After graduating from Tennessee in 1986 with a degree in art history, Laura Goff Parham packed a bag and spent six months traveling around Europe gazing at stained glass. Born and raised in West Knoxville, Laura wasn’t exposed to a lot of stained glass, but she made up for that by roaming cathedrals in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.
“My parents were so upset. They were so worried about me,” she says, laughing. “But the Catholic art was so gorgeous. That’s what inspired me to come back and started it as a hobby, but I’ve been self-employed since 1990.”
Despite 35 years creating stained and painted glass, Laura says it’s a field you can’t master. There are always new techniques to try and skills to hone. And yet, her work is all over private homes and businesses in East Tennessee. All you have to do is look for her signature.
“I like the physical challenge. It’s a physical art. It’s not just paint on paper,” she says. “It’s a part of a building. It’s considered construction, and I know the windows I design will be around for 100 years. They’ll need repair work in 100 years, but they’ll still be here. It’s the hands-on part, and switching between drawing herons, then doing geometric designs, then painting flowers. I never do the same thing over and over.”
In the workshop she shares with her son, Eric, 24, and three other employees, there is no one piece that matches another. Instead, each work table houses a unique project - a lamp getting new-and-improved stained glass wings, a personal and sentimental gift from a wife to a husband, a new mid-modern design Eric is working on, and various other pieces and drawings that will eventually become a one-of-a-kind piece for someone’s door frame or kitchen window. There are also top secret commissioned pieces Laura has been working on for months. Again, look for the signature.
Under the umbrella of glass work at Laura Goff Designs is myriad architectural options: leaded and beveled glass for cabinets, for example, or sandblasted (etched) glass suitable for windows or shower enclosures, painted glass of all kinds, and traditional stained glass, the kind you’d see in houses of worship or professional buildings. Laura is open to just about anything.
“Someone will come in and say they have a window driving them nuts, like there’s too much sun coming through. So, I’ll ask a lot of questions. I’ll go look at their house and see what fits the environment,” she says. “What are their colors? What do they value? I’ll photograph things, like the details on a chair or the pattern on a rug.”
From there, she’ll collaborate with the homeowner on a pattern or design. From start to finish, it’s group work, but her expertise is what makes every piece stand out.
Laura’s attention to detail is something Eric has been dealing with - first as her son, now as her apprentice - since his earliest memories.
“I’ve grown up surrounded by stained glass. I’m in newspaper clippings when I was two and three months old. It’s surreal. It’s always been on my mind [to work with stained glass]. I had a begrudging appreciation for it because a lot of my vacation time was demolished,” he says, laughing.
“I’d see a steeple in the distance and drive to it so I could see the stained glass,” Laura adds, smiling back.
“I’d have fatigue from all the churches,” says Eric. “She’d see churches from the interstate and hunt them down. It’s funny now, but it helped me appreciate the different styles and techniques.”
While built upon creativity and vision, stained glass work is rooted in science and mathematics - near-constant measuring and fitting, discerning different firing temperatures for various color pigments, layers, textures, percentages, proportions.
“Before you can think about putting your brush to glass, you have to think of the entire map of how to get it done,” says Eric.
Though Laura primarily works independently, she also collaborates with other artists in the area, such as Kevin Johnson, who does custom ironwork, and Chad Lange, a local woodworker, to create one-of-a-kind pieces. From the traditional to the “wilder ideas”, Laura is eager to create works of art built to last.
“Someone said to me last week that I must love nature because I draw it so well, but I think I’m very observant,” she says. “I constantly churn ideas.”
Learn more at LauraGoffDesigns.com
