Pablo Soto

De Soto Glass Design was formed around the idea of creating and designing objects that enhance living spaces and environments. As a company we make a wide variety of work. A large portion of what we do revolves around glass blown vessels and functionally oriented works. Lighting design is quickly becoming an influential part of the sum. We also use our facilities and skills for creating glass blown objects for other designers and artists.

Words

My development as a glass artist is clearly marked in stages that have become unified in my sensibilities and aesthetic of today. When I seriously committed myself to making, I already possessed a deeply ingrained sense of form, color, function, and design. This sensibility that I came pre-programmed with, was comparable to that of a folk artist. Someone that was not informed by an academic setting, rather the individual just creates what comes to mind. When you're a kid growing up, you don't study what is around you, so much as you absorb it. In retrospect, I was privileged to have grown up with, and around so many makers. I was constantly in a state of passive absorption.

When I was in college, I became fascinated with learning to move and create with glass. I immediately found my voice through the functional object, and sought out the skills to create what was in my head. At that point, I believed that learning technique,and different methods to meet my goals was of utmost importance. That idea has remained a constant up to the present.

In this moment my skills have become adequate enough, so that my mind can wander into and investigate the material more licidly. I find myself searching out what peoples perceptions are about the vessel, so that I may more clearly make a statement with my work. The history of glassblowing is rooted in the vessel, and has developed a rich language through time. I consistently refer to these templates of form and technique that proceed my own investigations with the material. I can no longer fall back on what was my inherent sense of form, color, function, and design. My new path is to understand fully why I am drawn to certain ideals, and qualities that I find in peoples works, like Tapio Wirkkila, Charles Eames, Weiner Werkstatte, Lino Tagliapietra, Alexander Calder, Poul Henningsen, and Benjamin Moore. These designers and artist's work awaken my senses on two different levels. On one hand they convey a sense of beauty that doesn't need to be questioned or justified beyond that reaction. On the other hand, if I choose to dig deeper I find an amazing amount of content relating to a pursuit of perfection, and a kindred knowledge of what it is they are making. I seek to identify with, and understand these artists success, so that I can be honest when I say that I perceive my work as the result of love for form, and a persistent study of what formal qualities can co-exist in a harmony that is pleasing to the eye and other sensibilities.