Michael (Estes) Taylor was born in 1944, in Lewisburg, Tennessee and began to draw at age 12. At age 18 he entered Middle Tennessee University in Murfreesboro where he was awarded a B.S. in art education. He entered graduate school in 1967 at East Tennessee University in Johnson City, where he received a summer scholarship to Penland School of Crafts. Taylor graduated from East Tennessee University in 1969 with an M.A. in sculpture and ceramics and began to work with glass. Michael Taylor traveled in Scandinavia and Central Europe during the mid-1970s and worked in several glass factories. The isolation and limited technology of these factories created a sense of introspection in his work, and he was especially inspired by the camaraderie of Polish factory workers whose families had been doing the same job for generations. Michael Taylor is an American studio glass artist, teacher and lecturer. His best known body of work is his geometric glass sculptures. He works the glass cold, shaping, polishing and laminating translucent colored and clear blocks of glass together using epoxy resin.