ABJ Seattle Glass Online

Pilchuck Auction 2010

2010-10-31T16:29:00.001-07:00

Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online 2010

I went to preview the annual Pilchuck auction at the Westin a few weeks ago. The lighting was really dim, and I took poorly framed pictures with my phone. But I like the retro way Paul Marioni's clear piece turned out against the background of the pea soup sateen hotel curtains.

Patti Payne October 2010:

"...I was emcee and could feel this certain can-do spirit in the room. It felt like a World Series atmosphere when honorary chairs Eve and Chap Alvord asked people to bid high, and cheers went up for them and co-chairs Linda Bonica and Dante Marioni. No peanuts or Cracker Jacks, but the sound of enthusiasm was there all night, as artists around the room cheered and rattled noisemakers to urge bidders on.

One sculpted, blown-glass piece entitled Tinder, by artist Shelley Muzylowski-Allen, was the subject of a bidding war between two very determined parties. Valued at $6,500, it went, amidst wild cheers, for $22,000 to Sue Hauberg. A white seaform Dale Chihuly set went for $35,000 to high bidders Pamela Merriman and Sonya Ross...Then skilled auctioneer Kip Toner, who has auctioned for almost four decades and has been at the helm of this Pilchuck auction forever, called 10-year-old, San Francisco glass artist Theoren Hanks to the stage. Hanks, holding a crimson bowl he created, was picked up by Toner and placed on an art pedestal in the middle of the stage, a symbol of Pilchuck’s future, while Toner brought in a record amount of more than $250,000 from the paddle-raise. The auctioneer, who says Pilchuck “feels like family” to him, said a heartfelt "thank you" after reading each of hundreds of numbers held high in the air, from levels of $100 all the way up to $50,000, a gift from Jack and Becky Benaroya. By evening’s end, more than $1.2 million had been raised."

Payne, P. "

Pilchuck Glass School auction shines" Puget Sound Business Journal. October 19, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010. http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2010/10/pichuck-glass-school-auction-shines.html

Ginny Ruffner

2010-10-31T16:27:00.000-07:00

Seattle will soon have a new public sculpture by Ginny Ruffner outside of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown. The Seattle Times profiles the artist's recent accomplishments.

Gayle Clemans October 2010:

"...Ruffner is clearly on a high right now. A big public sculpture for the corner of Seventh Avenue and Union Street in downtown Seattle is in the final stages of production. An award-winning documentary, "Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life," is currently being screened at film festivals and arts venues. And a big exhibition of recent work has just opened at the Bellevue Arts Museum...Although friends and supporters say the attention she is receiving is well-deserved, Ruffner is not sure why the sudden flurry.

...The technical complexity of her work is obvious in the exhibition at BAM, where five new works of art have been added to the exhibition originally organized by the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner. There's also a huge sculpture newly installed in BAM's lobby, a graceful aluminum double helix that extends from the ceiling of the grand lobby all the way down to the floor, where it meets a bed of glass flowers.
A self-described "closet geek" who reads science journals for pleasure, Ruffner has been inspired for the last four years by "the recent extraordinary bloom in genetic engineering, particularly plant and animal engineering. That's extremely evocative in terms of what other things could happen, with inter-kingdom, interspecies implications. Does that mean we could share genes with birds?"

The sculptures she has created in this series are hybrids of glass and metal, two and three-dimensions, animal and plant forms, visual and musical references. She considers them "thought experiments," but they are rooted in visual, formal techniques.

...While delighting in the events unfolding at BAM, Ruffner is also overseeing the final production of her public sculpture, "Urban Garden," to be unveiled in early 2011. The Sheraton hotel, sponsor of the project, wanted a water feature. Ruffner wanted to give downtown a garden. The result? A large steel flowerpot with giant flowers that will open and close after being watered by a giant watering can."

Clemans, G. "Ginny Ruffner's art blooms at Bellevue Arts Museum and on film." The Seattle Times. October 22, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2013214662_ruffner24.html?cmpid=2628

The "Clear Benefits" of Glass Recycling

2010-10-31T16:18:00.000-07:00

The Verallia plant in South Seattle makes 1 million wine bottles a day. An $18 million renovation to mechanize the plant included changes to make it more energry efficient. They installed new air compressors with grants from Seattle City Light. Also, the company eCullet, which crushes and sorts glass from Seattle and Canada, moved in next door to the plant making it easier for the bottle maker to use recycled glass.

Jose Chavez October 2010:

"eCullet has hired 26 employees since the facility opened, said plant manager John Davenport. Those new jobs helped offset the job losses at Verallia, which since last year has let go 36 hourly workers, or 9 percent of its employees, as a result of its plant upgrades. Currently, 48 percent of the bottles produced at the plant are made from cullet; the goal is 50 percent by the end of the year. Glass recycling has clear benefits, said Joseph Grewe, CEO of Verallia North America.

"For every bottle that we recycle, the energy saved could light a 60-watt light bulb for four hours ... and for every 6 tons we use, we reduce CO2 emissions by a ton," Grewe said.

The project also improved energy efficiency by installing new air compressors with the help of grants from Seattle City Light. That's expected to save 2.4 million kilowatt hours per year."

Chavez, J. "Seattle maker of wine bottles modernizes, increases use of recycled glass." Seattle Times Newspaper. October 27, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010.

Chrysler Museum of Art will open Studio in 2011

2010-10-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Flickr user Ohdearbarb

CC licensed

Virginia has been added to the glassblower's circuit which now includes the Toledo Art Musuem, the Corning Museum of Glass, and The Museum of Glass in Tacoma. I think glass art is officially revived here, let's hope something very good comes of all the resources being allocated to it.

Chrysler Museum of Art Press Release:

"NORFOLK, Va. – (October 22, 2010) – The Chrysler Museum of Art announced today it will open the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in 2011 to complement the world-class glass collection in the Museum. The addition of the Glass Studio enhances the Museum’s stature as one of the top three museums in the United States with an art glass focus.

Construction has started on creating the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio in the 7,000-square-foot building that sits across the street from the Museum on the corner of Duke and Grace Streets in Norfolk. The project budget is $7.5 million, which includes an endowment for operating expenses, two new full-time jobs and several part-time jobs.

The reality of the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio was sparked from the interest and support base demonstrated during Art of Glass 2. The region’s blockbuster glass exhibition in 2009 featured the Chrysler Museum, Virginia Arts Festival and the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia as major partners, with 21 regional affiliates throughout Hampton Roads.

“We had high hopes for Art of Glass and Art of Glass 2 to position Hampton Roads as the East Coast glass center,” says Andrew Fine, Art of Glass 2 chairman and Chrysler Museum trustee. “The Art of Glass exhibitions exceeded all expectations in terms of visitors who came to see the world-class spectacle. Now, the vision to transform Hampton Roads into a major glass center is becoming a reality with this studio that will complement the Chrysler’s brilliant glass collection.”

“The Glass Studio will allow our visitors to experience glassmaking and be involved in every step of the process,” says Bill Hennessey, the Museum’s director. “We anticipate this will draw people to the region to learn about glass, meet visiting glass artists and tour our collection. We expect this to be a significant educational component for the region—one that will allow us to further strengthen our partnerships with groups such as Tidewater Community College and the Governor’s School for the Arts. With more than a third of our 35,000-object collection devoted to glass, this is clearly a strong suit for the Chrysler. This Glass Studio will bring these works of art to life.”

“The Glass Studio will help our visitors gain a better understanding and appreciation for the wonderful objects in our collection,” says Kelly Conway, curator of glass. “We devote a lot of time explaining the technical processes used to make these artworks. The studio will provide far more capable and lively answers for these technique-based questions from our visitors, and tours will connect the live studio experience with the contextual history explained in the glass galleries.”

“We are using the nation’s foremost designer and fabricator of glass studio equipment,” says Scott Howe, education director and project manager for the studio. “The state-of-the-art facility will be able to accommodate both aspiring and master glass artists with furnaces, annealing ovens and a flameworking table. We will also have an artist-in-residency program that will attract some of the leading artists in contemporary glass. From an educational perspective, this will greatly enhance our programs to engage people with art. During Art of Glass 2, mobile hot-shops gave guests a small glimpse of what glassblowing entails. This Glass Studio will be on a level that is unmatched.”

Construction will continue through 2011, and it is anticipated the Chrysler Museum Glass Studio will open to the public next fall. Visitors will be able to enjoy free glassmaking demonstrations, and the Museum will offer a series of classes and workshops for students and adults. These will include a range of educational programs from beginners to master classes for accomplished professional artists."

Chrysler Museum of Art. Press Release. "Chrysler Museum to open $7.5-million glass studio." October 22, 2010. Accessed October 31, 2010. http://www.chrysler.org/glass-studio.asp

Louisville: Not a Boring Backwater

2010-10-31T15:36:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Flickr user Chad Orlikowski

Creative Commons license

In the Louisville Courier-Journal today, Elizabeth Kramer sums up the recent arts conference activity in the city. Actively recruiting and advertising the Louisville as the place to hold your arts convention has paid off with many groups choosing the city, including the Glass Art Society conference this year. Falling short of the $1 million formerly cited as the money GAS brought to Louisville, it is nonetheless significant, and Seattle should be so lucky in 2011.

Elizabeth Kramer, October 2010:

"This year, the Glass Art Society held its 40th annual conference in Louisville, after the city beat out Santa Fe, N.M. That came about through the efforts of local collector Merrily Orsini and University of Louisville art professor Ché Rhodes, who had served on the group's board of directors. That event brought $807,000 to the city. Moreover, these three conventions involved galleries across the region. They participated by having exhibits, gallery talks and other events, and these brought new people through their doors. Swanson-Reed Gallery co-owner Chuck Swanson recalled some of the first comments he heard from the NCECA conference attendees.

“They were telling me that they almost didn't come to the conference,” he said, “because they thought it would be a boring backwater city. And then they found out it was exactly the opposite: good places to eat, great galleries and fun bars. They were just amazed.”

Swanson says the gallery was packed every day with people who were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about art. And they loved Louisville." "

Kramer, E. "Stregnthen the arts and you get a richer, more vibrant city." Louisville Courier-Journal. October 31, 2010. accessed October 31, 2010. http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20101031/SCENE05/310310020

Collateral Matters @ MOCC

2010-10-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online 2010

                                ABJ Seattle Glass Online October 2010:

The Museum of Contemporary Craft is holding the show by Ai Weiwei called "Dropping the Urn." In it he uses very old Chinese ceramic vessels in different ways: One he pulverizes, another he paints with the Coca Cola logo, another series of photos shows him dropping one and it shattering on the floor.  There are also tromp l'oeil watermelons and sunflower seeds among other ceremic and found objects.

Adjacent to Ai Weiwei and disturbing the quiet of the museum with it's clacking type writer is Collateral Matters, an exhibit of records, photos, and other paper items relating to the crafts movement in Portland, by graphic designer and educator Kate Bingaman-Burt and designer Clifton Burt.
Orange clipboards hung on the wall, one per artist, hold stacks of informal documents, some are typed, some are handwritten. I think the Burts may have had a lot of fun going through the MOCC archives and picking out what to show the public.  Clifton Burt confirms the adventure on the blog BangBack, "But most exiting has been witnessing how organizations’ logos and visual identities evolved through the decades; notable in these archives were MoMA, Cranbrook, local Portland businesses, and of course the Museum of Contemporary Craft’s own identity shifts —including its name." But due to the show's extreme (orange) organization, the fun of the dig was lost on me. The show is best enjoyed with some foreknowledge of the Portland craft scene and a peerless curiosity about the minutiae of that world.

Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online 2010

For some reason fame and fortune transform simple set lists and shopping receipts into covetable objects soaked in the artist's life (see Ebay). Without fame and fortune driving the show here, the papers remind me of what I have lying around my own house with the eccentric hope that I may really need the information one day...

I am the last person who should complain about the esoteric nature of a paper collection. I have several "vaults" of information (including ABJ Seattle Glass Online), okay, slight hoards they are, surrounding themes of glass art and found in the street humor. Collateral Matters proved to me that dusty newspaper clippings and flyers for art shows can have a greater meaning and can be enjoyed by a wide range of people, but not on their own. For example, next door at Dropping the Urn the ancient Chinese pottery was updated. In one case by being "forged" and counterfeited. In another by being re-colored. Or smashed to bits. (It's the same reason Margaret Killagen's work appeals to me. If I can't experience the neighborhoods she painted first hand then second best is not to look at their register recipts and cashbooks but to see her murals.) What is documented is not just presented, but altered and updated. Understandably that couldn't be done to the MOCC archives, but I would have been impressed if it had.

Collateral Matters and Dropping the Urn

Museum of Contemporary Craft

Portland, Oregon

August 26, 2010 – January 08, 2011

Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 6 pm

724 NW Davis St

Portland, OR 97209

(503) 223-2654

Burt, C. "Collateral Matters."Aug. 24, 2010. BangBack. Accessed October 29, 2010. http://www.bangback.com/print-matters/collateral-matters/

David Meinart on Chihuly/KEXP

2010-10-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

At the blog Publicola, David Meinart has written "A Two-State Solution to the Seattle Center Debate" in which he makes the point that the two can exist side by side in the former Fun Forest: one is paying rental fees, drawing in tourists, and providing a $2 million playground; the other satisfies Seattleites who want something more public and less "upper-middle class tchotchkes" as one commenter writes. (KEXP is a local radio station supported by public donations.)

Dave Meinart October 2010:

"What C21 didn’t consider, but is also true is that the Chihuly exhibit will bring the most income to the City (about $1 million per year between rent, direct admissions and B&O taxes and even more if secondary business activity is taken into consideration), drive the most people to the Center, and most benefit the neighboring small businesses.
But the most interesting part of the C21 report that seems to have been missed by most of the reporting on the proposals, is that even with its criticism of KEXP’s bid, the C21 committee still recommended Seattle Center find an alternative location for KEXP on campus."

Meinart, D. "A Two-State Solution to the Seattle Center Debate." Publicola. October 12, 2010. http://www.publicola.net/2010/10/12/a-visionary-solution-to-the-seattle-center-debate/

Chihuly in MOHAI?

2010-09-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Heard on NPR today:

Knute Berger getting the last word in a conversation on the Seattle Center/Fun Forest proposals that are occuring now (this is totally paraphrased):

Moderator: "There's a new wrinkle in the process, Mayor Mike McGinn is going to be briefed on the decision before the press and public will find out what the City Council's concludes. I know he favors the KEXP/Chihuly combination proposal. Maybe he wants to throw MOHAI in there as well."

Knute Berger: "They can stuff Chihuly and put him in MOHAI."

KUOW 94.9, Seattle. September 18, 2010.

2010-09-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

Pilchuck on Display : An Exhibition of International Glass Art

Thursday, October 14 2010 6:00 PM - Thursday, October 14 2010 8:00 PM

The Westin Seattle

From the Pilchuck Website: "Pilchuck Glass School will host a one-night public exhibition featuring original works in glass by more than 250 international artists. Pilchuck on Display: An Exhibition of International Glass will be held at The Westin Seattle as part of the school’s Annual Auction celebration.

Free and open to the public, this event offers visitors an unparalleled opportunity to view an array of glass art while mingling with artists and patrons. "Pilchuck on Display allows visitors to take a virtual trip to our campus," observes Ruth King, the school’s artistic director. "And it offers them a chance to see finished works by artists from around the world who have studied and taught at the school."

"With masterpieces by studio glass movement pioneers and exciting works by emerging artists, the extraordinary variety arrayed in one place allows viewers to appreciate the range of creativity in glass," says Director of Development Whitney Hazzard. "And Pilchuck is honored to share them with Seattle-area residents and visitors."

Pilchuck on Display will be the only public viewing of these works before they enter private collections. All of these artworks, along with more than 100 table centerpieces will be auctioned off during Pilchuck’s Annual Auction Gala the following evening, Friday, October 15, 2010.
Pilchuck on Display is free, and no reservations are required."

Bako, P. Accessed September 19, 2010. http://www.pilchuck.com/events/calendar/10-0701/Pilchuck_on_Display_An_Exhibition_of_International_Glass_Art.aspx

Puff & Gasp

2010-09-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

the ol' pust-n-sug

I found this great packaging in Bremerton yesterday! Holmegaard apparently produced different versions of this bottle, an early one is inscribed: "I am a bottle - my name is Cluck. My motto is this - quench the thirst. Not for too long - I caution you, or you may be driven to wanton acts." (http://forum.lokanova.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=25282)photo credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online

M-Space: A Fire in the Belly of an Old Brewery

2010-09-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

M-Space: A Fire in the Belly of an Old Brewery

by M.J. Franich

Art needs a place, a space to grow and become more than the simple sum of parts and material. The light on the brick walls, the dust on the floor and the unmistakable roar of the furnace, the sliver, interior sheet metal that would be as comfortable on a barn, this space, this warm and welcoming workshop creates a mood that becomes an essential part of what is born from a glowing glob of glass.

Both outside and in, bricks form the walls of a hundred year old building, bricks from Clay City, in the valley where the hops once grew. Rough hands mixed the mortar keeping pace with the mason’s trowel, settling each one in place, checking with a line for level as they went up impossibly high. Other hands mixed the hops with barley malt. When beer became illegal, liquid soap flowed into molds, the way glass might today, all in the presence of an ancient, tomb-like quiet. There is no gallery at M-Space, only stairs to a storage area, a perch for pictures. The forms evolve, shaped on a bench, exposed to flames and paddles, all in the presence of historical efforts from a former time, work that made a space for art.An artist can imagine being alone. The truth of the matter is more complex, this sense of being dependent and together at the same time with so many others, in present and recent times, time that when examined closely would begin with native settlements and forests. From the past to the present hands transformed the land, moved rivers and produced unknown numbers of board feet lumber. The sticky, slippery clay became the walls of brick, warm on a winter day as if still cooling from the fire, the beams of the roof overhead all clear fir. Much later came the fabrication, the pipes of natural gas, the crucible. The place where art is born reaches back through time, searching for some meaning in all the labor that produced a protected, fragile space in time for art. Everything connects to something else, like long chains of holding hands, there are no accidents in the present. The vibrations along the chain ripple in the hands that form the glass. In a way, this makes everyone an artist and connects art to life, in the same way life is a little less, without the art, the way the valley forest is a little less in a sea of tilt up buildings, cranes along the waterfront where a village once lived. Art remembers and tells the story in a way no cement building ever will.

Big Leaf Maples rise and fall in fifty year cycles, rotting out from the core. It is the same with a glass furnace, born to die from the first day, fighting off corrosion like a pickup truck on an ocean beach. Someone needs to watch over the fire brick, feed the spruce pine, the soda lime, melting individual crystals that combine in a pool of glowing glass, orange hot, waiting for the doors to open, the dance on the floor of the shop to begin. Careful measurements produce a bench, a table and the tools required to work the glass. The same equipment might be used on a cruise ship off the Florida Coast, constructed in the same way, identical material, put to a similar use, and yet, even there, something of the past reaches across the water, moving in a watery, wave like way through the space. The world of elemental parts is connected by the art these materials produce. Being alone is the illusion, the reality is so much different and complex.

So many hands work the glass, in so many different ways. How to measure art, define and contain what slowly cools in the dark becomes another preoccupation. How is a delicate cup so different from the level lines of brick along the wall? How often do both become invisible in the hours of a day, that imagined time alone in the world. Seeing requires a process of stepping beyond, between, approaching objects as a landscape. A space for art should be open, welcoming like a friend with high expectations and encouraging words. There is at all times the balance of a budget to keep in mind, an awareness so like the foundations that hold the walls in place, a piece and a part of a larger whole. But an even larger sense is the work itself, extended over time and generations. The work continues and connects to the world outside the walls and because of this, the world is a different place, as are those who live in the world.

M-Space

2514 S. Holgate

Tacoma, WA 98402

Contact: Joe Miller

253.779.0101info@mspacetacoma.com

"Corporate Legacy - A Continuing Cultural Gift" @ The Wright Space

2010-06-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

June 2010 Regina Hackett:

[excerpt from review] "Aside from the coma-inducing title, the exhibit is a fine time capsule for a certain kind of NW art: strong in painting, ceramics and glass, barely there in photography and nonexistent in video, installation and anything that rests uneasily in a specific medium. The collection tends toward the conservative [...] Once abundant, corporate collections are now a rarity. Safeco's rewarded artists, art at its source. In the 1980s, it was easy to take it for granted. Now, it appears to represent a better time."

Hackett, R. "Time capsule of Seattle art." Another Bounding Ball, artsjournal blog. Accessed June 18, 2010. http://www.artsjournal.com/anotherbb/2010/06/time-capsule-of-seattle-art.html#more

"A Continuing Cultural Legacy."

Selections from the Safeco Collection Contribution to the Washington Art Consortium

Friday, April 23, 2010 - Friday, June 25, 2010

The Wright Exhibition Space

407 Dexter Ave. N.

Seattle, WA 98109

Phone: 206-264-8200

Hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday and Friday

Lynda Benglis @ MOG June 23-27

2010-06-18T09:32:00.000-07:00

From the Tacoma Museum of Glass website:

"Lynda Benglis is a pioneer of the Post-Minimalist movement of the 1960s and is perhaps best known for her poured sculptures, including her translation of Jackson Pollock’s drip technique into sculptural forms. Over her notable career, she has worked with myriad materials—from plastic, wax and polyurethane to ceramics, bronze and video—creating works that portray her interest in themes of body and gender. A 40-year retrospective exhibition organized by the Irish Museum of Modern Art is currently traveling and will open at the Rhode Island School of Design this fall. During her residency, Benglis will utilize African masks as canvases for applications of glass using with her own unique aesthetic sensibility."

Conversation with the Artist: June 27, 2 pm

http://www.museumofglass.org/live-glassmaking/visiting-artists/

Thomas S. Buechner, NYT obituary

2010-06-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

June 2010, William Grimes:
[excerpted] "Doubtful about his ability to make a career as an artist, Mr. Buechner accepted a job as assistant manager of the display department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When the Corning Glass Works created the Corning Museum of Glass in south central New York State, he was named its first director and served in the position from 1951 to 1960.

Mr. Buechner established the museum as a scholarly institution whose exhibitions on ancient and contemporary glass traveled to museums around the country. He founded two professional journals, The Journal of Glass Studies and New Glass Review.

