Biography -George Glasser
Born 1945, Tampa, FloridaIn the late1950s, Glasser started out working after school as an apprentice in sign painting and silk printing shops.
In 1964, Glasser enrolled in commercial art classes at a technical school. After a few semesters, his teacher told him that she didn't have much that she could offer and that his best course of action 'was to go out and get a job in the art department of an advertising agency'.
About that time the Viet Nam war was ramping up, and while Glasser was gaining a foothold as a freelance commercial artist, the threat of conscription into the military service loomed.
Consequently, Glasser’s burgeoning career as a commercial artist was cut short. However, in 1966, as fate would have it, Glasser found himself stationed at McClellan AFB in Sacramento, California – about 100 miles from San Francisco.
San Francisco in the mid-60s wasn't just any city; it was riding a cultural bow-wave that would envelope the Globe.
Before a year was up, Glasser was living in San Francisco where he became associated with a group of underground (experimental) filmmakers.
Eventually, Glasser became associated with a group specialising in animation and special effects. He said, “Making things move and changing reality was where the real magic of film lay for me.
“We had to build our own equipment because rental time for an animation stand or optical printer was so expensive. We did a lot of experimentation until we got things to work such as hanging the camera from wires attached to the ceiling for animation and creating an optical printer using an old lathe bed. Although most of the films were pretty funky, it took a collaborative - beg, borrow and steal - effort to make anything happen.”
In 1972, an associate of Glasser's established a small commercial special effects and animation studio in Oakland, California where he worked as a freelance technician."it was interesting", he said, "because we had to be able to produce a wide variety of original art along with executing jobs."
During the next six years, Gary Richardson's Effects for Film gained a national reputation for designing and executing motion graphics and special effects for independent filmmakers and advertising agencies. Many projects in which they were involved won national and regional awards.
The Effects for Film studio was also used by the area art schools - The College of Arts and Crafts and San Francisco Art Institute. “At that time, the schools didn’t have adequate equipment for the film courses they were offering. Gary was also an instructor at both art schools. Basically, I supervised students in executing their projects.
“With a local firm, J-K Camera and Engineering, we were instrumental in developing affordable animation and optical printing equipment for schools and independent filmmakers. Before that, a student would have gone to a school like UCLA to have access to that sort of equipment,” said Glasser
By late 1978, Glasser’s collaboration with Effects for Film had run its course. He went back to experimental filmmaking and took a steady job at Highland Motion Picture & Video Laboratory in San Francisco as a lab technician.
“It was the first time since I became involved with filmmaking that I had the opportunity to truly explore my own ideas,” said Glasser. “Working at a laboratory was definitely an asset because almost and the facilities and equipment I needed were at my disposal, and the owner allowed me to work on my projects after hours.”
Several of his animated shorts were shown on CNN, Home Box Office and MTV. However, by 1982, the cable television market for independents dried-up and his options were either to work for a producer of do something else. Disillusioned, he decided to literally ‘hit the road’ in search of something new.
After stints as ride operator for a traveling carnival, junkyard manager, etc., he found himself in Oaxaca, Mexico visiting Zapotec ruins at Monte Albon where he became intrigued with meso-American iconography.
Glasser made his way to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1983 where he began painting and evolving a style based on the Zapotec iconography. He had several one man shows and a steady clientele for his paintings. However, after several years, he felt as if he were simply doing assembly line work.
Once again, dropping out of the art scene, Glasser began searching for another creative outlet, but this time, it was writing. He found his niche as an investigative environmental journalist. By the mid-90s became recognised internationally for his exposés on phosphate fertiliser industry and articles about water quality issues. In 2001, he won a prestigious Project Censored Award for an article on toxicants in tap water published in Earth Island Journal.
Today, almost five years after writing his last environmental article, one can do a Google search with his name and easily find reprints of his work.
In 2001 he relocated to the UK and married Jane Jones, a long time friend and campaign director for a UK environmental organization. His wife died in 2004, and once again, he was searching for a new direction.
After twenty years of self-exile from the art world, Glasser took on the formidable task of re-establishing himself as a working artist.
Glasser’s current offering is the “Digital Graffiti Series” which is based on the theories behind quantum physics. As he puts it – “It’s an adventure into a world where nothing is as it seems: Time folds in on itself, an atom can simultaneously appear in two different locations and a thought can resonate throughout the universe and change reality. The Digital Graffiti Series is all about organised chaos and fleeting realities gleaned from a photonic quantum blur.” [ends]
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