mission statement of a local St. Pete artist

VISION

My passion and love for this artform drives me to continue creating! Each piece is thought out and reflects my love for creating something of beauty to be shared with the world. Vision drives the creativity!

CREATIVITY

Resourcefulness, vision, patience; and endurance drives my Creativity. Pushing myself to work in a physically demanding and challenging career while supporting my business builds my endurance, determination, and Strength.

STRENGTH

The laser focus needed to create my artwork requires Strength of mind, body, and spirit and is essential to maintaining and building my business and professional brand. The relationships that I develop along the way makes this lifelong journey all worthwhile!

ARTIST BIO

All About the artist Melanie Cech, was born in the Chicago area and moved to Florida at the age of 15 with her family. After high school, she was introduced to flameworking and quickly discovered she was drawn to this unique artform. As an avid entrepreneur and marketing student, Melanie moved to St Croix, US Virgin Islands at the age of 19 to open a gift shop featuring one-of-a-kind sea life themed glass work, handmade in front of tourists. After 4 years in the islands, she returned to Florida and expanded her business, the Glass Menagerie, while continuing to develop her skills in flameworking. During this time, she immersed herself in her work while raising her 2 sons. Between 2000-2022, Melanie expanded her reach by offering her artwork to several galleries, gift shops, and museums including the Dali Museum, the Imagine Museum, and the Morean Glass Studio in St. Petersburg, FL and exhibited in over 60+ art shows over the past 20 years. As a local St. Pete artist she was determined to offer her artwork to a larger clientele, she rebranded, changed her company name to CECH Glass, and began offering her unique glass sculpture and jewelry online at MelanieCechGlass.com. Melanie is also known for her signature Nautilus design with Glass Tendrils, which is very representative of her fluidity with glass and her love for blending things found in nature with glass as a medium. In the past couple of years, along with teaching in-person classes at the Morean glass studio, she began work on her virtual online series to offer her unique skills to a larger audience called “Beginning Techniques in Flameworked Glass Sculpture” which will be launched and available by the end of 2022. She continues to bring her vision, her inspiration, and her creative entrepreneur spirit to the community by collaborating and connecting with local women’s groups, budding artists interested in glass, and visitors to the Tampa Bay area as a unique st pete artist.

Melanie Cech glass artist

"The Nautilus"

"The Nautilus design is a symbol of life, harmony, and the perfection of nature. The Nautilus shell evokes a sense of mystery and awe. The chambers of the Nautilus shell are symbolic of growth, evolution, expansion and renewal -- the stages each person passes through life. The spiral itself is a symbol of creation, movement, fluidity and evolution. It reveals the cyclical nature of life and the relationship between unity and multiplicity. With no beginning and no end, the spiral curls eternally inward and eternally outward with continual self-creation. As a path, the spiral is both the journey home to who we really are, and the journey to be one who we will become, for they are one and the same.

It's spiral structure displays perfect mathematical proportion, sometimes called the Golden Mean or the Fibonacci Sequence. The Golden Mean number is also known as PHI. The unique thing about the Golden Mean is that it can be found incorporated in all known organic structures. Viewing the proportions of the Nautilus give us a serene sense of balance and well-being. The Golden Mean number is widely used in art, architecture, and religious symbols. It reminds us that subtle changes, one after the other, bring big results."