When I met Rex soon in late 1976, soon after I'd finished the active duty part of my USNR obligation, I was introduced to him by someone who'd been in the U.S. Army "brig" at Ft. Huachucha, Az, with Rex. Both of them were doing time for being Army draftees and deserters who refused to serve in Vietnam.

Rex was being trained to be a medic, and was stationed in a stateside hospital where the incoming wounded were treated. Amputees and other horribly maimed young men, many not even old enough old enough to vote. Rex told me that he learned the lesson there to be learned, though it wasn't the lesson the Army intended to teach him. He split. Though the definitely paid a price later in life in terms of forfeited opportunities for having been an Army deserter who finally received a "less than honorable" discharge, I never once heard Rex express regret about having refused to be an Army medic.

He told a story about that time. He was in company formation in a US Army Medic Training Company when his commanding officer, who'd received a telegram with personal news for Rex, appeared at the morning inspection and asked "Is there a Cravat in this company?". Obediently, as they had been taught to do when they personally had an answer to a general question, 79 Army Medic trainees stepped forward one step as they dug in their packs for a standard-issue three-cornered bandage as Rex stepped forward, the 80th guy in the company, in response to the question addressed to his surname.

When we met, he had a workshop set up inside some other business in Traildust Town on E. Tanque Verde Rd. in Tucson, Az. It was in a batten-sided building on the west side of the "town".

Below: "Eagle", glass sculpture by Rex Cravat, circa 2000.

Over the years, as Rex used these same subjects as part of his artistic vocabulary, he unceasingly experimented with the form, finish and presentation of his work. He was always seeking to refine his work, and to find a better way to display it.

In the scene at left he used pegs on the tail of the eagle and the front feet of the rabbit fit into holes drilled into a gnarled piece of mesquite roots to mount the glass pieces and create a mixed-media piece.

Of all his subjects, I think these sentimental & decorative pieces were his most reliable sellers over the years, the sort of thing someone would buy for their sweetie.

The piece of flameworked glass at left was sandblasted, then fumed with gold on the leaves of the rose bush and the wings of the bird. The rose petals are of colored glass.

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Above: "Horse Head", and views of three Hippocampus glass sculptures by Rex Cravat, circa 2000. The half-horse, half-fish hippocampus is a creature from Greek mythology.

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Another of Rex's favorite subjects was horses. Somewhere I have a photo of his scene of two running horses from about 1978 that became a permanent part of his portfolio as soon as I gave him a copy. Over the years, he also made many horse heads which looked like a Knight chess piece, many scenes with running or rearing horses, and many Pegasus (the winged horse from Greek mythology) scenes as well as Hippocampus scenes.

"Sentinel" and "Bound Together" are among Rex's latest & greatest works, ones which he intended to be his masterpieces. Both pieces use colored glass, frosted glass and fumed glass in a stunning display of his mature artistic vision and his technical virtuosity in creating the work.

"When gold boils and vaporizes, instead of steam coming off, it's molecules of gold in the flame," he explains. He demonstrates holding the rod with the gold close to the mouth of the torch and the piece to be fumed farther down the flame.

Using that technique, he created "Bound Together," an elegant green and gold woodland scene complete with two graceful bounding deer. The sculpture was commissioned for placement on top of a wedding cake replacing the quintessential bride and groom figures.

--From "Glass sculptor's works reflect a full-blown talent", The Times, Trenton, NJ, 09/14/2001, an article by Janet Purcell.