Dellene Peralta Glass

First came the eye. The true artist's eye seeks form and color, movement and balance. Glass pipe artist Dellene Peralta first found it at home. Her parents were painters and musicians, on the low-rent side of town in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Those hard edged neighborhoods filled with urban graffiti inspired Dellene's early appreciation of street art. Later, she trained in photography at UNM, and could have certainly made her mark there. But instead she was chosen by the fire.

In the last decade, Dellene has continued to bring it. Hard. After Albuquerque 2002, came Eugene Glass School Flame Offs, 2003 - 2006. Women's Flame Off, 2007 & 2008. Degenerate Flame Off, 2009 & 2010. International Hot Glass Invitational, 2009. Pipe Classic, 2009 & 2011. CHAMPS “Masters” Flame Off, 2009. Glassroots Flame Off. BIG Show Galleria, 2012. She was invited to do a feature show at the prestigious Goose Fire Gallery in Long Beach, California, in 2011. And she is one of the only female featured artists in the 2012 movie Degenerate Art: the Art and Culture of Glass Pipes. Dellene has taken first, or placed, in nearly every event she's entered – a fierce competitor making some of the most dynamic sculptural pieces today. Like a pro athlete, the concentration and determination shows on her face in those amazing competitions. When you see that grimace on her pretty face, look closely at the glass in her hands -- that is where the juice is, where the magic is being made.