Mike da Ponte is a glass/mixed media artist from the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago, IL. He has been making glass for over ten years and has a wide spectrum of knowledge in many different processes of
glassmaking. His job as a glass educator for high school students has granted him the time necessary to hone his skills and establish a solid foundation for understanding this diverse material. He enjoys being as versatile as the material itself.
“Communication” is a series that has been developing since 2019. This ongoing
investigation is combining both curiosity within typography on the computer and
the tangible outcomes of casting glass in a kiln. Both processes combined are
an effort to comb through each character within a typeface to unveil hidden
relationships and identities that we may not always recognize on a daily basis.
The work is heavily grounded in narrative storytelling. A typeface is a family of
different characters and symbols that make it specific to the style and name
provided, much like the individual identities of people, culture, and geography.
