Amy Belford wanted to be an artist since she was a young child. She dabbled in a long list of art forms. During her high school and college years, she took several art classes and enjoyed sharing her art skills with young children as a camp counselor and a preschool teacher. During her first two years as a fourth grade teacher, Amy was thrilled to have the opportunity to also be her students’ art teacher, since the school couldn’t provide one. Even when working in a new school with a certified art teacher, Amy found a way to sneak in some art lessons into her regular education curriculum. In 2002, she joined with her colleague, the art teacher, to take a pottery class at her local community college. Amy’s goal to make her aunt a salad serving bowl fell short, but she did marry a fellow student a couple years later that effortlessly makes her (and her aunt) anything they desire. Once retired after 33 years of teaching, Amy had more time to continue to pursue her passion for art. In 2020, she and her husband bought a second home in Oracle, AZ to escape winters in Door County, Wisconsin. The AZ community provided an ideal opportunity for Amy to learn the art of glass fusing. After so many years of searching for the perfect fit for her creative energy, Amy had found it. She began taking classes in January 2022. Amy found it to be an ideal mix of her talents, including design planning, pattern forming, and color mixing with a touch of perfectionism. She studied the nuisances of creating glass art; learning to predict outcomes based on glass thickness and texture, firing schedules, and firing temperatures. Amy showed her pieces to an exceptional painter and gallery owner in Door County, Wisconsin, who offered to show Amy’s glasswork at the gallery. Her glasswork was well received, which encouraged her to set up an art studio in her Wisconsin home in 2022. The following year, a pleasant encounter with a gallery owner in Tubac, AZ turned into another opportunity to display her art. Amy’s glass is currently available at two beautiful galleries: Cappaert Contemporary Gallery in Egg Harbor, WI and Más y Más in Tubac, AZ.
Gallery Representation: Cappaert Contemporary and Mas y Mas, Tubac, AZ