Janet Smith

Born and raised in the Washington, D.C., area, Janet Smith's interest in art began at a young age. Her father was a writer and her mother a dancer. She assumed she'd grow up to be one or the other, but in college she fell in love with painting and earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University.  

Upon graduation, she looked for a way to make a living with her art skills. "I realized with glass I could do fine art and design in the same medium,'' she said. "I liked having the range and I thought I could make it into a business and work for myself, not work somewhere else and do art on the side.'' Smith often vacations on the Outer Banks. "It's my favorite place to go to the beach,'' she said. Color is what makes her glass expressive, Smith said. For her, light has all sorts of incredible energy. "I'm fascinated by the way it plays upon things,'' she said. 

"The designer in me is fascinated by quality of light.'' Smith starts out with a loose idea of what she wants to achieve. Working spontaneously, she is apt to change focus throughout the process. "I work in a painterly fashion, adding and taking away.'' I hope you enjoy your stained glass mirror for years to come.