My dad and I, we'd get in on a boat and his little boat on a Charleston battery right
across from the houses and start taking pictures. Dad's driving a boat and I'm sitting there
taking pictures, staying up hoping I'm not gonna fall into water. My full name is Alexander
Moore Melphie Jr. I'm an artist, a sculpture, glass, a sand carp glass. Kind of decided
when I was down in Miami, I was getting ready to come home. They sent me to a tempering
plant to pick up a piece of tempered glass. So I get there to the tempering plant, I drove
the truck up and I looked down and decided this truck and there was a piece of artwork
on this truck and I'm going, oh man, what is that? That is cool. That's what I want to
do the rest of my life. I went inside and I said, what's that called inside of that
glass? That is called sand carp glass. I said, who did that? And they said, well, I don't
know who did that piece, but that's what it was called. So is anyone here know anyone
who knows how to do sand carp glass? And one of my friends there, he said, yeah, one of
my best buddies do it. I said, do you think he'll teach me? And he says, yeah, get in
the truck, let's go. And I went to his shop and once I got to his shop, I said, would
you teach me how to sand carp glass? And the guy goes, no. And I go, oh man, why not?
Because I don't want the competition. I said, well, I'm getting ready. I threw my hands
up and I said, going back to South Carolina, I promise you I'll never be your competition.
He says, you promise? And I said, yes, sir. And he goes, you got to promise me one more
thing. And I said, what's that? And he says that you'll never teach anybody else. And
I said, I stuck my hand out and I said, man, you got a deal right there. Been teaching
myself every sense and just taking me a while to do what I wanted to do. But I'm where I
want to be, I guess. My whole world is the art world now. And it's it's going pretty
good. It's going all right, you know, so. A piece of my art, it's done in glass just
like you would do something in stone. It's there forever. I've done sketches 20 foot
long, five foot tall. Some of the pieces could weigh up to 400 pounds. I can't move it all
by myself. But in my age, I'm trying to stay in shape. So I have me some monkey bars up
here with a ladder stretch across there. I got me a piece of pipe sitting up here where
I do chin ups on. I got a sledge hammer with a couple pieces of rubber that I beat when
I want to work on my shoulders. And I have a piece of pipe down here with two lead weights
on the edge of them that was homemade to where I I feel like a little rocky, you know, trying
to do my thing and stay in shape, you know, because I want to be able to do this for a
long time. And the only way to do it is as to stay in shape. You got to have a mellow
mind when you're in here working. And you got to have a clear mind. If you're not, if
you don't have the clear mind, and you're thinking about something else that you just
will not be able to do the quality of work you need to do. By the time I do all of my
research and take all of my pictures, I know what I need to do. I can shut my eyes and
I actually can see the picture that I want. And just and then I can then I can bring it
out of the glass. And when it's completed, my piece of art is completed. It's exactly
as I envisioned. It is not taking a picture of my glass and and showing it to everybody.
I feel like I need to be taking the picture of the person's face when they first come
in and see this piece of art, because they're so overwhelmed. And I've had people come in
here with tears in their eyes and and not be able to even speak. I can't pinpoint it
to one thing. It's just every day when I get finished with a piece of art, it's just and
it comes out. It's hard. It's really very hard to explain what the best thing is about
this, except that I have my own business. It's my own art world. I create something
that a lot of people can't do on this planet. And I try to do it the best I can. So I I
think that that's a very hard question to answer, because I really, really, really enjoy
doing everything I do when I'm here in my studio. It's just all overwhelming that that
I don't know. It's just hard to explain that one to me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I guess the
best thing is is that God gave me the gift to be able to do this and and be able to do
it well and keep it going. That's about the best thing I can say.
