This is a question that we all ask ourselves from time to time, usually when we are lost in a physical or perhaps spiritual sense. I have chosen it as the title for my show partly on a whim (most titles are far too serious) and partly to help me, and others, get an idea for what I am doing here.

When I was in grade one, my teacher Mrs. Cameron, posed a question: ‘How old would I be and what would I be doing in the year 2000?’. Well, I would be 40 (Oh my that is sooooo old) and as it turned out I was the only one in class who thought that he would be a priest. No, I have no idea where that came from, ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’. (That was another title that I considered).

Well, I am forty.

I am an ordained minister. Of the Universal Life Church of Modesto, California. I did it on the internet. http://www.ulc.org/ .

I am also a glassblower.

This I did not expect. I hadn’t even heard of such a thing in 1965. Never the less I ‘are’ one now.

I had the usual childhood, no significant trauma normally associated with becoming an artist. Oh, wait! I tell a lie.

In grade Three, we were taken on a tour to the Vancouver Art Gallery, when it was on Georgia about 9 blocks west of where it is now. It was the usual field trip to bring culture to young minds. Well, there was a display of cartoons or cartoon like paintings, (they must have been Lichtenstien's) pretty cool for an 8 year old. There was a room that had sixteen two foot shiny steel cubes in rows of four, which were fun to run around.

And then there were these couches, three of them, more chaise lounges really, and on each was what appeared to be a person. Each of the couches and the ‘person’ thereupon had been torched.

This was art.

I was horrified.

I thought that they were real people on the couches, and if an ‘artist’ had done this to people, ‘artists’ were clearly sick and dangerous and to be avoided at all costs.

Its amazing how perceptive 8-year-olds can be. I still mostly believe that. I do not like to be called an artist.

I am a glass blower, a craftsman, an artisan, but not an artist.

Where were we? High school was hell, it is for most people, but I met my wife Allison there. She thought I was strange, I think she still does. I spent some time in the Canadian Military Reserves (Infantry and then Intelligence, and yes, I’ve heard all the jokes). I worked in a 7-11, car wash, security guard, I also usually attended college or university at the same time, taking mostly what interested me. I believe I have the lowest grade point average on record at Langara College, 0.034. I accidentally passed a course, I wasn’t in to doing exams but I loved the information I got from the courses, psychology, Spanish, Latin, history, whatever. I am still fascinated by most things. If I ever win the lottery I think I would become a perpetual student.

This takes us up to about 1984ish. I was hit by an inspiration, actually a car, as I was crossing the street in a crosswalk. I pretty much had to move home, as I was recovering from a broken leg. My mother had been playing around with stained glass, I was bored, so I thought that if she could do it so could I.

There were many cuts and much swearing. One day our next door neighbor, Ethel, called and told me that there was going to be a glassblower on the Noon News Hour (with Tony Parsons) and that I should watch.

Well, it was an instant hook, they showed Virginia Blythe-Cobb make a very funky little tumbler at her studio in Surrey. During the interview she said that she had learned this out east at Sheridan.

This was it. This was what I wanted to do.

I eventually found Sheridan College, and also Ontario College of Art, both had a glass program, I was accepted by both, but I chose the program at Sheridan. I haven’t really looked back since.

Until now.

This Show features pieces that I have made over the years, that in one way or another are special or even pivotal in my development as a creative individual.

Thanks for coming.

Ted Jolda

May 26, 2000