After 20 years of racing around the country and playing with fire in the studio, the world stopped. This year of COVID has been a time of reflection and growth for me. Although I kept myself busy creating glass in partnership with Renee, the pattern interruption served as an opportunity to change the way forward.

I missed the relationships I had built on the road as well as the collectors who inspire what we make. Glassblowing is a physical medium and the task of constructing a temporary storefront most weeks of the year takes its physical toll. I will continue to breathe life into molten glass as long as I draw breath, however, I learned this year that there are other sources of inspiration that fill me with passion.

Being an artist is not only what we do, it is who we are. Every story from the road inspires me to work harder and be better.

Will Armstrong has spent years on the road; bouncing between gallery openings, festivals, and his studio. The road holds countless stories and in his work, you will find them. Tales from out-of-the-way honky-tonks, movie palaces, cheap motels, and barrels of gas paid on questionable credit; stories of both roadside dives or majestic theaters and the musicians that crawl in and out. 

The real show sometimes takes place on the street. Where does music come from? Where does it go to be heard? Sometimes the artist takes a fragment of a lyric out of context and tells a new story to change or re-emphasize the meaning. Will’s work is the soundtrack to a road trip; songs and artists are embedded in the towns they made famous. Bo Diddley, Johnny Cash, and Deke Dickerson are as much an influence as Frank Miller and Heinrich Kley. The lines of the road have become indistinguishable from the lines of the pen; just as the subject from the location.