Ash to Glass

This was a special one. 

If you’ve followed along my photo journey, you might know Melissa Nordquist (some of our work together also appears in the portfolio page on this website). Melissa is the first swimmer I ever shot photos of in the cold, dark waters of the Salish Sea. We’ve been shooting together for a decade now.

Paul Nordquist was her husband. Paul was a Renaissance Man. I was fortunate to call him a friend. He was a good human in a thousand ways. Sadly, his life was cut short by cancer, and he left this world on August 14th, 2018.

In this story, a new way to remember Paul was celebrated. On a cold February night in a small bespoke glass blowing studio in Tacoma, studio owner Anthony Remick, by way of local artist Leah Morgan, welcomed Melissa, myself and a few other wonderful people from this great city, to make something special.

Mixing Paul’s ashes into molten glass, small medallions were made using the Year of the Snake theme from the Chinese calendar.

Leah had been making some of these using the ashes of her mom, Janet. And she shared this gift of glass making with Melissa in memory of Paul too.

It was 2 ½ hours of time well spent, with wonderful people. File under the “I didn’t know I needed this” kind of evening. I’m thankful for people and experiences like these. This is what being human and in community should be like.