For local Cary resident Thomas McKeon, glass art has been his passion for almost 30 years. For many of those years he worked exclusively in the stained glass world not only producing numerous pieces for sale through local art shows, but also teaching in the field when he was living in New Jersey. A full size reproduction of a Frank Lloyd Wright window for his own home sat at the very top of his bucket list for many years and, when completed, was considered the highlight of his works. But it left him still wanting more.

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After moving to North Carolina 10 years ago, he turned his attention to glass fusing and has set about studying and perfecting a variety of techniques, determined to learn as much as he could about all the intricacies of how glass behaves in a kiln. He has studied with some of the more notable names in the warm glass world, including Brad Walker who has authored several books in the field, and Alicia Lomne who is widely regarded as one of the experts in the field of Pate deVerre.

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Thomas loves experimenting in glass and will often spend as much time testing new processes in his home studio or working on combining multiple techniques, as he does producing pieces for sale. While many artists use simple sheets of cut glass to craft their pieces, he will also incorporate glass in many other forms such as crushed glass, glass powders, and very fine filaments of glass known as stringers just to achieve a unique look. After many years of working in technology in the field of higher education, he now works full time as a glass artist and could not be happier. Much of the inspiration for his pieces comes from simple observation of nature and an eye toward replicating in glass things he might see anywhere. Always with an eye toward color and texture as he works on his pieces, his goal is always to produce works of glass art that can be considered truly one-of- a-kind, and will cause someone to wonder ‘How did he do that?’ whenever they see his work.