Degenerate Artist

Glass art pipe makers changed everything. They inspired glassmakers to create mind-blowing new colors and equipment makers to build new tools, torches and kilns – elevating the art of flameworking for all. They redefined how artwork is branded and marketed. And they introduced a new level of philanthropy to art making, fusing successful business practice with social consciousness.

The new YouTube channel Degenerate Artist will host mini documentary films on the stars of functional glass. We will show you not only the making of high-end art pipes, but will tell the stories of their creators. Named with Slinger’s blessing and in homage to his 2011 documentary film Degenerate Art, our YouTube channel will document the makers in this important American art movement as cannabis culture itself continues to evolve and develop across the country.

As editor of Glass Art magazine from 1987 to March 2019, Shawn Waggoner has interviewed and written about multitudes of the world’s greatest artists working in glass. In 2016, she turned her passion for glass art into Talking Out Your Glass podcast, featuring “Terry Gross style” interviews and introducing her to many of the nation’s finest pipe artists.

In functional glass, exciting technical and aesthetic breakthroughs co-mingle with philanthropic and counterculture philosophies, inspiring Waggoner’s interest in further documenting this important social and art revolution. Working in concert with filmmaker @letsragefilms, the stories behind the world’s greatest glass pipe artists will finally be told and archived for heady generations to come.