After resigning from the Brooklyn Museum in 1971, he returned to Corning Glass, where he became president of its Steuben Glass division in 1973, a position he held until 1982. He also served again as director of the Corning Museum of Glass from 1973 to 1980.
After retiring from Corning in 1987, he returned to painting full time, executing portraits, landscapes and still lifes. His portrait of Alice Tully, a granddaughter of the founder of Corning Glass, hangs in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center."

Grimes, W. "Thomas S. Buechner, Former Director of Brooklyn Museum, Dies at 83." New York Times. June 17, 2010. Accessed June 18, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/arts/design/18buechner.html?src=mv

The Seattle Times supports Chihuly for the Seattle Center

2010-06-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

gm_18025 Seattle Center Rides, Washington 1991
Originally uploaded by CanadaGood
Creative Commons license, FLICKR

June 2010, The Seattle Times:

[excerpted] "...Money should not be the only consideration, but it remains a key factor. Of all the proposals, the one most likely to contribute additional revenue to the center's budget and allow the center to be more helpful to struggling nonprofits is the Chihuly proposal.

The Wright family, which built and owns the Space Needle, made some earlier mistakes on its proposal, mostly by working behind the scenes too quietly. This is a public space, after all, and that requires public process.

But in the end, the Chihuly plan appears most promising."

Editorials. "Chihuly's the ticket for Fun Forest site." June 18, 2010. A24, News.

Christopher Knight on watching artists work

2010-06-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here's an addendum on the Glass & Tourism posts in which the performance of making glass in order to attract tourists was examined in the context of art. Christopher Knight, LA Times, writes about the reality TV show "Work of Art" in which artists are filmed as they complete assignments, after which they are judged by an art critic, gallerist, etc. Is it true that they are not making art but "dramatizing the act of making art," as he says? Can this be applied to the museums that feature artists in their hot shops? Or are television and, as Knight says, the drama it requires, different pressures than a few "shows" before a live audience?

June 2010 Christopher Knight:

[excerpt] "Rather than making art, the cast is charged with dramatizing the act of making art. Before the series ends, one or more of the contestants might recognize that. (It's what the academic critics call television's "performative" quality.) Perhaps they'll figure out how to meet the assigned challenges while also making art that lacerates the program's death grip on convention."

Knight, C. "TV review: Work of Art the next great artist on bravo." June 8, 2010. Accessed June 17, 2010. LA Times. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/06/tv-review-work-of-art-the-next-great-artist-on-bravo.html.

Geoff Manaugh & Josiah McElheny

2010-06-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Josiah McElheny Model for a Film Set (The Light Spa at the Bottom of a Mine) 2008

Photo Credit: http://www.artfagcity.com/2009/09/04/art-fag-citys-2009-fall-preview-gallery-edition/

Excerpted from Geoff Manaugh's posting at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, ccca.qc.ca, on the recent publishing of "The Light Club: On Paul Scheerbart's The Light Club of Batavia," a volume edited by artist Josiah McElheny (University of Chicago Press, 2010):

June 17, 2010 Geoff Manaugh:

"In 2008, artist Josiah McElheny exhibited new work at the Donald Young Gallery inspired by Paul Scheerbart’s peculiar short story “The Light Club of Batavia,” originally published in 1912. In the words of McElheny’s gallery, Scheerbart “tells the story of an ambitious woman’s unlikely plans for an underground light spa—a refuge for a modern illness she calls ‘Light Hunger.’ Her plan is realized by a motley crew of architects, artists, and foreign patrons after many long-winded speeches and romantic pledges”—though “long-winded” somewhat over-states the duration of a story that is itself only six pages long.
McElheny’s resulting piece is called Model for a Film Set (The Light Spa at the Bottom of a Mine).

“Constructed of colored glass modules stacked and mortared, it is McElheny’s abstract envisioning of the wondrous architectural installation described in Scheerbart’s tale.” But what is the “wondrous architectural installation” that the gallery refers to?

Recently republished in a volume edited by McElheny himself, Scheerbart’s story “The Light Club of Batavia” is available here in the CCA Library, where I had an opportunity to read it. [...]"

Read the rest of the original post at CCA, where Geoff Manaugh is a 2010 Visiting Scholar: http://www.cca.qc.ca/en/study-centre/1013-hurray-for-crystal-geoff-manaugh

Below, MOMA videos presents "Josiah McElheny presenting at MoMA" May 21, 2007 upload:

If everyone spends $1,000....

2010-06-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

June 2010 The Lane Report:
"More than 1,000 artists, collectors, scholars, students and educators from around the world attended Glass Art Society’s 40th annual conference in Louisville June 10-12. Exhibits and events took place at nine museums, 15 galleries, two restaurants, two universities and a church.

Their attendance pumped some $1 million into the Louisville economy at hotels, restaurants and buying glass art and the conference exposed dozens of artists and high-end collectors from around the world to the city’s quality of life.

“The Louisville arts scene is very cutting edge, and that’s important for economic development,” said Pamela Koss, GAS executive director. “We came to Louisville because the city is so supportive of glass art.”

The conference could have the added benefit of attracting artists to the state and bolstering Louisville’s already strong arts community. Koss said the layout of the Market Street arts district was a major selling point. “The glass scene although young, is really well located for us. Logistically, it is all within an 18-block line in downtown Louisville.”"

Unknown. "Art Glass Conference Enthusiasts Boost Local Economy in Louisville by $1 Million" The Lane Report. Accessed June 17, 2010. http://www.kybiz.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1237

For more info on the conference see The Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet: http://blog.glassquarterly.com/2010/06/13/2010-gas-conference-ends-with-new-president-installed-but-no-announcement-of-2011-location/

Sequim Glass Art Festival seeks submissions

2010-06-17T07:21:00.001-07:00

North of Sequim
Originally uploaded by Alex Reynolds

"Entries are now being accepted for participation in the new Glass Art Festival, to be held September 1-25, 2010, in Sequim. The festival will include a juried art exhibition of comtemporary glass art called "Transcendence - The Magic of Glass," as well as a variety of workshops, artist talks, and demonstrations. Glass artwork will be showcased in the MAC Exhibit Center gallery as well as other art galleries and venues throughout Sequim. The entry deadline is July 9th."

http://www.glassartfestival.org/

New Voices @ Pratt Gallery open until June 25

2010-06-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

"New Voices"
June 3 - 25, 2010
Pratt Gallery at Tashiro Kaplan Studios

This show highlights the work of Pratt 2009 - 2010 scholarship recipients Granite Calimpong, Giustin Durall, Katelin Harpel, Cyra Hobson, Tyler Kimball, Isabella Leary, Jennifer Sievers, Jan Tervonen, and Jenny Wittlinger.

Pratt Fine Arts presents The Brychtova Forum in July

2010-06-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

June 2010, Press Release from Grace Meils
@ Pratt Fine Arts, Seattle:

The Brychtovà Forum
Women Artists Working in Glass:
Celebrating Innovation and Vision
Across Generations
July 15 - 18, 2010 in Seattle, WA

The Brychtovà Forum - Women Artists Working in Glass: Celebrating Innovation
and Vision Across Generations, a four-day series of free lectures,
panel discussions and events, will be presented from July 15 - 18, 2010.
A collaborative effort by several prominent organizations involved with
Seattle's glass community, The Brychtovà Forum was conceived to
celebrate the rich tradition of women working in glass while also
recognizing the life and work of one of the most important artists
in the history of the glass movement.

The Brychtovà Forum includes opening night presentations by
Ms. Brychtovà and Czech curator Sylva Petrova, followed by
a reception and special exhibition curated by Sarah Traver at
Traver Gallery Seattle. Ms. Brychtovà will discuss her ongoing
work, her lifelong collaboration
with Stanislav Libensky and the 2010 opening of the
Libensky/Brychtovà Museum in Zelesny Brod.

Panel discussions featuring three generations of leading glass
artists will be presented at Seattle Art Museum throughout
the day on Friday and on Saturday morning, all of which will
be free and open to the public. A curator-led discussion will
take place on Saturday afternoon, followed by a glassblowing
demonstration and artist party at Pratt. Seating is limited for
these events, and tickets will be available on a first-come first-
served basis. A private closing reception and fundraising
brunch will be held in honor of Ms.Brychtovà at Dale Chihuly's
Boathouse on Sunday and guests are encouraged to visit
Pilchuck Glass School's annual Open House afterward.

During the Brychtovà Forum, artists working in glass will have
the opportunity to participate in a film documentary project
with the goal of capturing the essence of each individual's
influences, motivations, inspirations and motivations and
visions for their work and the future of glass.
Each participant will be asked a
set of specific questions and will also have an opportunity to
include images of their work. Filming will take place on site.

The Forum is free, but participants must register in advance
as space is limited. Online registration is available at
www.pratt.org/happenings/forum.html.

THE BRYCHTOVÀ FORUM SCHEDULE

What:             Jaroslava Brychtovà and Sylva Petrova:
Opening Address
When:           Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 6pm
Where:          Arnold Board Room, Seattle Art Museum,
1300 1st Ave., Seattle, WA
Admission:      FREE

What:             Exhibition and Reception
at the Traver Gallery - Seattle
When:            Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 8pm
Where:           Traver Gallery,
110 Union St. #200, Seattle, WA
Admission:     FREE

What:            Panel Discussion: Emerging Artists
Including:        Rebecca Chernow, Rachel Moore, April Surgent
(moderated by Sarah Traver)
When:            Friday, July 16, 2010 from 9 - 10:30am
Where:           Auditorium, Seattle Art Museum,
1300 1st Ave., Seattle, WA
Admission:     FREE

What:             Panel Discussion: Established Artists
Including:        Shelley Muzylowski Allen,
Tina Aufiero, Nancy Callan, Jen Elek
                      (moderated by Rock Hushka)
When:            Friday, July 16, 2010
from 11am - 12:30pm
Where:           Seattle Art Museum,
1300 1st Ave., Seattle, WA
Admission:     FREE

What:              Jaroslava Brychtovà Documentary Film (2010)
Who:                Open to all participants
When:              Friday, July 16, 2010 from 1 - 1:30pm
Where:             Auditorium, Seattle Art Museum,
1300 1st Ave., Seattle, WA
Admission:       FREE

What:             Panel Discussion: Master Artists
Including:        Joey Kirkpatrick, Flora Mace,
Nancy Mee, Ginny Ruffner, Cappy Thompson
                      (moderated by Paula Stokes and Linda Tesner)
When:            Saturday, July 17, 2010 from 9 - 10:30am
Where:           Auditorium, Seattle Art Museum,
1300 1st Ave., Seattle, WA
Admission:     FREE

What:             Panel Discussion: Curators
Including:      Maria Porges, Margery Aronson,
TBA (moderated by Sylva Petrova)
When:            Saturday, July 17, 2010
rom 11am - 12:30pm
Where:           Auditorium, Seattle Art Museum,
1300 1st Ave., Seattle, WA
Admission:     FREE

WHAT:            Jaroslava Brychtova Documentary Film (2010)
Who:               Open to all participants
When:             Saturday, July, 17, 1 - 1:30pm
Where:            Plestcheeff Auditorium,
Seattle Art Museum
Admission:      FREE

What:             Glassblowing Demonstration
and Artist Party
Including:         All participants
When:             Saturday, July 17, 2010 from 6 - 9pm
Where:            Pratt Fine Arts Center,
1902 S. Main St., Seattle, WA
Admission:      FREE

What:            Fundraising Brunch and Demo at
Dale Chihuly's Boathouse Studio
Benefiting:      The Libensky/Brychtovà Museum in
the Czech Republic
Featuring:       Sonja Blomdahl
When:            Sunday, July 18, 2010 from 10am - 12pm
Where:           Dale Chihlhy's Studio,
509 NE Northlake Way, Seattle, WA
Admission:     $100 Donation

What:            Pilchuck Glass School Open House
When:            Sunday, July 18, 2010 from 10am - 12pm
Where:           Pilchuck Glass School,
1201-316th St NW Stanwood, WA
Admission:     $20

Additional information and online registration
is available at http://www.pratt.org/happenings/forum.html.

