Thank you Stephanie, I have been so busy exploring and discovering, that I have neglected to write, which I have so enjoyed! So thank you for your subtle reminder to share. And share I will. I could have no idea, the day the “Dear Artist” email came across my desk, inviting artists to participate in this project, that it would result in an enormous breakthrough in my work, represent my first real attempt in the 10 years I’ve been doing glass art to truly explore the material further and to conceive of and manipulate it in ways I hadn’t before. To take risks, to find new processes and to conceive of a bigger, more profound meaning to the work and it’s exhibition. I have never had the opportunity to create an installation. I am launching into unknown territory. Maybe perhaps like our physicist counterparts looking towards the sky, finding ways to perceive what we are looking at through the lens of the telescope.
Many meetings and conversations with my young astrophysicist Alex over my glass table, over his computer, resulted in him showing me some images of light he is using to uncover the mysteries of Dark Matter in the Universe. First I had to wrap my head around the idea of the broadness of the light spectrum. While I have always loved using every single “color” of the “spectrum”, I have only recently realized how little I’ve had to work with. My “spectrum” turns out to be only a sliver of what exists, and is particularly only what we can see. But oh there is so much more. Gamma rays, cosmic rays, infrared, ultraviolet, microwaves, radio waves— let’s put it this way— it’s all a lot more than I’d ever really understood. So as Alex has been sending me images, I’ve been starting to understand what I am seeing.
The first image he showed me that really resonated was this one. And since then, I’ve seen it several times through other channels. It represents mass converting to light energy.
While I was being enchanted by this idea, I was in my doctor’s office browsing in a book about Andy Goldsworthy’s art. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy). Please look him up if you aren’t familiar with him— his work is amazing and is also about perceiving the natural world around us. There are a few pieces that he has done that particularly inspired me. Here are a few of them.
The next few weeks produced a few different explorations in glass. Using glass stringers, which are thin strands of colored glass, I first had to bend some of them to show the frenetic energy I was looking for. In the beginning I used a candle which believe it our not IS surprisingly hot enough to soften a thin strand of glass. Eventually this altogether too slow process prompted me to look for a faster solution. Below is a photo of the torch I used to bend the stringer.
My first piece started with a black backing:
Realizing that while the black backing represented the blackness of space, it didn't quite address the physical idea of space. In my next exploration I decided to get rid of the backing, and work directly on the kiln shelf. I had never done this before. I picked the largest kiln shelf I had and started layering the stringer, gluing all the pieces together by dripping it on the whole pile, and eventually sprinkled frit, (ground up glass) between the stringers to hold the whole thing together (since there was no backing).
From left to right, before firing in the kiln, after firing, and then the final product. I wasn't pleased with the "squareness" of the piece, and how delicate and sharp the edges were. So I brought it to my saw, and turned it into a round form. AND it just happened to fit in this lovely steel stand!
That was all just fine, and I loved how the piece came out, but it was too small to make a substantial statement. While also being limited by the size of my kiln, I realized that i would have to buy a shelf that utilized as much of the available space in the kiln I could get. Subsequently I bought a 21" round shelf that would give me a bigger dimension.
After reading Ann May Baldwin's blog article about working backwards, I realize that I have been doing a version of this. I was experiencing not being able to do what I wanted without doing another thing first. So began my purchasing of new equipment, and other supplies necessary to completing my ideas.
Then it happened. I used up nearly all the stringer in my studio and went on to use every last piece of this type of glass in my next piece. This one was much bigger, and round from the get go. While the edges are still sharp and thin, I kind of like the little extensions hanging off the edges, and took some care in grinding the sharper pieces off and leaving some of the more delicate extensions on the disc.
Added the frit.... (ground glass) to bind the stringers together. In the first piece I used mostly clear frit. In this one, mostly yellow and gold transparent frit. The stringers are opaque and so the contrast makes the stringer look like they are floating in space.
Now that I have a prototype, my idea is to create 7 discs in a variety of hues, which will hang from the rafters by steel cables, and rather than illuminating them from behind, illuminate the from the front, in hopes to cast a colored shadow on the wall behind them. There are many steps and experiments yet to come in order to complete my conception. And there is an extraordinary amount of bending stringers in my future. So, if anyone is interested in participating in a stringer-bending party, let me know!
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