Remembering neon artist and glass-bending master Wil Kirkman

Transcript

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Geoff Bennett: Neon signs aren’t as ubiquitous as they once were, but the artistry has been receiving renewed appreciation.

One creator, Wil Kirkman of Boise, Idaho, was well-known for his ability to make — both make and repair the intricate and fragile glass lights.

Amna Nawaz: Kirkman died of cancer late last year, but Marcia Franklin of Idaho Public Television got the chance to see him at work before his passing.

She brings us this story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Wil Kirkman, Owner, Rocket Neon: I am nearly the last neon glass bender in the state. I’m working on a neon butterfly. It will be blue, purple and gold. It’s about 18 by 20 inches, and it’s just kind of a fun little project.

I love the aha moment. When I think of something that I want to make, that’s fun. I really enjoy making that idea reality. I use mainly two kinds of gases, neon and argon. Neon is an orangish color, argon is blue, and then the rare earth coatings on the inside of the tube will determine the actual color.

It’s sort of a dance, if you would, between the fires and the pattern and the table. The world sort of disappears, and all I see is the glass and the fires. You kind of go into this flow state, I think is what they call it. It’s a great feeling.

When I first started, illuminated signs were all neon, and now it’s LEDs, and they don’t have that — oh, that warm glow that reaches out to you and sucks you in. I’m not dissing LEDs. They have their place. But neon is my heart.

We’re going to be putting 22,000 volts through this thing. You have to heat the tube up hot enough that any sort of impurity in the glass vaporizes. I want to get it up to about 600 degrees Fahrenheit, 300 degrees Celsius. And then this blue knob here is the argon, which I will put into the tube.

You look at each piece and it, frankly, does not look like anything, but it will when it’s finished. Looks good. Looks real good. You take some static piece of glass tubing. And when it’s finished and lit, it literally comes alive.