Cory was born in the Central Valley in 1984, and was born into a family of accomplished artists and was lucky to be raised in an environment surrounded by art. No skill was under appreciated or under encouraged. In 2005, he was lucky enough to find his true passion as an elective, Blown Glass while he did his primary schooling at California State University of Fresno, earning a degree in Business Marketing.

Since the first time holding a blow pipe and gathering a small bit of glass, Cory knew he had found his calling.

In 2009 he was hired by Bob Kliss at Kliszewski Glass as an assistant glass blower; it was there he embarked on his professional glass blowing career. Cory worked diligently to improve his skills and build his own glass studio.

In 2013, Cory attended Pilchuck Glass School and took a career changing course, 3M taught by Dick Marquis, Nick Mount, and Dante Marioni.

This class was so inspirational and launched many new thoughts and ideas.

In 2017, Cory attended a workshop by Karen Willenbrink-Johnson in Auburn, CA at Nicholson Blown glass. This class focused on sculpting hot glass and opened many new idea’s for Cory.

Cory was honored to receive the 33rd Annual Horizon Award for Artist of the year in 2018 by the Fresno Arts Council.

On his birthday, May 4th, 2014, Cory opened Ballis Glass Studio. It started on his back patio, and he called it “Studio 4131”. Some of Cory’s first thoughts at this studio were “How did we do so much in such a tiny space? In the end, we willed it to happen and made it work.” The following January 1st Cory moved Ballis Glass to a community workspace called Fresno Ideaworks in downtown Fresno for 2 1⁄2 years. This was eventually outgrown and in June of 2017, Cory and Ryan opened Ballis Boys Studio. Located just east of the FAT airport. This was a collaborative studio between two brothers, where one melts glass and the other melts metal. Since then, the brothers have outgrown the shared studio and Ballis Glass moved to a new 5,000 sq foot studio in 2021. It is a place where any idea can be come to life.

Cory travels through the Western United States selling artwork at various Galleries and Fine Art shows; most recently focusing on his Functional Drinkware and other limited production pieces. It has been a wonderful and terrifying journey making a living as an artist, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything.