meet the team > Troy Moody

More than 15 years ago, Troy Moody set out on a hitchhiking expedition around the western United States that would eventually take him across most of Europe and forever alter his life path. His purpose was adventure, discovery and inspiration. He never envisioned that his international globetrotting would lead him to a career as a stained glass artist – and eventually bring him to Arizona where his work adorns some of the most significant structures in the state.

Troy grew up in what he calls an “art-friendly” home. Some of his earliest memories are of pencils and paper and his mother’s watercolors. He didn’t descend from a long line of artists, nor does he have vivid memories of Sundays lost in the daydreams of colorful chapel windows. As he explains, the faith he was raised was not focused on the intricacies of architecture or its ornaments. He acquired his passion for stained glass elsewhere.

“While backpacking through Europe, I was introduced to the abstract of stained glass of the post war Germans by an architecture student and fellow traveler,” said Troy. “I can actually remember feeling consciously awestruck, not only by the bold fields of color and the unorthodox and expressive line work, but by the revelation of the enormous realm of possibilities presented by art glass.”

He realized that glass was something he desperately wanted to work with. Shortly after returning to the states, he talked his way into a job at an architectural glass studio in Tempe. His wanderlust and creative curiosity took him to work at other glass studios in Arizona and then to New England. Along the way, he studied art glass design and technique with renowned masters in the field.

The majority of Troy’s work tends to lean toward custom stained/leaded glass for affluent residences in and around Maricopa County, though he has been producing more autonomous gallery work in recent years. He has completed numerous art glass installations for religious, commercial and private spaces in Arizona, California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and South Dakota.

After a decade of working with art glass, Troy delved into the realm of public art in 2006 when he was selected for his design of 10,000 square feet of Terrazzo flooring for the new Phoenix Convention Center. Terrazzo is a flooring material made of small fragments of colored stone, marble scraps or glass that are embedded in an epoxy matrix and polished to a high glaze.
Troy admits he wasn’t familiar with terrazzo prior to his work on the convention center. He was struck by the similarities between it and stained glass and found both crafts had a long and noble history and share a basic design concept; divide various fields of color with metal strips.
Troy was a quick study and his ingenuousness to the new media resulted in an Honor Award for his first public art installation from the National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association. In April, Troy was commissioned to design approximately 75,000 square feet of terrazzo for the new Maricopa County Court Tower.

“I could never have predicted the opportunity to design on the Court Tower. The enormity of the project in both scale and significance is beyond exciting, I am sincerely honored to be a part of it,” said Troy.

The inspiration and catalyst for Troy’s design for the Court Tower is the land itself. Visually, he wanted to convey a stylized patchwork landscape with organized lines of agriculture and urban spaces playing against the more organic lines of rivers, washes and mountain ranges.

“I indulge myself with whatever catches my attention and I thoroughly enjoy collaborating with other craftsmen proficient in their chosen medium,” said Troy. “I am still learning. My curiosity is boundless and every project offers fresh challenges and opportunities for growth.”

Troy also finds inspiration through his travels and the various landscapes, people and cultures to places like Canada, India, Nepal, Thailand and through the U.S.  This might explain why Troy doesn’t dream in color or black and white. It’s more like Technicolor.

Currently, Troy works out of his home studio in old town Tempe. You can view his Web site at www.troymoody.com.