Seattle Center Update

2010-06-11T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a snippet of the Seattle Times article. There are 181 comments on the article already.

June 2010 Emily Heffter:

"In a second attempt to sell the city and the public on a Dale Chihuly glass exhibit at Seattle Center, the Space Needle Corp. is proposing to add a free, art-inspired playground for kids and a free field trip to the exhibit for every eighth-grader in the Seattle school district.

The corporation also stressed the financial benefit of choosing the glass exhibit over eight other proposals for the 1 ½-acre site just south of the monorail station. The Chihuly exhibit needs no public investment and would return $24 million over 20 years to the city in lease money and taxes, according to the proposal released Thursday.

Among the eight competing ideas for the site are two proposals for more open space, a Native American cultural center and a new studio for the nonprofit radio station KEXP.

Chihuly faced criticism from some City Council members and the public this spring when his company unveiled the proposed exhibit, an idea it had quietly been working on for more than a year. At public meetings, some people questioned whether a private business should be able to use the Center, which is publicly owned. Some were critical of adding a paid-admission venue, and others felt a glass exhibit would not be a good place for kids.

The new Chihuly proposal seeks to address some of those concerns. The proposal includes a letter of support from Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson for a plan to develop an eighth-grade science and art curriculum about glass that would culminate with a field trip to the exhibit, all funded by the Space Needle Corp.

Space Needle CEO Ron Sevart said the company would pay Seattle teachers to write the curriculum, and the district could decide how extensive it should be. He said he thought it would be a couple of days of instruction before and after students' field trip to the exhibit.

Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, who chairs the Parks and Seattle Center Committee, thinks the public should have free access to its own property at Seattle Center. On the other hand, she said, the Center has to make money.

"That's the balance," she said. "It sounds like a really good start. It sounds like they listened to us." [...]"

Heffter, E. "Space Needle owners roll out new Chihuly proposal for Seattle Center." The Seattle Times. June 10, 2010. Accessed June 11, 2010. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012083798_chihuly11m.html

Comments:

Duff Hendrickson: "The city is continually asked to glorify Dale Chihuli. He already has Tacoma. Give him Olympia, or Bremerton if he wants it. Let him and his company and business friends buy property and build their own monuments. Chihuli is a business and doesn't need our help promoting his business."

Ballard Guy: "I really do not get this Chihuly attraction. If he wants a statue of himself, let him build it in his yard not ours. I do not know of one adult or child that has been longing to see a glass museum. It will never be a big draw of growds. Ever see a line at Tacoma's museum?, not really, sure its cool but one is enough.Leave it open space & what the heck, plant a few more trees & call it a park. That would be unique & cool."

JDinSeattle: "As much as I think Chihuly would be a lame addition, I think it has the most potential to bring in money for the center. All summer long there is tour bus after tour bus parked right in front of the Space Needle and there are a lot of people that would pay for it and might even come to Seattle just because of it. Tourism money = good for Seattle.

I personally liked the KEXP idea since I'm a big fan of that station, definitely not because it's the most practical though."

auburnmom: "Almost Live was making fun of Chihully over 20 years ago. Even laughing at how ridiculous Chihully is has become passe. Can't this city think of something new? I've been to the glass museum in Tacoma and wanted to ask for my admission money back.

I know, how about we build an arena and try to get an NBA team to come to town?"

The Seattle Art Museum's new AD CAMPAIGN...

2010-06-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit ABJ

Resonances in Glass @ MoNA (review)

2010-06-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: ABJ

The Museum of Northwest Art is in La Conner, Washington. The lamp-worked glass show currently on is a continuation of the entire museum's theme right now, "Resonances: Contemporary Echoes Modern," in which a modern artist was paired with a contemporary inspired by their work. What makes the glass show featuring three contemporary artists, Ginny Ruffner, Masami Koda, and James Minson, in Benaroya Glass Gallery a part of the overall theme? Kathleen Moles, Curator of Exhibitions, says in her notes to the show that Minson and Koda "both remember being struck in particular by Ginny's work" when it was featured at Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1988 where they were students. As such, her work from the 1980s and 90s is shown in the middle of the room between Minson, whose displayed pieces are dated 2007, and Koda, whose pieces are from 2009.

With the exception of Koda's work on loan from Traver Gallery, most of the show is owned by Anne Gould Hauberg. "The Queen of Everything" glass-jeweled crown which Ruffner made for the founder of Pilchuck is shown. It's restrained, a child coloring within the lines. It's different from "The Juggler of my Heart in Person" or "Balance Series: A Balanced Diet." In these, her exploding crayola box of harlequin, checkered, and gilded symbols (cats, hearts, bones, tropical fish, wings) may have inspired Koda and Minson, but these two younger artists have what can only be described as a cooler contemporary feel compared to Ruffner's warm and open work. Alki vs. Freemont. Or, it's as if a way-out-there mom who baked pot brownies raised two children and they rebelled by being part of the mainstream.

Minson is pulled in two directions. On one hand there are the very literal underwater scenes of anemone and coral, and on the other, the abstract 22 panels of black wood crawling with clear squiggles and the perfectly arranged green, orange and white mobile. The mobile made of glass rods is amazing and well-balanced.

Koda's "Still Life" (2009) is the best piece in the show. Though it doesn't employ her beautiful silver and glass bead/berry technique found on "Red Dew 6" and "Spring Blow," and it does have the delicate cage look of a lot of lamp-worked pieces now, it contains the most perfect squared-off taper at the top of the bell-jar. You'll can view it on Traver's website.

I would have taken a picture, but there were no photos allowed. (I did draw it, but my sketch is ugly. There was a fascinating article somewhere recently about photography permission in museums, I'll try and find it.) So here are a few photos of other things in and around La Conner instead. La Conner is fun, the museum is only $2 for students $5 for adults, and Clayton Beach is not far away (from Seattle)...it's worth the trip.

Photo Credit: ABJ

Ries Niemi's Fish Bridge, the artist who once said "Glass art makes me wish for earthquakes."

Photo Credit: ABJ

La Conner Weekly News: "Full Jail Means Criminals (like this bad bad baby owl) Roam Free."

Photo Credit: ABJ

close up of a Sandstone Boulder, Clayton Beach

1968

2010-06-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

Dale Chihuly 1968, Bellevue

Photo Credit (used with permission):
1968. Dave Potts. Seattle P-I Collection, MOHAI

Seattle Sidewalk Prisms, photo by Bradleyolin

2010-05-31T13:27:00.001-07:00

Glass for the ceiling
Originally uploaded by bradleyolin

Continuing on with prism posts. They're such a unique & beautiful part of the city I can't imagine my childhood without them. Every once in a while something changes your whole perspective on things.

Sidewalk Prism photo by zenobia_joy

2010-05-31T13:20:00.001-07:00

under the sidewalks
Originally uploaded by zenobia_joy

I almost tagged along on a tour I passed yesterday. I listened in as the tour guide explained that the purple skylights were colored by magnesium, and that 90% of the orginals are now gone! Then the tour descended one of the stairwells to the underground that people have sex on at night in Pioneer Square, but he said nothing about that...

Crossing the Line on Seattle Glass Online?

2010-05-31T12:38:00.001-07:00

Creepy hot dog man
Originally uploaded by Box.

The last ABJ post about the sidewalk prisms crossed a line. Industrial glass often creeps into writing about art glass although the two are mostly unrelated and it did just that the other day. This creep is as uncomfortable as it sounds and I have always been against using industrial glass as fluff when there is nothing I want to record about art.

Also Creepy ------ > ---------->

Seattle's Sidewalk Prisms, slideshow

2010-05-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Seattle's purple sidewalks

2010-05-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online

May 2010, 1st & Marion

Seattle, WA

In elementary school we took a field trip to Pioneer Square and went on the Underground Tour. I remember only three things only from that trip:

1. The tour guide called horse shit "puckey" and we spent a long time discussing why.
2. As we exited into an alley, we all stepped on a giant dead rat just outside the doorway.
3. The purple squares in the sidewalks in downtown Seattle are visible if you look up from the walkways underneath... they're skylights, and they're made of glass.

There's a few good pictures from underground here: http://www.visualsynthesis.com/unsea/unseattle6.swf

Photo Credit: Glassian

http://glassian.org/Prism/Vault/prisms.jpg

A history of vault lights is provided by glassian, the above photo shows what the prisms look like, (buy one if you ever see it for sale!): http://glassian.org/Prism/Vault/index.html#VVL

According to glassian, the purple glass squares are skylights and were used as a form of lighting in basements in the 1800s before electric light was used. The idea was taken from ship decks and applied to city streets. Found in cities all over the world, they are no longer used, and are in danger of disappearing because they are costly to replace.

In 2002, a section of sidewalk vaults in the Square were replaced with new, pre-purpled panels (the orignal glass was clear, and turned purple overtime due to UV exposure). The project was federally funded and completed by Mid Mountain Contractors of Kirkland, WA. http://northwest.construction.com/projects/04_BestOf/04_BestOfWashington.asp

The Pioneer Square Preservation Board (recent bad press with regards to its slow treatment of business owner requests: Seattle Weekly "Old and in the Way") has outlined how the prisms should be cared for in "Rules for the Pioneer Square Preservation District PSB 149/03":

"Sidewalk Prism Lights

The glass sidewalk prism lights are one of the unique elements in the District, and their retention is required. The Board maintains the right to require applicants for sidewalk repair to repair sidewalk prism light panels and individual prism lights that have deteriorated into a state of disrepair. (7/99)"

July 23, 2003. www.seattle.gov/Neighborhoods/preservation/PioneerSquareGuidelines.pdf

However, in 2008, the new owners of a building at 240 2nd Ave S. proposed to fill in broken prism lights with cement, citing a precedence set by other building owners in the district:

"Remove non-historic awning and replace with a steel canopy using
connection points of historic canopy
Fill missing sidewalk prism lights holes with cement
Remove existing fire escape landing grillwork and extension ladders with the
stairs, railings and supports to remain"

[...]

"Ms. Nashem asked the applicant to speak about the prism lights in the sidewalk.

Mr. Chatfield said the photos show the condition of the two sets of prism lights; with the exception of about 6, the rest of the prism lights are shattered and damaged. They proposed to fill openings with concrete to remove the trip hazard. They are also looking at sourcing prism lights; precedence has been set as other buildings have been filled in with concrete."

During Public Comment at the meeting, the prism lights were brought up again:

"Sarajane Bellanca asked if we are agreeing to this new material because it is being painted and asked if this is going to be a new material for Pioneer Square. She also expressed concerns about the prisms in the sidewalk; they were replaced at the Smith Tower and at Toshiro Kaplan so it is possible to do. She didn’t like the idea of filling in the broken prisms with cement. She didn’t hear a solution to returning the prisms to their original condition.

