of art at the College of Idaho. During this time he also lectured and presented workshops at California State University at Chico and the University of California campuses at Davis and San Luis Obispo. He taught at Kent State University in Ohio in the summer. In 1981 he was hired by the Rochester Institute of Technology to head its glass program, a position that he held for 19 years. In 1988 he took time out to teach at the Tokyo Glass Art Institute in Japan, and in 1991–1994 he served with the United States Department of Information Services as a specialist to the glass community in Monterrey, Mexico. In 1998 he lectured in Seoul, Korea at Namseoul University. In 2000 he retired from Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2005 he was awarded a professorship at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Facauldade de Ciências e Tecnologia in Lisbon, Portugal. Glass artists who studied under Michael Taylor include Jiyong Lee, Jonathan Schmuck, and Sam Stark. Early work Taylor began his career as an artist in ceramics. His earliest series, "Analytical Perspectives" of 1965–66, focused on the vessel format. In the "Libidinous Manifest" series of 1969 Taylor sculpted organic ceramic forms that he placed open-end down on wood pedestals to proclaim their alliance with sculpture. In contradiction to the sensual knobs and bulges of his forms, Taylor painted the sculptures with shiny enamel in eye-popping colors. The addition of hard-edged geometric shapes and stripes painted on the forms further challenged the biomorphic forms while the addition of rayon flocking and in, one case ("Libidinous Manifest #10"),a clinging web of red crocheted yarn placed the works firmly in the era of psychedelic imagery. Also in 1969, Taylor took his first foray into glassblowing. Early works included the "Glass Fabrication" series, in which Taylor combine blown glass forms with grommets, plate glass and automotive products, such as motor oil and anti-freeze. A trip to Scandinavia in 1974 gave Taylor the opportunity to work at the Johansfors Glasbruk in the province of Småland, Sweden where he developed his "Johansfors" series. There he created sculptures by cutting and assembling clear glass forms manufactured by the factory. Upon his return to his Nashville, Tennessee studio Taylor continued his exploration of cut and assembled clear glass forms in his 1975–76 "N-Sequence" series. The artist found that the soda-lime glass that he used to make the forms for this series had