Ah, the infamous bio page, where others might recite a litany of credentials, I prefer to paint in broader strokes. 

I arrived in the world in Toledo, Ohio, many, many…many years ago, into a family of artists and craftsmen who passed down their skills and passions with love. I grew up in Delaware, near the sea, where the rhythms of the tide shaped my free spirit. I was always building… sandcastles on the beach, dams in the creeks, and forts in the backyard. To this day, the scent of salt air draws me toward water for inspiration. 

From the beginning, it was clear. I was made to create. I studied at The Ringling School of Art, focusing on painting and sculpture… bold color, clean lines, and stylized forms became my visual language. I loved painting, but like many artists, I needed to eat. So, I turned to commercial art and advertising. While I enjoyed the conceptual challenges, the thought of designing cereal boxes for the rest of my life didn’t spark joy. No offense to cereal lovers, I just longed to create work with lasting beauty. 

Then one day, I stumbled upon a Tiffany stained glass exhibition. The vibrant colors, the clarity of line, the interplay of form and light…it was pure magic. I realized that everything I had explored through painting was present in stained glass. The missing element was light. That discovery was illuminating, in every sense. 

I moved to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and threw myself into stained glass, gaining hands-on experience in several studios. Eventually, I relocated to eastern Tennessee and established Ottolini Studios. 

While my early years in the urban Northeast developed my eye for contemporary design, the last four decades in the Great Smoky Mountains have grounded my work in nature. Along the way, I’ve studied with internationally acclaimed stained glass artists, continuing to push the boundaries of technique and expression. 

Today, my work is a synthesis of those journeys… urban and rural, contemporary and classical, crafted with light and grounded in spirit. Through stained glass, I hope to create not just art, but a kind of illumination… for spaces, and for those who pass through them.