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Photos provided by Sarah Beth Wheeler<br />
Finding work that you are passionate<br />
about and is also rewarding is<br />
precisely what Laura Bronson has<br />
done. Through what, looking back, seems<br />
like a twist of fate, Laura fell in love with the<br />
art of stained glass. After exhausting every<br />
art class that her high school in San Diego<br />
provided, the teacher allowed Laura to pick<br />
any other art form she desired to study for<br />
class credit. There was this stained-glass art<br />
shop she would often pass cruising around<br />
town and kept feeling drawn to. Maybe it<br />
was her love of shiny, pretty things. Perhaps<br />
it was fate, but Laura chose stained glass art<br />
to study. She knew she wanted to do this for<br />
the rest of her life.<br />
Laura was born in Houston, Texas, but<br />
moved with her family in third grade to<br />
Pasadena, Calif., for her dad to attend graduate<br />
school at Cal Tech. They later relocated<br />
to San Diego, where Laura would complete<br />
high school and find her passion for stained<br />
glass art. After high school, wanderlust<br />
took control of Laura, and she traveled<br />
across the globe, experiencing life to its<br />
fullest and learning things you cannot find<br />
in a classroom.<br />
Laura ended up settling in Hope, British<br />
Columbia, where she gave birth to her<br />
son, Brent and spent several years until<br />
the untimely death of her son's father,<br />
who passed when her son was only three<br />
years old. They relocated for some time<br />
to Toronto to be closer to her son's family.<br />
Since Laura had yet to establish her residency<br />
in Canada, they relocated again to<br />
Michigan, where her father lived. Now a<br />
single mother, she realized she had to get<br />
serious about her education. She started<br />
her journey at a local community college,<br />
Kalamazoo Valley, in Michigan, which<br />
allowed her to know it was time to pursue<br />
an advanced degree.<br />
Throughout all her previous years of<br />
travel, she fell in love with Tennessee and<br />
chose to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts<br />
(Drawing) at the University of Tennessee<br />
in Knoxville. She and her son relocated,<br />
and through hard work, determination,<br />
and the help of many babysitters, Laura<br />
graduated in 2000. In another twist of fate,<br />
a harpist/musician friend of Laura's was<br />
playing at a grand opening of a commercial<br />
glass studio just outside Knoxville, in<br />
Blaine, Tennessee. The friend suggested<br />
that Laura go there and tell them she was<br />
looking for a job. She did just that: landing<br />
a job at Goodson Design Studio and starting<br />
a five-year-old-fashioned apprenticeship.<br />
Her teacher, David Goodson, trained at the<br />
world-famous Judson Studios for many<br />
years. Judson Studios is the oldest familyrun,<br />
stained glass company in the United<br />
States, established in 1897 in Pasadena,<br />
Calif. Laura found herself in a full-circle<br />
moment. The paths where her love for<br />
stained glass art began were intersecting<br />
with the beginnings of her new career and<br />
destiny.<br />
After some time at Goodson Design<br />
Studio, the owners closed their operations<br />
following their divorce. Laura took a leap of<br />
EAST ALABAMA LIVING 69
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