Mr. Chatfield they would just fill in the three or four that have popped out more from a liability issue.

Mr. Hasson agreed with Ms. Bellanca and said a decision needs to be made if applicant wants concrete or prism lights."

The meeting continued on, returning to the subject of the lights later:

"The Board discussed the replacement of the glass prisms. The applicant is concerned with the liability and wants to fill the holes with cement. Replacing individual prisms is not an option; the whole sidewalk panel would need to be replaced which is expensive but it has been done as evidenced at Smith Tower and Toshira Kaplan buildings.

Chris Gibbs, Manager at the Toshiro Kaplan lofts confirmed that glass panels were replaced around his building and supports replacing the panels as they have been done at his building.

Mr. Hasson said he would go with the concrete.

Mr. McConachie asked the Board if a motion could be moved to leave out a couple issues such as stucco, color, masonry testing and prisms and the applicant could come back with additional information."

Minutes of Meeting. May 21, 2008. PSB 124/08. www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/minutes/PSB5.21.08.pdf

The lights are beloved by city dwellers, but if broken can be a tripping hazard. Filling individual broken cells with cement is the most cost-effective way to repair them. However, whole panels can be replaced if the money is available to do so.

Photo Credit: Ian Mackey, http://www.islandnet.com/~ringuett/prism/report/prisms.htm

North of here, in Victoria, the prisms are also being considered by city government, as notes from a city council meeting in 2006 shows:

"Janis Ringuette – Sidewalk Prisms: Promoting as a downtown attraction and better preserving them
Thank you for allowing me to speak about Victoria’s sidewalk Prisms. She wants to thank the people in the past who have saved them. Today, most residents are unaware of this heritage feature. Others
notice and walk over them. There has been no written history or map of their locations. This is an
interesting heritage feature that is overlooked and unappreciated. Over the last three months, she has
compiled information for the City to produce a brochure. People will be interested to learn about early
basements. Prisms were installed in the early 1900s. The glass was not coloured, it turned purple over
the years due to exposure to sun. To install interpretive signs is inexpensive. It would be great to light
the purple glass squares below at night. The greatest concentration of prisms surrounds the Yarrow
Building. They are open and accessible. Lighting does not have to be expensive. When the lights are
left on in the building basement, it will light-up the prisms. Ideally, the lights should be connected with street lights. There are over 11,000 prisms today. There are no replacement glass blocks on hand.

When they are broken, they are filled with concrete. Over 500 have been filled. If one breaks, it should be replaced, not filled. And Council should make this a high priority. Other cities have found glass suppliers and restoration projects. A city representative should send a sample off before we replicate.

We need to make restoration a long-term goal and place it on a future projects list. When someone
applies for heritage grant/funding, they are considered. Finally, it is costly to restore prisms so we should focus on preserving the remaining prisms. On Fort and Broad Streets, many trucks drive over them and there are two big postal boxes on prisms that could be moved to concrete.

Councillor Madoff thanked Ms. Ringuette for her wonderful report. This is a part of our heritage that
people may not be conscious of. There are suggestions in her report to avoid wear and tear, and the
next step is sourcing the prisms. There used to be a company here. She would be very happy to continue to work with Ms. Ringuette on this project.

Councillor Thornton-Joe thanked Ms. Ringuette for all her effort in compiling this information. She
recalled an article in the Times Colonist recently about the prisms. This matter was before the Heritage Advisory Committee and received its support. She has discussed this matter with the Downtown Residents’ Association and the General Manager of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, who are very excited about this project. There have also been some discussions amongst City staff, and she was advised by the Heritage Planner that the prisms were added to the Heritage Registry on November 22, 1990.

Motion:
It was moved by Councillor Thornton-Joe, seconded by Councillor Madoff, that this matter be referred to the Heritage Planner for review and report to Committee of the Whole."

Victoria City Council Meeting. March 23, 2006. www.victoria.ca/cityhall/minutes_council/min060323_cnc.pdf

Cas Stachelberg and Chad Randl have published a National Park Service technical guide to preserving the glass prisms. They outline the main problems:

"Repairing and restoring the historic vault lights presented a number of obstacles. These included finding an experienced contractor, locating suppliers and fabricators for the glass lenses and missing cast-iron panels, and keeping the overall cost of the restoration program reasonable."

They describe a success story that occurred in New York on Broadway, excerpted below. The glass was fabricated by Blenko in West Virginia:

"To facilitate treatment and allow the sidewalks to remain unobstructed, the panels were removed and temporary steel plates were installed over the vaults. In the cast-iron contractor’s workshop, the surviving deteriorated glass lenses were removed, the cast iron stripped, cleaned and repainted, and new lenses set into the openings. Replacement lenses were cast by a specialty glass manufacturer, Blenko. The company had created glass molds for a vault light restoration several years prior and were now a regular supplier of various sized lenses for similar projects. A cast-iron foundry was contracted to fabricate two new panels to match the missing historic panels. Both new and repaired panels were delivered to the building site where the cast-iron specialist reinstalled them."

The fabrication story shows how improvements were made upon the historical process:

"Because vault lights are no longer manufactured, new custom panels had to be fabricated to replace the two missing when the project began. The contractor chose a surviving panel that was in good condition and sent it to a foundry in Alabama for use as a pattern. The foundry, which had worked on a number of vault light projects in the past, cast two new panels using techniques that had changed little in the past century. The original sample was packed in a bed of casting sand to make a three-dimensional mold. To account for shrinkage in the casting process (1/8” per foot), the mold was made slightly larger than the pattern ensuring that all panels, original and new, would be the same size. Vents and gates were created in the mold to allow the flow of molten iron and gas.

Although the method of casting new panels was nearly identical to the historical process, the composition of the cast-iron was altered to improve the material’s tensile strength. To produce what is referred to as ductile iron, the iron was combined with a slightly higher percentage of carbon (+/- 3.75% in the new cast-iron versus +/- 3.5% in the historical). Very small amounts of magnesium and graphite were also added to produce a material two to four times stronger than that of historical cast-iron. Following fabrication, the new panels were shipped to the contractor who set the new glass lenses and transported them to New York City for installation alongside the repaired panels."

They conclude:

"Vault lights are an important architectural features that are frequently overlooked and under maintained. Historically considered advantageous for the way in which they manipulated light and improved dark, potentially usable space, vault lights were also a visual complement to a building’s entrance and façade. Today, whether severely deteriorated, buried under layers of asphalt or missing altogether, this feature need not be lost forever. As the restoration project described in this Preservation Tech Note shows, sensitively rehabilitated vault lights can continue to provide architectural and historic character to the urban streetscape while serving their original function of naturally illuminating basement spaces."

Stachelberg, C. and Randl, C. "Historic Glass Number 2: Repair and Rehabilitation of Historic Sidewalk Vault Lights" NPS. Accessed May 24, 2010. http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/technotes/ptn47/Contents.htm

Einar and Jamex de la Torre @ Traver Gallery

2010-05-03T15:41:00.001-07:00

Photo Credit: "Pacifico Columns"

Fenchurch! on Flickr

Creative Commons license

Opens this Thursday, runs until May 30th.

Elias Hansen @ Lawrimore Project (review)

2010-05-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

This extensive, light-filled gallery provides the back rooms, hallways, and cement-floored spaces necessary for us to explore Hansen's work. "We Used To Get So High" is a dirty mirror reflecting our young selves' inquiries into drug-warped perceptions. If the lawn chair on the portaledge bolted to a retaining wall over railroad tracks or the guitar-shaped coffin box lined with a dirty blanket feel inviting to you, the drugs have not worn off. And they may not ever: Here the giant white pentagonal shapes emerging from the white wall are the chemical makeup of LSD--and you are let in on the grand idea that it's bigger than you.

The show is darkly humorous and it's fun to get completely lost in it. The Lawrimore space rocks for this show. Cremaster Six, the slinky white cat, roams around, too, making the whole show more surreal.

PHOTOS by ABJ Seattle Glass Online

Account of city council meeting on Seattle Center

2010-04-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

photo credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online

April 1, 2010 Chris Grygiel:

"A proposal to place a Dale Chihuly glass museum at financially-struggling Seattle Center has reopened an old debate about what, exactly, the center should be - a park with open spaces or a hub for the arts. The fact that it's a little of both right now was evident at a City Council public hearing held Thursday night at Seattle Center. During discussion about the glass museum one speaker referenced New York's Central Park and Lincoln Center, the former one of the world's premier public green spaces and the latter home to the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

About 100 people attended the hearing, the second on the subject this week. A healthy percentage were there to support of a the proposed $15 million glass museum, which the Wright family, owners of the Space Needle, would like to replace the Center's Fun Forest. Supporters Thursday night said it would boost tourism and add to the arts opportunities, not just for visitors but for city residents, too.
Former City Councilmember Tina Podlodowski spoke for Chihuly.

"Dale supports green and open space. The vision of this project is to create an aesthetically pleasing, indoor-outdoor exhibit that adds color and vibrancy amongst green garden space while providing a point of entry to the visual arts that appeal to all ages," she said. "Seattle Center really isn't our Central Park, it's much more like Lincoln Center, a real gathering of a diverse set of arts organizations." Speakers at Thursday's City Council hearing. But another speaker, Belltown resident Ron Turner, complained that the glass museum proposal seems to contradict earlier, stated goals of increasing green space in Seattle Center.

"The plan was very specific for the Fun Forest site. It said that an asphalt jungle becomes an urban park with trees," Turner said. "It is an active open space that connects to the heart of the campus."
Turner said Belltown residents especially are hungry for green spaces, "where we have little open space...we have practically none. And this is a compliment, because we do use the Center, we do come to the Center, in some respects it is our green yard."

There were complaints that a public hearing earlier this week was stacked with glass museum supporters who arrived early, crowding out opponents. City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw, who chairs the Parks and Seattle Center Committee, assured people at Thursday's hearing that they "would go til midnight" if necessary.

While it seemed the majority of people at Thursday's meeting were also in favor of the glass museum, council members have reported that they're hearing from more opponents than supporters.
Debates about how to use Seattle Center are nothing new.

During the ill-fated Seattle Monorail Project - the aborted plan to extend monorail service from West Seattle to Ballard - there were plans for tracks to cross the grounds of Seattle Center. Critics howled, saying the trains would disrupt the park-like setting of the Center.

The Fun Forest figured into the rebuttal of those arguments. The Center, monorail proponents said, was home to carnival rides, noisy games and was already the northern terminus of the existing, 1962 World's Fair-era monorail line. It was not an idyllic park, they said. Financial questions led to the dissolution of the Seattle Monorail Project in 2005.

In 2010, the debate about Seattle Center - home to much open green space, as well as places like the Experience Music Project, theaters and Seattle Opera - continues.
As Mayor Mike McGinn has pointed out, the current discussion takes place in a time when the Center is struggling to pay for its existing operations and looking for new sources of revenue. McGinn hasn't taken a position on the Chihuly musuem, other than to say it's proper for the Center to explore the option."

