Workhouse Artist of the Week: Andrew Moch

The first time Andrew Moch saw glasswork was when he watched a flameworker at Epcot Center transform a slab of glass into a sailboat. “I was about eight-years-old and so fascinated I couldn’t tear myself away from watching,” he said. Years later, when an art professor suggested glass blowing, Moch recalled his Epcot Center experience.

Moch is the current Building W-7 Glasshouse featured artist at the Workhouse Arts Center.  His exhibition contains random works focusing on abstract organic forms. They are replicas of objects that could exist in nature, formed with curves and no straight lines.

As a child, Moch was inspired by his mother, an oil and water color painter, and was always drawing.  “All of my school notebooks contain more drawings that anything of educational value,” he said. When applying to college, Moch decided to study art.  “It’s what really made me happy and what I had any skill at."

At the University of Massachusetts, Moch discovered that he was drawn to art that involved heat, like welding. That’s when a professor suggested glass. “Working with glass requires lots of energy in terms of heat and time,” he said.  “You have to complete your work immediately, before it cools, or it will break.” 

Moch has been at the Workhouse Arts Center since it opened. He’d previously been a resident at another studio, but it closed. While attending the International Flameworking Conference, held annually at Salem Community College in Carneys Point, New Jersey, Moch met Rick Sherbert, program director for glass at the Workhouse. “Rick said he had a spot open at the Workhouse and he invited me to apply,” Moch said. “I was fortunate,” he said. “Two-weeks later I was at the Workhouse.”

Moch graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in digital media, and works full time to support his glasswork. “I consider glass a fulfilling most-time hobby that requires a serious financial commitment,” he said. 

Neither his exhibition nor any of the pieces in his exhibition are titled.  Moch said he likes titles, but only if they’re not forced.  “I’d rather people see what they see and call it what they want versus trying to see what a title says they should,” said Moch.

Moch studied with renowned Robert Mickelson during the summer of 2006.  “He inspired many of my organic pieces,” said Moch. Moch’s favorite piece in his current show is a freestanding, frosted clear-glass plant with pods coming off the stem.  “I like the translucent light blue accents and the mathematically proportional balance of this work,” he said.