Jax Partlow
What’s your name and where are you from/based?
My name is Jax, I’m from Los Angeles and I live in Mexico City.
Can you describe your practice in a few words?
My practice with glass is basically using a thousand year old technique to play, create shape and imagery as if I am painting.
Can you tell me about the first time you worked with glass tools and the moment you knew this medium was going to stay with you?
I was looking for something I could make with my hands and had an epiphany about working with glass when I was living in Budapest. I found someone a little outside the city to teach me and I was hooked.
You inherited your late father’s tools and began working with them, do you feel like your practice allows you to deepen that connection with him?
Absolutely, in a way it’s been an antidote to grief. Though he didn’t teach me, a piece of him is in everything I make. Working with glass has brought me closer to celebrating and farther from mourning.
Coming from a background in graphic design, what aspects of this still shapes the way you approach stained glass?
As much as I’d like to think I view the world as an artist, I view it as a designer tenfold over that. The principles used in graphic design are the backbone to any process or way of thinking that has developed in my practice.
Stained glass comes with deep historical and spiritual roots, do you choose to engage with these traditions in your own work?
Hmmm other than appreciation and respect I would say they are separate. However I always hope the work brings magic to a space.
What do you look for in an “unlikely space” when choosing where to install a piece for your Public Piece Project?
I look for contrast, thoughtful light and accessibility. Ultimately I make art for myself, so I usually put them where I pass by.
Has living and working in different countries shifted the way you think about aspects of your work?
I think greatly, travel and the desire to live outside my home country has been a theme that has run through my life. I’ve been exposed to many ways of living, people and stories. It’s hard to explain the ways I carry them with me in everything I do, especially when it can be so abstract.
Is there a location where you’d love to see one of your pieces installed next?
I need one in Budapest, where my glass story began and where the idea for this project was conceived. It’ll happen one day.
Where can people find you?
People can find me mostly on instagram @jaxpartlow. I’m looking to share some work in October during design week here in Mexico City. I’ll share more about that soon.
I have a few public pieces still live in Los Angeles, one on the 110/101 freeway junction (it’s seen better days) and two at Fountain/Edgemont in East Hollywood. But there is always a new public piece brewing… stay tuned…