Grygiel, C. "Chihuly debate revives question: Is Center a park or arts hub?" Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog. http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/200391.asp

Inspiring the collector, Habatat Galleries 38th Annual Invitational

2010-04-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

Habatat Galleries had their 38th annual Masterworks auction this month. The catalog is available to view online. The introduction to it is reprinted here:

" We are interested in WHY the art is made not HOW. It is the difference between art and craft. Having said this, making glass sculpture is so work intensive that the process of making becomes very alluring, and the ability to successfully translate an idea is married to the craft. This should not however be the dominant theme for the artist or the preoccupation of the collector.
If the how it is made is why you are collecting you will grow tired of looking; if you search for why it was made, it will give you a life time of enjoyment. “Collector” should be an earned category. An artist doesn’t become an artist in a day, so a collector shouldn’t become a collector in a day. It’s a lifetime passion and process of learning, understanding and engaging objects with an open mind and an explorer’s spirit. We welcome you on the journey and offer our services as scouts! - Ferdinand Hampson

The Collector

Like paint strategically placed on an empty canvas the collectors surround themselves with objects with which they have a connection. This connection by nature is visually
stimulating to the collector. Some works can have an emotional impact or provoke a memory to its proprietor. Thoughts of the artist concept, the color or form are all there for the visual interpretation, enjoyment and mystery. Each collection tells a story that defines who the collector is. Each piece can act as a chapter or statement throughout the story.
Some collections are comprised of challenging thought and visual dialogue. Others search for pure beauty and direct their collection of objects towards that which offers immediate gratification.
Victor Hugo once wrote “Inspiration and genius is one and the same” What is “genius” about art is that it breeds inspiration. An artist’s arousal of the mind can spawn a collector’s emotional connection on a conscious level that could be the same or very different from the artist.
This catalogue includes the artists’ Inspiration on one page and the artists’ creation on the opposite page. A fun exercise would be to cover up the insight of the artist on one page and study the piece. Pull your own thoughts and connections from the piece then look to see if you had similarities with the artists’ inspirations for the creation of their work.
I hope this catalogue gives you inspiration and an understanding that glass in the hands of sincere artists is equal to any and all materials for making art.
- Corey Hampson"

Habatat Galleries. "Introduction" Habatat 38th Annual International Glass Invitational catalog. Accessed April 25, 2010. http://www.habatat.com/exhibit_international_detail.asp

David Meinert on Seattle Center/Chihuly plans

2010-04-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

April 2010 David Meinert (excerpted from Publicola):

"Seattle Center has never been, and was never designed to be, an oasis of green parkland. But, fortunately for the rest of us, Seattle Center is almost doubling its current campus open space by developing 3.5 acres of the former Fun Forest space adjacent to the EMP, and soon, 10 acres where Memorial Stadium now stands. That would bring the total of campus open space to over 30 acres from the now 17 acres. [...] The Wrights will invest part of their fortune to build a temporary exhibit of Seattle’s most popular visual artist ever, Dale Chihuly, who has millions of fans internationally, but no local long-term exhibition. [...]

As a resident of Queen Anne, a fan of local art and music, a regular user of the Center, an owner of a nearby business that might get some of that tourist business, and an oft-times community activist myself, I must say that I’m pretty happy the City has decided to take advantage of an obviously great deal.

Oh, but wait, this is Seattle.

Nothing is quite that simple. Chihuly is not that “cool” or “relevant” to some of Seattle’s most pernicious bloggers and forum commenters. Oh, and some “rich” folks might actually make a little more money. And in Seattle, that is horrible, because, well, profit is evil I guess, especially when it’s someone else’s who we don’t know. [...]

I want to say this to the critics of this plan – grow the hell up. Embracing diversity means embracing people with different ideas and tastes from our own. And in this case, even though I’m not a huge fan of glass art, and I don’t expect I’ll be going to this exhibit more than a few times when it opens or when I have guests in town, I do believe it can add a lot to the City in the form of tourism, diversity, beauty, and income. [...] Let’s be smart this time and not get bogged down in our loathing of local success at the cost of making this a great city."

Meinart, D. "Thumbs up on Chihuly at Seattle Center." Publicola.com. April 11, 2010. http://www.publicola.net/2010/04/11/thumbs-up-on-chihuly-at-seattle-center/

SLAG: anti-art glass, reviewed online

2010-04-06T21:24:00.000-07:00

April 2010, Rhiannon Rinas:

"Glassy displays

Ladders made of forearms, organs strapped to carts, blood in glass bottles and cultural Mexican-American creations hang on the wall. A shed stands in the background, inviting observers to violate its boundaries and see the creepy inner workings.

"SLAG: The Anti-Art Glass," the current exhibit in the Prichard Art Gallery, encompasses a new world of glass, sending a message that glass is not only for cute little figurines. It features creations from artists across the U.S. and Mexico and has been in production for five years.

"The popular notion (is that) these beautiful vases, platters, forms that look like flowers or whatever," Rowley said. "But I had this other sense of glass being something very different than that. The more I sort of understood the overwhelming perception of what glass was, the more I wanted to do something that highlighted a different approach and sort of expands people's understandings about what glass art can be."

This exhibit displays a range between colorful and fragile to twisted designs. Rowley said glass exhibits are expensive to host, and most of the five years was spent trying to raise enough money to make it happen. The artists involved were supportive, and kept going until they had the required amount of money. Rowley said this is about the most expensive exhibit the Prichard has ever done, but that he thought it was pretty amazing.

"The range between the de la Torre brothers is just kind of bright and colorful, and that sort of idea of glass being bright and colorful," Rowley said. "But then just put into these sculptural pieces that are just over the top in terms of their references to Mexican-American culture, Aztec-Olmec culture, Catholic upbringing. All sorts of things just colliding together. Then Elizabeth Lyons. That shed is, I think, on the one hand, it's kind of off-putting."

Visitors have to push open the chained door of the shed and stick their heads inside to see what's going on inside. Rowley said the point is to make viewers feel like they're violating a boundary.

"It's creepy, but cool," Rowley said. "Lyons has created a ladder rungs made up of human forearm cast. It just blows you away."

The Prichard displays nine to 11 exhibits during the year, each lasting seven to eight weeks. Occasionally there will be exhibits on display for a week, and they usually encompass new media and videos. The Prichard displays a variety of artwork from local artists, students and faculty from the College of Art and Architecture, graduate students, regional and international artists.

"Our mission is to bring the greater art world out there to Moscow," Rowley said. "We're the venue where you can see what's happening in contemporary art in the region."

Artists aren't required to pay to show their work in the gallery. There are prices for preparing the creations and the Prichard Art Gallery takes on as much of the expense of exhibiting as they can.

Rowley said anytime an artist has the opportunity to present artwork, it forces artists to deal with issues and grow as an artist. Prichard Art Gallery encourages more experimentation with art. The amount of time it takes for someone to go through the gallery varies. Some spend upward of 45 minutes, but most spent less than 30. The gallery is not demanding of every visitor to spend a certain amount of time viewing the exhibit.

"You can come in and if you find something that really engages you and you want to spend a leisurely hour looking, then you can do," Rowley said."

Rinas, R. "Expanding UI's vision." The University of Idaho Argonaut. April 5, 2010. http://www.uiargonaut.com/content/view/10012/47:testset/

2004 part three

2010-04-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the history/criticism timeline in glass that is found in the left margin of this blog. You can search through it using dates or keywords in the search boxes at left. The timeline is useful when writing about glass to ensure that what is being written takes into account the physical history of glass and glass objects; finds threads of continuance with other writers' ideas; and is saying something new.

Excerpts from the 2004 Keynote Lecture to the Glass Art Society, speech entitled "Some Propositions on Glass (Art)":

2004 Andrei Codrescu:

"Dada and Surrealist artists, for instance, conceived of art as dangerous to society and its cherished defenses of class and power. Society mostly took these artists at their word and did its best to persecute them. Since then, a lot of art has flown under the bridges of Venice, and postmodern art, playful, accommodating, and quite socially acceptable, is only dangerous when it's not up to code--the safety code, not the social code. As far as glass art goes, the danger is mostly to the artist, not to society.

Practically then, glass art has the same concerns as any art now. Namely, now to be art and not-art at the same time. All its qualities--high birth, artistic pedigree, psychological pertinence, metaphorical reach, ubiquity, promiscuity, modesty, transparency, opticity, exploratory indispensibility, matrixity, conductivity, agency, and exemplariness--can often be a burden. No wonder glass has so often masqueraded as stone. Or maybe that was to draw attention to itself, like a drag queen; ooops, surprise! I'm really glass!

[...]However, most art created now, including glass art, finds itself in an oddly protected position: it is unbreakable--because it is 'art.' Without the subversive ideals of incitement to violence and passion or even the nervous ticks of the 20th century avant-garde, contemporary art is quite safe. The history of art has also been rewritten to read that even the avant-gardists who did profess those violent desires were in fact concerned with another fundamental challenge, namely, to make thought possible for those who care to think. That was a subversive proposition, this rewriting tells us, as long as thinking was itself deemed dangerous, but that isn't the case now, or at least, it isn't so obvious what is and what isn't unthinkable. In other words, the history of modern art has been largely rewritten for the benefit of glass art, for which safety is primary.

Anyone who has ever walked barefoot has stepped on glass, and that's about everyone. People who break glass bottles on the sidewalk are called Assholes.

Insofar as the shop window and the chandelier are seen as status symbols, not art, it is still possible to break them--but only in third-world countries with large masses of 19th-century-style poor people. In the West, the museum walls protect us from all that ideological hubris and, given the demotic nature of the museum, who'd dare defile an object that has only the best interests of your mind heart? Thinking leads to more thinking and that is what it's all about! So pay up."

Codrescu, A. " Some propositions on glass (art)." GAS Conference keynote lecture, 2004, New Orleans. GAS Journal, 2004. p 19-23.

2004 Regina Hackett:

"Opening night of the College Art Association Conference in Seattle belonged to the Guerrilla Girls.
They're this year's winners of the prestigious Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism. When four of them took the stage in gorilla masks, 3,000 art historians, students, artists and critics rose to their feet to applaud, leaving a few medievalists seated and shaking their heads.[...]

With corrosive wit, merry sarcasm and many buckets of wheat paste, their posters and billboards -- first in New York and now worldwide -- have made sexism and racism seem worse than wrong.
They've made it dull, stuffy and out of date, a three-strikes-you're-out combo for the museums and galleries that are most often their targets.

Now that the Guerrilla Girls are famous authors as well as agitators, they're doubly honored in the art world for remaining anonymous. If the original members of the band came forward, surely they'd boost their careers, but all have remained silent, passing on the masks to second and third generations.
New York artist Fred Wilson, the keynote speaker, let his work speak for him, screening "September Dreams," an elegiac response to the destruction of the World Trade Center, approaching the theme through Shakespeare. On four screens, the piece opened with Othello strangling Desdemona and rolled back to when they were happily in love, evoking the common desire, after disaster, to retreat to a happier time.

No one could have gone to more than a fraction of the 180 sessions that followed the Wednesday night opening and continued through Saturday at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.
Anxious artists and doctoral students stood in long lines waiting their turns for a brief interview, hoping to make the short list for a college or university job that may or may not materialize in the age of scarce funding.

New York critic Eleanor Hartney dutifully attended the panel for which she served as moderator, "Public Art and the Art Critic: Advocate or Antagonist," and then skipped out to look at art. She said she liked Claire Cowie at James Harris Gallery, Ben Darby at Bryan Ohno Gallery and James Martin at Foster/White. Heading down to Tacoma, she was impressed by the new Tacoma Art Museum and the sweeping plaza exterior of the Museum of Glass. [...]

