Personal Therapy Through Glassblowing: Meet Artist Kevin Becker

Whether through music, photography, crafts or other creative projects, at a time of national anxiety and pandemic fatigue, engaging in the arts has provided therapeutic benefits for novices and professionals alike.

The community can learn more by joining another virtual and free "Meet the Artist" Zullo Gallery talk with therapist/glassblower and Westwood resident Kevin Becker at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 31 via Zoom (pre-registration required).

For 25 years Becker has worked as a psychologist who specializes in trauma and disaster. His work has taken him around the world to support victims and survivors of some of history’s worst tragedies. He discovered the magic of glassblowing nearly 10 years ago and simultaneously experienced the power of the creative process.

Becker's blown glass pieces often incorporate unusual components from nature embedded into the final work, resulting in pleasing textures and one-of-a-kind designs.

Whether blowing glass into tree stumps to capture their unique impressions or using beach sand to create wavelike vases, Becker says he is entranced with the process of combining molten glass with these natural elements.

"The beauty that results becomes a permanent record of the collaboration between the natural element, the glass, and myself," he remarks. "Glassblowing for me serves as a therapeutic respite which is extremely restorative. The focus needed to create objects from molten glass in the heat of the hot shop takes me out of myself. When a useful or attractive object results, it’s even more exciting and rewarding."

More information about Kevin Becker and his glass work is available here.

This program was made possible in part by a grant from Medfield Cultural Council, a local agency, supported by Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.