Glenn Greene: The Master of Stained Glass

Stroll into Glenn Greene’s Stained Glass Studio in Regent Square and you will meet either a consummate master craftsman or an intensely inventive artist. No matter -- it’s the same guy.

Stocky, wild-haired, with a mischievous grin, 45-year old Greene is a one-man industry perfecting a 1,000-year-old art form that began with medieval cathedrals, castles and palaces. “I practice my craft,” he explains, “to support my art.”

Greene’s studio at the rear of 635 South Braddock Avenue is itself 99 years old, and on a sunny day is a virtual riot of color. His craft, says Greene,  is the restoration of old stained glass masterpieces, some of which are older than Regent Square itself. Restoration involves the cleaning, repairing and reassembling, with modern materials, of stained glass windows from fine old homes, crypts, churches, schools and banks.

But what brings you through the studio’s door is Greene’s original art -- simply gorgeous glass works of deep verdant greens, luscious plum purples, the royalist of blues. The works tend to be rectangular or square, but the individual elements of glass within each work may be irregular in shape and marbled, clear, translucent or textured. Sometimes the glass elements are found fragments or purposefully recycled items; most of it is purchased from suppliers.

Restored works tend to be representational and literal, created decades ago using the grand visual cliches of religion, law and history. But Greene’s original art work can be most anything. You’ll want to stand back and study them. It’s not a matter of “solving” what the works represent but of enjoying the play of form, light and color. Some are stylized depictions of objects and places, but most are emblematic of themes from nature. Some of them you could hang upside or rotated 90 degrees without distorting their beauty; some progress visually, panel-to-panel.

For the Art of It All
“I suppose my time is spent roughly 50 percent on restoration and 50 percent on original works. But I’m really in it for the art,” says Greene. “I’m working in an extremely traditional form and fusing themes from nature, music, history, and culture and giving them contemporary expression.”

Although some of his works appear free-form, Greene says he had a plan for each of the hundreds of glass works in the studio. And being a friendly guy, he’ll explain to you that this nodule represents an oak leaf in winter, and that element is a withered bunch of grapes. But such explanations spoil the fun; the enjoyment is in the beholding of it.

Customers typically think of stained glass as windows. But increasingly, Greene is fashioning framed pieces that might hang from the ceiling inside a window or against a blank wall, as a painting would. Even the frames are masterfully made, many of them expertly carpentered decades ago for other applications and recycled for Greene’s art.

Just as stained glass windows are not always windows, so is “stained glass” not really stained -- as when you dribble grape juice on your khakis. The color is “of” the glass, locked in molecularly.

How much does all this beauty cost? A neighborhood favorite of the studio is Greene’s selection of crates holding small originals that you can shuffle through as you would a rack of greeting cards. There are hundreds of them, each originally created and signed (etched, actually) by Greene that go for about $50. Many is the Mother’s Day or Christmas gift that came from Greene’s crates. For custom or displayed works, prices are of the “... and up” variety and yes, he does commissioned pieces.

Work and Play Here
The studio is a happy place with music playing and young apprentices bent to their tasks over work tables. Otis the dog will greet you at the door, and Greene will come over to visit, after a fashion. Hours of business are creative as well. Greene describes it “hit-or-miss, or by appointment,” but he’s usually there during the day.

This self-described “normal Joe artist” is a native of Cleveland, where he apprenticed with glass masters beginning at age 15. He traveled to Pittsburgh in 1984 to do what he expected to be a two-week restoration job, but was amazed at the amount of stained glass in the city and the number of opportunities he could pursue. So he leased a storefront at 2640 Fifth Avenue, Oakland, near Carlow University, where he created a studio and went in business at age 21. In 1996 he moved to Regent Square and moved the business into a restyled two-story outbuilding behind his home. The studio building had been a machine shop since 1909.
 
Aside from the CDs playing and the modern ringtone of the phone, you wouldn’t know it’s 2008 in Greene’s studio. Other than small electric saws and grinders, he works at glass as it traditionally has been done for hundreds of years, using glass cutters and files. The method of fixing the glass in place is called “copper foil,” a 19th Century innovation from the ancient “lead channel” process.

"I always had an eye for art and my grandfather was in the light fixture business. He used to do repairs and that's pretty much how I got into it. Then I began training as an apprentice glass maker, going to high school for half a day and then working for a master glassmaker.

“I feel lucky to be able to make a living doing something I love to do. I think the fact that I have fun really shows for itself when folks see my work. I believe in the power of individuals to make a difference in the world. By expressing myself through art glass I hope to inspire, and spread optimistic vibrations in the world.”

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Photographs copyright Brian Cohen