Points for honesty and insight go to painter Gregory Amenoff, who said on a landscape-in-crisis panel that he thought artist Andy Goldsworthy's insertions in the land were precious and overwrought. "Martha Stewart is a better artist," he said.

The most important panel locally was the least advertised, slipping in under the radar too late for inclusion in the catalog, a discussion of what went wrong at the Bellevue Art Museum, which closed in September.

After the story broke in the P-I, the issue was thoroughly chewed in the press. The Stranger thought an installation of thong underwear was the break point of Eastside audience alienation. The Seattle Times went with money mismanagement and, oddly, lack of communication with the community. (No museum has surveyed its audience more.)

Most peculiar was The New York Times, who blamed the fiasco on the museum's sweeping, postmodernist spaces. As anyone knows who ventured beyond the lobby into the galleries, they're boxy with low ceilings.

At Saturday's panel, participants tried to clear up some of the confusion.

Sharon Burke was director of finance for the museum, hired after it moved into its new building. The books were a mess, she said. Turns out the museum was running a $1.3 million deficit, instead of the $200,000 deficit the board knew about. Because there was no financial cushion, the museum started a downward spiral it was unable to pull out of.

She'd advise museums contemplating a new building to fold into the capital campaign another 10 percent operating surplus and get donors to commit to covering museum costs in the first three years.
Board president Rick Collette said the school within the museum was a disaster. Instead of providing income, it was a money drain. It won't be there when the museum reopens in the summer. The board is developing partnerships with the University of Washington's Burke Museum and Pilchuck Glass School to share a floor of exhibition space.

The interior needs a major remodel, he said.

"With what money?" called out former Bellevue curator Miriam Sternberg, from the audience.
"We need to raise it," he replied.
Former chief curator Brian Wallace said he thought it was important for institutions to encourage those who work there to maintain a healthy skepticism. "Don't drink the Kool-Aid," he said. "Don't buy into ill-founded enthusiasms."
Collette said the board has been meeting with more than 400 community, civic and art leaders on the Eastside and in Seattle and will, as a result, return to its craft roots, focusing on craft along with art and design.
"We let our supporters and the community down," he said. "We had to close to step back, take stock and fix it."

Doug McLennan, editor of artsjournal.com, said he thought the direct way the board handled the problem was admirable but worried about its survey-the-audience approach to articulating a vision.
Asked if he would have become board president if he'd known what was in store, Collette replied, "Absolutely not. Who would? But I'm staying around after we reopen. That will be the fun part. It will make all of this worthwhile."

The museum hopes to reopen at least in time for the next Bellevue Arts Fair in July."

Hackett, R. "College art conference goes wild over guerrilla girls." Seattle PI. February 24, 2004. http://www.seattlepi.com/visualart/161734_collegeart24.html

Eli Hansen @ The Lawrimore Project

2010-04-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

April 2010 Lawrimore Project website:

"“We Used To Get So High,” an exhibition of new work by Elias Hansen, is that redemptive look back while at the same time laying bare the problems and impotence of hindsight. Working with found objects and meticulously crafted glass, sculptural and photographic elements, Hansen imbues his ad hoc constructions with poetically-weighted meditations on place, history and memory. There are three strains distinct to Northwest aesthetics informing Hansen’s work—the handmade, the utilitarian and the spiritually-charged. Tapping the revolutionary energy of the outmoded, the work’s back woods, d.i.y. look was born out of the formative years he spent on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula with his brother and friends who were compelled to create but constrained by the materials and objects that were on hand. These youthful collaborations in the traditions of 70s countercultures, utopian thought and alternative lifestyles have continued into his mature work producing major projects with the same set of friends in museums, institutions and art spaces throughout the world. Although his visual vernacular is associated with the Pacific Northwest, Hansen’s pathologic deployment of these materials and forms give them power beyond the place itself; their specificity of origin belying their universal spirit and import. His objects, moments and recollections are handed down, not for the sake of nostalgia alone, but become our charge for reflection and transmission. This is the artist’s first one-person exhibition with the gallery."

April 1-May 8, 2010

Hours

Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am - 5:30 pm

Or by appointment

831 Airport Way S., Seattle, WA 98134

(206) 501-1231

2006 part five

2010-04-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

Photo Credit: Jane Rosen

Slides 37 and 38 in "Bird Talk"given at Pilchuck Glass School May 28, 2008

http://janerosen.net/gallery/v/jane/exhibitions/bird+talk/bird+talk/Slide38.jpg.html

2006 Matthew Kangas:

"This month's exhibitions at Friesen Gallery are timed to coincide with tonight's annual Pilchuck Glass School auction. Local glass fans and out-of-town collectors can judge the work of Jane Rosen and the health of the Stanwood school's 16-year-old emerging artists-in-residence program (EAiR). Rosen's show is strong; this year's EAiR is possibly the worst ever.

Some of Rosen's artworks are made of glass but most are mixed-media sculptures, paintings and drawings that evoke a lost or endangered world of nature and a fragmented, battered environment involving animal parts, bird wings and animal hooves.

With an echo of glass artist William Morris, Rosen (who recently retired from the University of California, Berkeley) is more muted and subtle. Her small painted-plaster plaques are homages to quail, deer and Chinese landscapes. They join larger watercolors like "Anatomy of a Horse" (2005), "Amber (Iris)" (2006) and "Birdseed" (2006), soft-focus nature studies of delicate and pale colors. The latter, especially, is indebted to Morris Graves with its faded-rice-paper appearance and filmy green background.

Rosen's sculptures seem stronger statements. "Marble Wing" (2006) is a carved wing shape that confounds our expectations of soft feathers, here executed in hard Portuguese marble. "Oh Deer" (2005) is a wall-mounted effigy of a deer without legs, smothered in a marble-dust paste. Even more satisfying, "Feet Herd" (2006) is six free-standing animal hooves averaging 7 feet high. They are echoes of a beautiful drawing hanging nearby, "Feet First" (2005).

Best of all, six cast-glass bear and seal or sea-lion heads each juts out from the wall with considerable mystery and power. Done during Rosen's own Pilchuck residency, they prove once again how important it is for artists working in other materials to come to Pilchuck and try out glass. For Rosen, 56, the results are quietly spectacular.

The EAiR program has an illustrious past but seems in crisis now. Subject of an elaborate Tacoma Art Museum survey in 2000 with a lavish catalog, the program's recent shows, hosted by Friesen and other galleries over the years, have been a letdown. Since Friesen has two separate storefront spaces in the Washington Mutual Tower, the Rosen show should have been in the larger of the two. The six women from Pilchuck could barely fill half of the bigger space.

The emerging artists in residence focus on experimental work while at Pilchuck but this does not always translate into a gallery setting. For example, gallery owner Andria Friesen mentioned that more than 25 percent of the work sent was broken in shipment or otherwise unexhibitable. Pilchuck co-directors Pike Powers and Ruth King should help the artists with basic professional practices or junk the whole gallery showcase idea.

Exhibit review

"Jane Rosen: Tracking" and "Pilchuck Glass School: 16th Year of Emerging Artists-in-Resident," 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, through Oct. 25, Friesen Gallery, 1200 Second Ave., Seattle (206-628-9501 or www.friesengallery.com).

Selected by a jury of eight, there may be too many cooks spoiling the broth. No male artists have been selected since 2003. One artist, Jenny Heishman, simply sent three works that had already been seen this summer in another local gallery a few blocks away. The most talented of the group, Heishman was a big disappointment.

To be fair, there are bits and pieces that may lead to something. Pat Bako's colorful large pâte-de-verre bowls are charming. Rachel Moore's six cast-glass outstretched hands cry out for a larger installation: there should have been dozens. Perhaps influenced by Moore, Cara Meling cast 16 glass half-feet — toes and insteps only — and propped them up on a pedestal, like corpses on a slab. Taguchi's "Sky Mountain" (2005) is the photo-document of her glass house project at Pilchuck. Why couldn't we have the house instead of the color photograph?

One final fear: Are the EAiR artists chosen examples of how talented younger artists are losing interest in glass? Instead of a thriving, emerging future, they may instead be signs of the beginning of the end."

Kangas, M. "End of an Era? A Pilchuck veteran outshines emerging artists" October 13, 2006. The Seattle Times. accessed April 2, 2010. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2003301516_visart13.html

2006 Mike Madison:

"This story in today's NYT about Seattle glass sculptor/industrialist Dale Chihuly only scratches the surface of the bitterness that surrounds his dealings with some members of the arts community.
The case sounds like another “can you copyright nature” kind of claim, but it seems more accurate to say that the case involves whether the plaintiff really owns what the plaintiff claims he owns — since he never, actually, made any of the glass sculptures involved. According to the Times:

He acknowledges that he has not blown glass for 27 years, dating from a surfing accident that cost him the full range of shoulder motion, an injury that struck three years after he had lost sight in his left eye in a traffic accident.
Still, Mr. Chihuly said, he works with sketches, faxes and through exhortation. Nothing with his name on it ever came from anyone but himself, he said.

Did that “exhortation” amount to “authorship” for copyright purposes? Or does the defendant — who blew glass under the plaintiff’s supervision — have his own “authorial” interests at stake? Take a look at this exhibit: a fax from the plaintiff to the defendant that communicates some sketches — and adds, “Here’s a little sketch but make whatever you want.” At the least, this sounds to me like the defendant has a plausible claim of joint authorship with respect to at least some of the plaintiff’s works. And the style of those works in general may be a product of the defendant as much as it is of Chihuly. If that’s right, then the defendant isn’t liable for copying — himself. If style can be owned, and if you own your style, then you’re allowed to express yourself. Just ask John Fogerty."

Madison, M. "Chihuly Glass Sculpture." Madison.net: law, technology, society. Accessed June 2, 2010. Dates: June 1st, 2006. http://madisonian.net/archives/2006/06/01/chihuly-glass-sculpture/

2008 part six

2010-04-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

I can envision an art show where all the pieces are tagged as police evidence. Files are scattered around the gallery with mugshots of the artists, notes and sketches... Paper coffee cups, a rotary phone, a dog-eared address book from the dollar store, ziploc bags with shards of glass...a list of suspects-- their names crossed off one by one.

2008 KIRO TV:
"The Seattle Police Department is hoping to return a large amount of stolen property, mostly blown glass art, to its owners. More than 300 items were recovered from a two and a half year investigation into an organized crime ring.Police said a majority of the items were stolen from art glass galleries and retailers.The SPD has put images of the stolen items on A CD-ROM that is available to the public at the Seattle Police Department headquarters at 610 Fifth Avenue in Seattle. Anyone who believes that any of these items are their property should call the Seattle police at 206-233-2666."

Kiro TV. "Missing Glass Art? Seattle PD May Have It" August 8, 2008. KiroTV.com Accessed April 2, 2010. http://www.kirotv.com/news/17136528/detail.html

2008 Seattle Art Museum:

"SEATTLE, April 10, 2008 – The Seattle Art Museum is launching a new contemporary art exhibition program entitled SAM Next. The program will present a series of three exhibitions each year introducing audiences to emerging or underappreciated artists working in the Northwest, around the United States and internationally.

