Transparency is seductive. It's why we prefer diamonds to coal, windows to walls. I think that's why a lot of glass artists go miles to avoid it. It takes a very strong artistic voice to speak louder than transparent glass.
When embarking on a career as an artist, it's important to have a well-traveled kiln. And so Oliver Wendell, my new kiln, appears to be taking the long way home.
OK, really not going to get too awfully philosophical here but over the weekend a realization was slammed home that should have been obvious and somehow was not: Once you get art into your head, one way or another, it's gotta come out. ;-) ....
I suffer from studio envy. Visited Chuck Franklin's 13,000-square-foot studio in glassland last night and immediately added it to my studio envy list. I think that makes six glassland studios that I'd like to live in some day: Doug Randall's new studio-slash-home that is as beautiful as it is functional Bullseye Glass' R&D center (especially the great big honking kilns [...]
I’m back in Castuary (my term for that anxious period when the mold is in the kiln and you’re waiting to find out if you’ve just made heaven or hell in glass). As usual, it’s sending me into all kinds of odd musings. For example, I’ve run across two different perception phenomena during this Castuary. First is what’s called the [...]
Spent hours at GAS (the Glass Art Society conference) last month asking glass artists how they create–not the technical part so much as the inspiration and content part–and was kind of surprised at what came out of my very unscientific survey. Most appeared rather surprised by the question, clearly hadn’t considered WHY they do what they do, and had a lot of [...]
Serves 12... if you can find the plates Blow the dust off your old recipe box and pull out that superb three-years-in-development recipe for your award-winning Triple-Chocoholic cake. No recipe. Recall the time you were late for the hotshop, needed a couple of index cards to line up colored powder on the marver like cocaine on a mirror, and the [...]
Hmmmm. I think the glass me looks a lot less harried. Whenever this blog stops being about glass for awhile, one or two people will drop me a line about it. Gee, it’s nice that you folks notice. (Thanks!) This morning, for example, I received a gentle prod about the lack of glassist posts. “Loved the thing about the self-portrait, but what [...]
It's been a swamped (and sometimes harrowing) last few weeks, lots to do, lots to think about. In the midst of everything, I had the great good fortune to be asked for casting advice by a well-known sculptor. This lady works--beautifully and very successfully--in ceramics. Now, though, at least part of her current project must be cast in amber-colored crystal [...]
Kilnful of molds came out of the kiln yesterday morning and I’m a happy camper who can check off one more promise to herself: I’m getting serious about this glass stuff. Part of being serious is, I guess, learning when it’s OK to compromise and when it’s not. SHOUT (detail above) also came out of the kiln but only 85% [...]
