SONO LINO: A Film Review
by Karen Pecota

Jacob Patrick | United States | 2024

Filmmaker Jacob Patrick presents a beautiful love letter to the revered glassblowing artist Lino Tagliapietra born on Murano, the island of glassblowers, near Venice, Italy in 1934.

When Lino was ten or eleven years old he dropped out of school and worked in the factories for roughly ten years. He was enamored with the craft of glassblowing and working with all the tools, the ovens, the atmosphere while learning all that the artists who mentored him had to offer. As a young artisan, his brain never stopped working to create yet another masterpiece. To this day, his creativity continues in his head. His expertise and artistry in glassblowing is known worldwide. He has taught and mentored many all over the world including many students in the United States.

Patrick captures a remarkable phase in Lino’s life as a skilled teacher, mentor, and craftsman while working with a team of Seattle glassblowing entrepreneurs in SONO LINO. Seattle’s own famous glassblowing craftsman, Dale Chihuly and his students are among Lino’s most favorite people to encounter and share the fired-up ovens for glassblowing. In a remarkable event honoring Lino his special team of Seattle glass blowers give, to a live audience, a beautiful expression of what one can design from simply blowing glass, using colors, and heating with fire when one has a passion to create.

Patrick showcases Lino’s delightful personality, an artist who is still as serious about his craft as never before. He desires to never stop working, but as all good things must come to an end, only Lino’s strength and mobility will determine how he defines his end; but at ninety years of age, he’s not ready to abandon his craft.