 36 years have built and remodeled seven
homes. His biggest challenge was a log home.
As the grandfather of 4, Dan became interested in glass blowing. One of
his favorite places to visit is the Oregon coast where he has enjoyed the
many galleries. Always inquisitive, Dan asked whenever possible, who he
might learn the art of glass blowing. This quest brought him to the studio
of Master Blower, Mike Crowley and the "Glass Hive" located in Newport.
Dan worked under the watchful eye of Mike Crowley on weekends as often as
he could get to the studio. He has 24 hours of study with Mike and spent 8
hours observing Jim Kingwell at his "Ice Fire" studio in Cannon Beach.
Dan's early pieces were paperweights and simple blown vessels and vases.
Each had their own touch of his creativeness and design which amazed his
teachers.
Dan has only been blowing glass less than a year and the number of pieces
he has created are limited because he was diagnosed with prostate cancer
in May of 2004. He underwent surgery in July and spent the next 2 months
recovering. This setback curtailed his trips to the coast to work at the
"Glass Hive". Each of his pieces are numbered and signed. All are unique
to his own design and come from self-taught techniques. None of the pieces
are made from molds. Dan uses his own breath and hands to create a piece
of art.
Each time Dan takes a "gather" of molten glass onto the blow pipe from the
2250 degree hot pot, feels the life that he is creating from nature. He
has burned his hands on many occasion, but still gets great joy of giving
life to a piece of art glass. Dan has become driven to perfect his
technique and produce exquisite art glass. He continues to experiment and
try new ideas. Some are successful and others end up being a pile of glass
on the studio floor. His teachers say he is an exceptional student with a
very bright future. There are things you cannot teach a person like Dan,
he has the talent that comes from his heart.
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