LIFESTYLE | FEATURED ARTIST Please Pass The Salt: The Story, Connectivity and Art of Salt Glass

from HC Magazine - Spring 2020

by Samuel Farley @THC_Samuel, photos by @salteyelens

The artwork of Salt Glass is some of the most distinguishable, progressive and unique in the world of glass art. The history of Salt Glass really began when he was first introduced to cannabis and the community it creates. During his teenage years in the early 1990s, Salt was introduced to cannabis via old-school schwag weed, the best him and his friends were able to find back in those days in Texas. Not knowing how to roll a joint, Salt and his friends would create makeshift smoking devices out of household items. Around the age of 15, he started to think creatively about pipes, but it wasn’t until he was 17 that he got his first piece of glass, a wrap and rake spoon bowl, and within a year he had gotten himself a glass bong. It was around this time that he first saw live glass blowing in Austin.

Salt began blowing glass officially in 2001 while attending a community college in Austin, Texas. He says he had to pay $500 for his very first apprenticeship, where he learned a lot as he cranked out production work. He also admits that he was taken advantage of early on his career and did too much work for not enough pay, but he quickly switched lanes and began to explore his own creativity. In 2002, Salt and a friend decided to build their own studio and were able to establish relationships with glass shops around the Dallas area. In early 2002, Salt made a trip to California to visit a friend who now owns the popular production brand Medicali Glass. During that trip, he was exposed to some of the work being made by Darby Holm, Marcel, Scott Deppe and other legendary artists, imbuing him with a sense of what was possible with a glass pipe. “I was like oh my god, I don’t know shit and the universe expanded right before my eyes,” says Salt. “It was probably one of the most profound moments of my career because I thought I knew what was up and then I was shown this whole new section of glass and I was hooked. Clinton, Marcel, those are my heroes, people I’ve looked up to this whole time.”

**Infinity Bottle Collab with @earljrglass**
photos by @salteyelens

By 2003, his Texas studio had earned a reputation as one of the best around, something he says comes down to passion and dedication. “It’s a numbers game, you really have to put in the work and hours and do things a lot and put in the time,” he says. It was around this time that he first starting experimenting with eyeballs on his pieces, placing them on the masks, dragons and other shapes he was making. He also began to go to more events, first witnessing cold working at an event called The Lewis Wilson Best Bead Show. In the midst of all of this, Operation Pipe Dreams devastated the functional glass community, sending Salt skittering back to non-functional sculpture work, lamp parts and other accessories. He made a visit to New York and ended up securing a solid number of orders from customers and collectors on the east coast and continued that routine until around 2006.

He adopted the pseudonym Salt officially 2007, using the name to promote his work while protecting his identity in the not-yet-legal cannabis world. That year he was a featured centerfold in The Flow Magazine, and his work began to blow up. He came up with the name after watching the documentary Style Wars, realizing he wanted to have a name that gave him some direction and purpose. “Salt is a material that is needed but is also a humble thing. It does its job but it’s also essential. I wanted to be a part of the conversation but not be fancy with it, just be there and be as good as I could be,” he says. “I drew a graffiti style piece of ‘SALT’ after watching the film and it all kind of clicked, and it became the name and glass blowing pseudonym.”

Fast forward to 2012 and Salt had started ramping up his work. He was working on creating his new design and developing a novel downstem he called the Salt perc. “The style actually changed the rotation of the water so you get a smoother experience when you hit my pieces” says Salt.

“A salt piece in a way is almost like a pet. Collectors clean them, they feed them weed or hash, and it becomes a whole energy exchange and you get to relax and take a step back. Through that exchange the piece gets taken care of and the user gets an energetic shift as well. The teeth on my pieces also help protect the pieces when collectors might knock them over, and it provides another layer of protection and meaning,” says Salt. “I also build more relationships with my collectors because I fix any of those teeth for free and it helps make sure the functional side remains intact. It’s a mental, meditative, textural, and artistic experience.”

Salt says he is excited for what the future might bring. “In terms of 2020 and moving forward, I’m excited about the prospect of the world being ready to know what pipe art is,” he says. “It’s something that could be considered some of the highest art forms there are. It’s about provoking thought.” Art means many things to many different people, but it’s clear that each piece of Salt Glass has purpose: bringing people together in a creative and positive manner. You can see work by Salt Glass at galleries across the country and on his Instagram, @SaltGlass.

This article is from:

HC Magazine - Spring 2020