New Artist at Art Gallery Napa Valley.
Bill Mellberg joined those exhibiting at our 1st street gallery in July. Bill is a retired aerospace materials engineer who worked for Lockheed Martin for almost 20 years.
I have always been a “maker” of some kind my entire life. I have experience in plastic and composite fabrication, wood fabrication, ceramic slab forms and recently fused glass. I bought a used Skutt kiln in 2018 and had it refurbished expecting to use it for my ceramics work. A neighbor of mine, Ken Boyd is a stained glass artist who does flame work making beautiful beads. He said “have you considered doing fused glass in your new kiln”? That question started me on a year long journey to study the art form and take several classes at Bullseye in Emeryville.
During the shelter in place I had no clay, but had lots of scrap glass from a ACGA friend. I got my MA in Art from CSU San Jose in the 70’s in cast polyester resin sculptures, so the transition to glass was pretty easy. Most of my pieces are a strong geometric form with a nature theme of trees and leaves in bright colors. I like using the three secondary colors as a common pallet. I’m excited to be part of the gallery and look forward to meeting more of you, with your mask on, I can always remember a face
