Kip Glover – Designer
Hello and thank you for visiting my web site.
I am a fine artist based in Santa Barbara on the California Central Coast. I am dedicated to creating one-of-a-kind fine furniture and fine art pieces.
My love of art surfaced when I was in grade school, but gained direction when I turned 18 and became immersed in building architectural models at a design firm in Stockholm, Sweden. This two-week apprenticeship was part of a year-long high school exchange program spent in the beautiful architectural landscape of Stockholm and within the rich design culture of Scandinavia. It opened my eyes to an innovative world of architectural materials and design and launched me in my passion to develop skills I have been refining to this day. I can remember the excitement of creating wonderful wooden models in the firm’s design workshop and being captivated by the quality and detail of each piece and by an awakening sense of my own creative potential. Working with my hands to create a finished model, which was both beautiful and precise, has influenced my artistic sensibility ever since.
The idyllic hours I spent wandering the boulevards and looking out from train windows through rural and suburban areas and into the city centers of downtown Stockholm, a 10-mile commute altogether, inspired in me a deep appreciation for the Scandinavian aesthetic and lifestyle. My visits to the adjacent archipelago and the village communities where my host family summered, enhanced my admiration for quality, hand-built designs, evident in their homes and way of life, where self-sufficiency was required and helped to yield an exquisite and unique artistic point of view.
Later, in my 20s, 30s and 40s, I was immersed in professional endeavors and assumed many roles in several related fields, such as hospitality management and development, which included managing Hard Rock Café properties in the United States and Europe; project management, competitive research, and quality assurance services for Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts; and marketing, graphic design and business development services within the architectural and interior design industry. Still the creative muse always drew me back through my desire to create beautiful objects from wood which were architecturally elegant and provocative. In following the impulse to express myself creatively through mediums I am drawn to, I have gained an authentic sense of who I am artistically.
In 2010-2011 I was fortunate to be accepted into the Krenov School of Fine Furniture Program, which is widely regarded as one of the premier woodworking schools in the United States. This intensive 9-month program was really the start of my more serious and passionate woodworking interests. As a student, I was encouraged to discover and explore the intimate relationship that exists between the wood, the tools, and the details of fine furniture. Immersing myself in woodworking 6 days a week for 9 months with gifted instructors and fellow students sharing my same passion was a dream come true.
I love to incorporate unique hardware, glass, acrylic, and found objects in my design projects and commissions. I am enamored by the sensuality of color and finish and the variation of textures I search out in the materials I choose to work with, and I strive to create refined pieces that express both beauty and grace. The breadth of ideas that can find enhanced expression through wood art is really staggering. The only limit I have is with my own powers of imagination. Connecting attentively to the artistic process is a profound experience, one which opens my mind and my heart.
Thank you for your interest in my work.