Aniani is Hawaiian for glass, mirror, and clear or transparent. It also means cool and refreshing, or to blow softly and gently. That fits stained glass, how it plays with light and movement and changes the feel of a room.
I came to glass through linocut printmaking, which I've been doing for a while now. In linocut you reduce the medium by carving, creating the open space. Cutting is how you add the light, and what is left is the image. Stained glass is similar in that you create the picture by defining the light, and the lines and the interfaces create the picture.
Besides being an artist, I'm a proud Hawaiian, a doctor, a nerd, a plant daddy, and a lover of dogs, coffee, and all things spooky. That's where my ideas come from.
Every piece is designed, cut, foiled, and soldered by hand in Chicago. Glass comes with seeds, bubbles, blisters, and waves in it, as evidence of its birth in fire, and those imperfections are why I use it. Most of what I make is one of one, so when a piece sells it's gone, though a few designs get made again in small batches. If you want something from the archive or a custom piece, I open commissions twice a year.