The one-of-a-kind Teva Championship trophy was created by 29 year old Carrie Battista. Carrie got her bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2006. It only took one class for her to realize that this is where her heart was. “It is just so exciting and satisfying” said Carrie. She also explained that, “glass blowing is something you work on and can’t touch it till it is finished, which is what makes it so exciting.” She currently works for Neusole Glass Works, the only nonprofit public glass studio in Cincinnati.

Carrie likes to make narratives with her pieces and to deal with imagery. “I wanted to create something that tells a story with golf,” Carrie explained. The colors were carefully selected and served a purpose. “The green in the trophy symbolizes grass, the blue symbolizes water and the sky and the balls symbolized the golf balls going down the hill,” said Carrie when explaining her color selection and the story behind her artwork.

Carrie admitted to facing some challenges when creating her one-of-a-kind artwork. “It made me go out of my comfort level,” said Carrie. After making the original trophy and displaying it for all to see, she received nothing but positive feedback. The only problem was they wanted her to make the same piece three times larger. Carrie had to push herself to think bigger. In the end, she was able to create a masterpiece that was much larger than her original. Carrie could not have been more pleased with the outcome and the challenge.