About Chris Hawthorne

Though the Detroit native had no formal training in art, he grew up in an art friendly environment. His father was an architect, many family friends were artists, and his parents always encouraged art as a viable career choice.

Chris began making glass art while working as a commercial fisherman off the Oregon coast in the mid 1970s. Through a mutual friend, he met Dale Chihuly, who encouraged Chris to further explore the medium. At the Pilchuck Glass School he studied with a number of leading contemporary glass artists. They supported his efforts to develop a colorful painterly approach to creating glass sculpture.

In 1985, Chris built his own hot glass workshop near the small fishing and crabbing town of Port Orford, located on the Oregon coast just north of the California state line. He now works from his studio on the Sixes River in Sixes, Oregon. At the urging of other well known glass artists, he has begun creating glass installations, and will continue to do so throughout the country.