Instructor Profile
"I’m a facilitator and I continue to teach because I love watching my students let go of their ideas of perfection, rules, and rigidity to discover and take pleasure in creating something practical or simply a voice from colored glass." - Sallye Coyle
Meet Sallye Coyle, Warm Glass Fusing Instructor - by Lynn Lothman
The gravel road that leads to Sallye Coyle’s art studio meanders past lush gardens of summer vegetables, tall sunflowers, and secluded homesteads into the quiet, green woodland of Orange County. It’s a magical place she generously shares with countless OLLI students seeking to learn the art of glass fusing and experience the thrill of self-expression.
“You’ll know you have arrived when you see the turquoise barn and a few hundred feet up the road my turquoise studio,” she said. I suspected then that Sallye loved color, was not necessarily a purist, and probably valued individual expression over conformity. It seems I was correct on all accounts.
Sallye grew up as the youngest child of four, in Southern California during the late fifties-early sixties. Her mother, divorced and single, and defined by “a woman’s role,” wanted more for her daughter. She saw value in travel and during summer vacations loaded all the kids in a camper and drove cross-country in spite of the fact that it was not acceptable for a single woman to do. She had inadvertently planted a seed for adventure, curiosity and a fearless disregard for conventional roles.
Sallye earned her Ph.D. from Stanford Medical School in Neurosciences. She and her husband (also a Psychologist with an interest in Brain and Behavior) moved to the Durham area in the late seventies. He was on the faculty at Duke in Psychology and she conducted research in Neuropharmacology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Sallye attributes her interest in the field of neurosciences to her curiosity and need to understand the connection between physiology and human behavior.
After successful careers as scientists, Sallye and her husband Ted created their own start-up company that they run and operate today. The business is called ShopBot; they sell affordable computerized wood cutting machines initially used by hobbyists. It has mushroomed into a broad and varied industry utilized by small businesses and even government contracts. The ShopBot technology can be used for things like furniture design, sign making, boat building, and cabinet making.
In between traveling worldwide representing the company, demonstrating and teaching the CAD/CAM software and how to run the tool, and keeping life in North Carolina on track, Sallye plays with glass, color, and light.
“I’m not an artist,” Sallye insists. “I took a drawing class once and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.” She took her first glass class through the Durham Arts Council, and is largely self-taught, keeping records of what worked and what didn’t. She has since taught classes through the Durham Arts Council and the Arts Center in Carrboro, and has earned herself a well-deserved and respected place in the glass community of Durham and Orange Counties. She began teaching for OLLI in the spring of 2008 and continues to attract full classes of beginning and experienced glass fusers. “I have made lasting friendships teaching at OLLI” she reflects. And is “genuinely humbled” by the stories of the interesting people she meets through her OLLI connection. A scientist by nature, Sallye understands the theory and chemistry of glass and heat but prefers to offer only as much of that information as an individual student requires. Instead she enjoys watching her students discover shape, color, and design at their own pace. “I’m a facilitator and I continue to teach because I love watching my students let go of their ideas of perfection, rules, and rigidity to discover and take pleasure in creating something practical or simply a voice from colored glass.” She creates an environment of peace and tranquility in her studio and as much as learning the techniques of glass fusion, her students will tell you they take her class over and over again for the quiet hours that they can forget everything else in the word except the colored glass and the sound of birdsong.
Sallye brings to OLLI a genuine and dedicated service; a lifelong commitment as a catalyst for others to discover something valuable about themselves and a turquoise studio nestled in the woods of Orange County.
You can discover more about Sallye and her glass art at www.goodharborbay.com
“You’ll know you have arrived when you see the turquoise barn and a few hundred feet up the road my turquoise studio,” she said. I suspected then that Sallye loved color, was not necessarily a purist, and probably valued individual expression over conformity. It seems I was correct on all accounts.
Sallye grew up as the youngest child of four, in Southern California during the late fifties-early sixties. Her mother, divorced and single, and defined by “a woman’s role,” wanted more for her daughter. She saw value in travel and during summer vacations loaded all the kids in a camper and drove cross-country in spite of the fact that it was not acceptable for a single woman to do. She had inadvertently planted a seed for adventure, curiosity and a fearless disregard for conventional roles.
Sallye earned her Ph.D. from Stanford Medical School in Neurosciences. She and her husband (also a Psychologist with an interest in Brain and Behavior) moved to the Durham area in the late seventies. He was on the faculty at Duke in Psychology and she conducted research in Neuropharmacology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Sallye attributes her interest in the field of neurosciences to her curiosity and need to understand the connection between physiology and human behavior.
After successful careers as scientists, Sallye and her husband Ted created their own start-up company that they run and operate today. The business is called ShopBot; they sell affordable computerized wood cutting machines initially used by hobbyists. It has mushroomed into a broad and varied industry utilized by small businesses and even government contracts. The ShopBot technology can be used for things like furniture design, sign making, boat building, and cabinet making.
In between traveling worldwide representing the company, demonstrating and teaching the CAD/CAM software and how to run the tool, and keeping life in North Carolina on track, Sallye plays with glass, color, and light.
“I’m not an artist,” Sallye insists. “I took a drawing class once and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.” She took her first glass class through the Durham Arts Council, and is largely self-taught, keeping records of what worked and what didn’t. She has since taught classes through the Durham Arts Council and the Arts Center in Carrboro, and has earned herself a well-deserved and respected place in the glass community of Durham and Orange Counties. She began teaching for OLLI in the spring of 2008 and continues to attract full classes of beginning and experienced glass fusers. “I have made lasting friendships teaching at OLLI” she reflects. And is “genuinely humbled” by the stories of the interesting people she meets through her OLLI connection. A scientist by nature, Sallye understands the theory and chemistry of glass and heat but prefers to offer only as much of that information as an individual student requires. Instead she enjoys watching her students discover shape, color, and design at their own pace. “I’m a facilitator and I continue to teach because I love watching my students let go of their ideas of perfection, rules, and rigidity to discover and take pleasure in creating something practical or simply a voice from colored glass.” She creates an environment of peace and tranquility in her studio and as much as learning the techniques of glass fusion, her students will tell you they take her class over and over again for the quiet hours that they can forget everything else in the word except the colored glass and the sound of birdsong.
Sallye brings to OLLI a genuine and dedicated service; a lifelong commitment as a catalyst for others to discover something valuable about themselves and a turquoise studio nestled in the woods of Orange County.
You can discover more about Sallye and her glass art at www.goodharborbay.com
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