About Kenny
Kenneth (Kenny) Ray Walton, born July 22, 1947 in Galion, Ohio, died December 31, 2019, in rural Avoca, Nebraska. Kenny grew up on a rural truck farm in Edison, Ohio. He graduated from Mt. Gilead High School in 1965. Kenny was drafted into the US Army in 1966 and served in the infantry and as a radio repairman in Viet Nam from 1967 to 1968, when he was honorably discharged. Kenny used his GI benefits for education at the Department of Art at Ohio State University 1970-76, and worked in the ceramics and glass areas, joining in at the beginnings of the Studio Glass Movement. He taught stained glass at art centers in Columbus, Ohio, blew glass at Columbus College of Art & Design from 1978-85, and worked with developmentally disabled adults for Franklin County and the State Institute for 10 years. Kenny moved to Nebraska in 1985 to build his own glass studio and develop his art business. Through 1990 to 2007, Kenny exhibited his hand-blown glass at the highest level of juried arts and craft fairs around the country and region, winning many awards. He had solo exhibitions of his glass in Nagoya, Japan, Ohio Craft Museum, and the Haydon Art Center in Lincoln. He received two Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowships in 1994 & 1995, and a Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1995. He lectured on his glass in Finland, Poland, Hawaii and throughout the Midwest.
Karen and Kenny on their Wedding Day, November 13, 1976. Mount Gilead, OH.
A note from Karen
Kenny and I were married for 43 years, and lived on our acreage in rural eastern Nebraska where Kenny built his glass studio, and I commuted to town to teach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We are both artists, and had our studios in the countryside for the immersion into nature, the ability to concentrate on our art, and to let ourselves develop over the years together. Yet we shared a common artistic aesthetic of color, patterns, symbolism, and acknowledge that we were inspired by each other’s art, and supported the creative drive and necessity to travel and pursue opportunities. I watched Kenny work hard...and glassblowing is hard, hot work...in summer he slept in the day and blew glass all night, to have some escape from the day’s heat. He was always experimenting and researching what worked, and had great memory and knowledge of glass, plus old movies and all kinds of music, cooking and gardening. He enjoyed the social aspect of the art festival circuit with other artists and his collectors, where he could satisfy his story-telling and humor, while at home, he could be isolated in the studio and work at his own pace. I worked in my print studio on color woodcut prints and artist’s books.
Kenny in his glass workshop in Avoca, NE
(approx. 2003)
Kenny at one of his first Craft Fairs. Perhaps the Omaha Summer Arts Festival. (early 1990’s)
Kenny in his element, working the farm.
Kenny in his element, working the farm.
Solo exhibition in Nagoya, Japan.
A rainy day in Kyoto, Japan.
“The big one” caught in Florida.
Kenny in his glass workshop in Avoca, NE
(approx. mid 90”s)
Kenny in his glass workshop in Avoca, NE
(approx. late 90’s)
Blowing glass in Ohio with Greg Jones.
(approx. 1980’s)
Kenny in his glass workshop in Avoca, NE
(approx. 2003)
Karen and Kenny in Seville, Spain.
2018