“Everything that needs to be said can be said by trees.” This was the first artistic—really transcendent—vision I had. I was watching a sunrise in a park in my native New York. I was twenty-one at the time. I sketched a few trees after that but talked myself out of the idea that I should share my vision through art. Instead, I spent time teaching sociology at colleges in Ann Arbor and Pella, Iowa. Later, I moved to California and became a massage therapist and teacher. I would walk in my neighborhood in Oakland and look at the many houses that had a Stained Glass Window near the front door. Each was a different picture and I loved them.

More than thirty years after my vision in the park, I moved to Chicago and began classes with my mentor, the Russian-born artist Khaim Pinkhasik. Khaim invented much of the technique for stained glass mosaic work. His brilliant work can be seen in museums, churches and homes in the US and Russia. Another definite, though more subtle influence, was my mother, Sophie Spencer, who was a New York landscape and figurative artist.

I am now a Mosaic Stained Glass Artist. I work out of a spacious home studio and show my work in the High Street Gallery in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, with a group of twelve diverse artists. As a Wisconsin Stained Glass Artist, I live with my wife, Mary, just north of Madison, Wisconsin, where the light, natural beauty, and country atmosphere inspire me. In winters, we migrate to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where the tropical sun, rich colors, and luxuriant foliage provide a very different artistic stimulation.