so i guess my question is what does the glass give you that metal would not? your work does not appear to be transparent. consider at least trying a different medium becaues in this market flexibility is better.

–jim

But your point is also dangerously close to what my latest advisor did in fact suggest, that I could quietly continue to do the glass stuff on the sly but primarily work in bronze for the next few years and establish a presence as a real sculptor (hmmmm…somehow I don’t think it’s all that simple). Then, when people understand that I can do good art, they’ll accept the fact that I sometimes do it in glass.

–sigh–

Interesting discussion…

You’d think that thirty years of postmodernism would’ve moved us on from the facile and totally fabricated status division between fine art and craft…

…but no. It’s still the boring reality that fine artists who sometimes (and often, gasp! – more than once!) work with glass are never labelled ‘glass artists’. No. They’re FINE, don’t you know, and as such to be taken SERIOUSLY as artistes of a higher realm.

Does a painter even have to answer the ‘why do you use paint all the time’ question? I’ve never heard a painter saying (either apologetically or defensively) that ‘no other medium expresses my voice as well as paint’.

Somehow we need to rise above this ridiculous and limiting art world snobbery. It’s not in the spirit of artistic creativity, and it exposes those who continue to hold these views as unquestioning followers of outmoded thought.

Maybe the next thirty years will teach us all to be proud of our creative work and to shun such divisive rubbish. Here’s hoping…

You are correct in that I wish my work to be viewed first as art and only then as glass, and that this can be difficult to accomplish when modern galleries prefer more traditional media. I may have an easier time of it here in London than fusers across the pond, particularly as I blow and cast my glass instead of fusing it. Yet I will never allow my work to be labeled generically as “art.” It must be “glass art,” even if that prevents me from showing in certain galleries (as it has).

I do understand your frustration, however. If the image sequence on your front page shows your latest work, I both congratulate and commiserate.

Margaret, I feel for you; my favorite professor in college was an art professor who was very well-known for her quilts and hand-painted fabrics, which were both striking and thought-provoking. At one point she told me that going into fibre was probably the most courageous thing she’d done in her entire life, “because I knew I’d be watching my friends who painted and sculpted get all the recognition while I just sat there doing what I loved best.” What a horrible and wonderful way to spend your life, I suppose.

If I made the same thing in clay it would be art but because its wool its like I’m third class or maybe fifth. and dont’ even talk about the difference in price. Ihave an MFA and my professor told me that I should reconsider my medium.Guess I’m too stubborn to change tho.

margaret

I never thought of it the way you put it, but you are right. As ‘glass artists’ we shouldn’t limit our creativity to the medium we use.

Point taken and very well put!
Kathleen