Slate Grove was born and raised in Fort Dodge, Iowa. At an early age he developed a passion for art, which he attributes to his older brother teaching him how to draw. While attending high school, Slate received his first tattoo at the age of 18. So enthralled by the experience of such a permanent art form, he convinced his parents to let him serve a formal apprenticeship under the artist that had given him his first tattoo. While continuing to attend a local community college, Slate worked his way to the top of the ladder in his hometown tattoo studio. After managing the studio for 4 years, he decided it was time to move out of his hometown, and applied to the Cleveland Institute of Art.

In 2001, Slate made the move from a community college and tattoo studio in small town Iowa to one of the top art schools in the country, complete with a job in a Cleveland area tattoo studio. The fall of 2002 offered Slate an opportunity that would prove to be a turning point in his artistic career, his first exposure to glass. Almost instantaneously the medium began to consume his artistic endeavors. Shortly after, he would leave the tattoo studio and work exclusively with glass.

“If I had to pick my single largest accomplishment with glass, it would have to be when I was afforded the opportunity to present Itzhak Perlman with a glass violin. The chance to stand on a stage like Severance Hall and present a piece of my work to a music icon of his stature still astounds me.”

Slate currently lives in New York and works as artist, assistant and teacher at Brooklyn's Urban Glass. Teaching and working with glass has also taken him to Massachusetts, Maine, North Carolina and Florida. He has exhibited his work in New York, Ohio and Kentucky.