Kirstie Rea’s “What Do We Make of Glass?” class

Just finished taking this class from Australian glass artist Kirstie Rea, had some very interesting exercises that made me think. Wasn’t really taking it for the coldworking opportunities–which were legion–but greatly enjoyed the opportunity to share space with some good glass artists. We group-dined at a marvelous but expensive Italian restaurant on the SE side of Portland, Nostrana’s, where I had one of the better capreses I’ve had in awhile.

Most interesting exercise was Kirstie’s version of the gossip game (you know, the one where the first guy whispers something into the second guy’s ear, he whispers what he heard into the third guy’s ear…and by the time everyone in the room has had a go it’s radically different from what was actually said…).

Kirstie asked us to write an artist’s statement–4-5 lines–about a piece we’d like to make and what we wanted it to say. Then she swapped our statements, anonymously, and asked the new owners to read the statement and quickly sketch what it should look like. Then she swapped again, giving the drawing to a third artist, and asked them to make up the drawing quickly, in no more than 3 layers of glass.

I’m not sure if this was supposed to point out how badly we communicate in an artist statement, or that people have different ideas about the same thing, but I found it fascinating to follow the trail from originator to twice-removed.

Here’s mine:
“In her garden, Nature danced a fine twilight line between life as God made it and life…with a few necessary improvements. She’d always felt that if God hadn’t been rushing to create the whole bloody world by Sunday he’d have rethought the plant kingdom thing and seen the incredible opportunities afforded by leaves and roots and fruits. In the world, they were mute feeding stations awaiting winter’s decay. But in her garden they were…organized.”

It’s based on a series I’ve been building casting molds for since late summer, combining plant parts into non-functional vessels. Here’s a photo of the model that I sketched, called hostagoblet for obvious reasons:

This is what the next artist in the chain drew. She picked up on the word “organized” and took it from there.

Now, I meant organized as in unions, as in people (or other living things) who band together to start making decisions on their own, without the straightjackets of management. Organized.

Sharon took it to mean organized as in orderly, as in neatly regimenting everything into its own little cubbyhole, tabbed with the appropriate description, and bundled out of mind in a manila folder somewhere.

Bob, the third link, didn’t see my drawing, so he took his cue from Sharon’s, as instructed. He engraved her drawing into a sheet of white glass.

Bob didn’t have time to finish it, but I may just for the heckuvit. I’ll probably rub spring green powder into the grooves and tack-fuse it just to see how it comes out.

But it was interesting to see how different everyone’s perceptions were, and the variety of PoVs and how they were all pretty successful.

All in all, a good class, with one or two artists I’d like to someday collaborate with on work.

BTW, Kirstie’s Australian TA in the class, Cobi Cockburn, is a lovely artist in her own right and one that’ll be worth watching over the next few years. She’s already won the Ranamok prize for glass artists in New Zealand and Australia, and her work appears to be selling pretty quickly. You can see it at the GlassArt4U gallery in Scottsdale, AZ.

PS…On the hostagoblet:
The photo above is the original, which obviously has a limited lifespan. I coat the constructs with several layers of liquid latex, let them dry, and then cast supporting plaster molds to hold the latex skin. From there, I can use 2-part resin to build a permanent model, one that can be used to build the final molds that will shape the hot glass in the kiln.

Haven’t done the resin cast with the hostagoblet yet, but here’s what they look like, using an earlier piece in the series, hostabowl.

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