Steven Ciezki was born in Calumet City, Illinois and is currently living and working in Phoenix, AZ as a glass artist. At a young age, he was fascinated with the art of drawing. This skill grew and developed further throughout his high school art classes. During his college career at Illinois State University, experimentation with drawing, photography, and glass blowing changed his vision of the basic two-dimensional world. Steven received his BFA in glass from Illinois State University and has plans to travel the world and continue to learn from the artists who have inspired his fascination with glass. Both the delicacy of cup making and vessel orientated technical abilities are his origins for inspiration and design. His work has been constantly developing with ideas of keeping the viewer’s perceptual experience in mind. “Spatial shape relationships have a large influence on my work. How shapes compliment and interact with one another excite me. The flow from skinny waists to bulbous forms gives each piece an airy quality. The Stacks and Towers work best in groupings. Relationships are created by purposely placing each tower so it “fits” with those around it. These towers depend on each other for aesthetic and perceptual strength. Just like a relationship between friends and couples, or even the process of glassblowing itself, we depend on each other for motivation, inspiration, and most of all a sense of unity. These shapes are what I have been striving for ever since the first time I worked with glass. All of the forms play off of each other. Not only am I creating my own visual relationships between negative space and shape when I set up these pieces, but I allow for the viewer to search for their own moments of visual ecstasy upon further inspection.”