Nate Sheaffer

In the fall of 1986, Nate Sheaffer founded Neon Impressions, Inc. for the purposes of manufacturing sculpture and neon tubing.  Humble beginnings in a small space at the rear of Mariakakis Greek restaurant in Chapel Hill led to expansion and renovation of additional space, followed by renovation of an even larger building in downtown Pittsboro and ultimately, purchase and renovation of the old Bells School on Jordan Lake.

Pursuit of an illuminated aesthetic combining elements of Stephen Antonakas’ indirect lighting and the complex spatial relationships of Robert Howard kept Nate juggling a busy sign production schedule with free form, abstract glass work.  Early work, while studying under Howard, married found object steel and aluminum cast offs with simple glass tubing acting in utilitarian lighting capacity until exposure to another professor, Jerry Noe, led to incorporating curvilinear representational neon juxtaposed with hearty elements of concrete and heavy steel.

Under the tutelage of glassblowing mentor and talented artist, John Wilhelm, Nate’s glass blowing skills increased as the limits of the medium of machine drawn tubing were pushed – quite literally – to their breaking points and experimentation with other techniques of gathering and wall thickening developed, allowing more organic adaptations of an otherwise linear material.  Coils, ending in light-diffuse spheroid shapes, abruptly transitioning into angular small diameter shafts dominated small, abstract studies, sold through the shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to business owners which eventually led to commissions for larger, wall-mounted pieces and architectural lighting assemblies.

The neon production side of the company grew rapidly during the first five years of the business, ultimately crowding out creative work with the exception of a handful of commissioned works per year.  Renovation of the Bells School property and additional production work for beverage and tobacco clients eventually limited abstract work to one or two pieces per year.  Like so many other artists using a traditionally commercial medium, creative work suffered under the burden of growth and need for survival.