The first in the series will feature the work of Oscar Tuazon and Eli Hansen and will be on view at SAM Downtown April 19 through October 26, 2008. For SAM Next, the artists will build an architectural fragment in the gallery entitled Kodiak. This structure will allude to another fragment Tuazon and Hansen are building in a remote wilderness location, and the viewer will be called upon to imagine the differences and commonalities between these two fictional places.

The SAM Next opening will be celebrated at SAM Remix on May 2. Tuazon and Hansen will speak at 6:30 p.m. in the Nordstrom Lecture Hall. SAM Remix, an event that occurs every first Friday of the month, features KEXP DJ Kid Hops in the Brotman Forum from 6 to 9 p.m and a cash bar from TASTE Restaurant. The event is free with admission. Tuazon (b. 1975) and Hansen (b. 1979) are brothers from Tacoma, WA, who have been working collaboratively, as well as independently, for several years. Hansen is a practicing glass-blower who works at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and has apprenticed with well-known artists in the field such as Sonia Blomdahl. Tuazon attended the prestigious Whitney Independent Study Program and also lives part of the year in Paris where he runs a gallery called Castillo/Corrales. Tuazon won the Betty Bowen Award in 2007.

Their recent collaborative projects have revolved around do-it-yourself architectural concepts and utopian, off-the-grid communities. In objects and installations (often utilizing hand-blown glass) their work offers intriguing proposals for new forms and structures. One of their works, Crystal Math (2007) entered SAM’s collection in 2007.

The second exhibition in the SAM Next series will feature Enrico David and will open on November 8, 2008. David (b. 1966) is an Italian artist who has been based in London for many years. David was recently featured in a solo exhibition at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art and has exhibited widely, but this will be his first solo exhibition in the United States. Known for work that combines personal narrative as well as a range of craft, David has created a body of work that is mysterious, idiosyncratic, and yet deeply humane. Ideas of loneliness, vulnerability, and loss coexist in his work with imagery that is also joyous and often theatrical. Sculpture, installation, collage, photography, performance and painting all figure into his wide-ranging work. A major sculpture, Wayne Shire (2006) entered SAM’s collection in 2006.

SAM Next is curated by Michael Darling, the Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
This exhibition was organized by the Seattle Art Museum with support provided by the Helen and Max Gurvich Exhibition Endowment."

Egan, C. "SAM Launches a New Contemporary Art Program" Press Release accessed April 2, 2010. http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/PressRoom/prRelease.asp?prID=153

2008 Sabina Dana Plasse:

"At the age of 12, Lino Tagliapietra was dubbed a maestro among glassblowers. Tagliapietra is the world's most celebrated living glassblower, and at 76 has created seven new series called "Metamorfosi," which will open at the Friesen Gallery in Ketchum for Gallery Walk on Friday, Dec. 26. The show will continue through Feb. 8.
"There are 33 museum pieces in this show," said Friesen Gallery's Andria Friesen. "The catalog for the show is the only published catalog of Lino's work with a quote by retired glass artist William Morris."
In Italy, "maestro" is a rarely awarded title. Friesen, who is celebrating 22 years of business, has been showing Tagliapietra's work for over 10 years and said it is a great honor to represent him.
"He was awarded the status of "maestro" five years before I was born," Friesen said. "He and Morris are the two best glassblowers in the world and there is no one behind Lino, which is why the Smithsonian is having his exhibition."
Tagliapietra is from Murano, Italy, a world center for glass and glassblowers. He has learned many techniques that have been closely kept to Murano glass artists. There are many layers of glass in all of his pieces and his etchings are perfect. Several of his pieces are constructed with many rods of glass, called cane, and appear as drawings.
"With molten glass you've got to keep moving," Friesen said. "When Lino came to America he revealed the techniques of Italian glassblowing, which the Italians disapproved of. Now, globally, artists and collectors thank Lino for sharing his secrets and consider him a god."
Friesen said Tagliapietra's show "Metamofosi" is seductive and uplifting, and has an ethereal quality to it. It is not a museum show even though all the pieces are museum quality. There is a balance of work and a feel of being able to live with the work.
"I want to create less of a museum environment and embrace a living environment," Friesen said. "I want people to be involved with the work. There are 11 major pieces in this show that are not on a pedestal and there are glass paintings."
Friesen said the Smithsonian is thrilled to know that her exhibition coincides with the "Lino Taliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Glass" on view at the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C."

Plasse, S.D. "Glass artist Lino Tagliapietra to bring ‘Metamorfosi’ to Ketchum." Idaho Mountain Express, December 24, 2008. http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005124187&var_Year=2008&var_Month=12&var_Day=24

Jean Godden: Chihuly should be in Pioneer Square and not Seattle Center

2010-03-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Jean Godden wrote an Op/Ed piece at Publicola.net, a Seattle online news source. She was a columnist at both the PI and the Times forever, and now she's on the city council.

March 2010 Jean Godden:

"Several years ago my friend Diane, an arts-loving journalist, had to make a decision: Buy a small but beautiful piece of Chihuly glass art or a new car. She opted for the glass. That meant she had to patch up her old car and make it last for three more years.

She’s never regretted the choice. The artistry of the Chihuly work is something that she still enjoys every day. The car, finally hauled off to the junk yard, is long gone. But, as they say, life is short, while art is forever.

Glass art is something that has flourished in our region, thanks to Dale Chihuly and his many talented colleagues. Chihuly’s art reflects and embodies the essence of Seattle and Western Washington. And, as such, it is important to find ways to honor the artistry and creativity and to share it with all Seattleites. I’m excited and thrilled at the prospect of a museum that would celebrate Chihuly’s glass.
At the same time, however, I confess that I am not convinced that we should site such a museum at the Seattle Center. The center is one of those special places that, perhaps more than any other, serves as the heart of our city. When we needed to come together to mourn–as we did after the September 11 attacks on our country–we gathered at the Seattle Center. When we’ve wanted to honor the fallen, we have united at the Seattle Center. When our newest citizens take their pledge of allegiance on July 4, they do so at the Seattle Center. Those 74 acres are the legacy of Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair, our own Central Park.

And although we have sited many attractions there, including the Space Needle, the Science Center, Seattle Opera, and Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as outstanding professional theaters and the Experience Music Project, the Center still offers passive, park-like areas where people can stroll, connect with community, and appreciate art and nature. That there are not more acres of greensward is regrettable.

To place another paid attraction at the Seattle Center would be a mistake. Even though the benefits of leasing—a half million dollars that would support the Center—are tempting, it would be a mistake not to think about the long term. While we are currently in a recession–a deep and troubling setback–that won’t last indefinitely. When times are better, I worry that we would look differently at the museum. Would we see one more paid attraction, one more structure replacing a spot of greenery and ask, “What were we thinking?”

It’s also important to consider the museum in light of the Seattle Center Master Plan, the plan that was drawn up by a broadly based committee of citizens and approved by the Seattle City Council. That plan calls for more public open space, more spaces for family-oriented attractions such as seating areas, and a water feature that could be converted into a winter ice-skating rink. The Center ought to offer more activities for all ages, including active play for young people. This need is even more urgent in light of the replacement of the Fun Forest attractions.

It is my hope that Seattle will indeed be home to a Chihuly Museum, dedicated to the glass artistry that is so evocative of our Puget Sound region, in one of our signature Seattle neighborhoods. Lately I’ve been thinking about Pioneer Square and the sad fact that the Elliott Bay Book Store no longer is a draw in that historic community. Could a Chihuly Museum be sited there, perhaps near Occidental Park ?
Siting such a special attraction is something that bears discussion. Too often we take for granted the talents that are unique to our region.

Jean Godden is a member of the Seattle City Council and chair of its Budget and Finance Committee. She was a columnist and chronicler of Seattle life for many years at both of Seattle’s daily papers."

Godden J. "Don't put the Chihuly Museum at Seattle Center." March 29, 2010. Accessed March 30, 2010. http://www.publicola.net/2010/03/29/sunday-oped-dont-put-the-chihuly-museum-at-seattle-center/#more-33117

Marcus Amerman @ Ahalenia Studios, Santa Fe

2010-03-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

‘Freedom of Information:The FBI, Indian Country, and Surveillance’

The show will be open to the public from 1:00 – 6:00 pm on the following three weekends:

May 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, and 16. During the week, from May 2 to May 14, the show will be open by appointment, which can be arranged via ahalenia@gmail.com.

March 2010, Staci Golar:

"Three poets and over 15 visual artists will explore the complex and often violent relationship between Native Americans and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the art show, Freedom of Information The FBI, Indian Country, and Surveillance.

Indian Country has a much more intimate relationship with the Federal Bureau of Investigation than most of America. The Seven Major Crimes Act of 1885 gave the FBI jurisdiction over reservations when dealing with such major crimes as murder – and Indian Country certainly needs law enforcement. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, the FBI also famously launched COINTELPRO, a covert program to undermine activist organizations that the government deemed threatening, and particularly Native American rights organizations. Families, even loosely affiliated with activist organizations, were followed, monitored, and harassed. Ground zero for clashes between the FBI and Native peoples was Pine Ridge, South Dakota, from 1973 to 1975, when hundreds of murders have gone unsolved. [...]

This art show will explore the personal experiences of artists who have been incarcerated, threatened, attacked, or spied upon by the FBI, but also artists who have worked with the FBI as prosecutors and who have been helped by the FBI in investigations. Artists explore the effect of these experiences on their personal lives. We also examine how, due to technological advances, surveillance has become utterly ubiquitous and even accepted in today’s world. Now most photographs and videos are taken by machines, not human beings. What does this lack of privacy mean to us individually and collectively? How does it change our behavior? And where ultimately will it lead us?"

Golar, S. "Art and Activism collide." Native Times. March 22, 2010. http://www.nativetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3267:art-and-activism-collide&catid=47&Itemid=23

MORE on Marcus Amerman: Marcus Amerman @ Tacoma's Museum of Glass

conviction makes an admirable collector

2010-03-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Jill Reynolds

detail, Family Matter
Photo Credit: Creative Commons License, Flickr user unforth

Those vapid quotes on the walls of the Bellevue Art Museum got me trying to find something better.

2005 Michael Kimmelman: "Not all collectors are eccentrics, of course. Most aren't, although the best often are: out of passion and private conviction, they collect what may not yet be ratified, as opposed to what fashion and the market already prize, in the belief that public taste should someday catch up. The combination of public service and the strength of one's conviction is what defines an admirable collector."

Kimmelman, M. "The Accidental Masterpiece." Penguin Books, NY. 2005. p100

Eyes for Glass, more thoughts

2010-03-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

At Eyes For Glass this weekend, Jill Reynold's hilarious "Movers and Shakers" provoked this loud response from two ladies, "Ahhhhhhhg. Blech." As if they had become enveloped in a cloud of pollution and could not breathe. Which leads to this: If you are as concerned about the carbon emmissions of glassblowing as Seattle writer Knute Berger is, then offset your trip to the Bellevue Arts Museum by taking an alternate means of transportation. Bicycle or walk, as my friend Andrew and I did on Sunday. Here's directions from downtown Seattle to the Bellevue Arts Museum. Bring rain gear (of course).

Begin at 1st Avenue
Ride East up Jackson Street through the International District.
Take a right onto 12th Avenue and cross the Jose P. Rizal bridge.
Take a left onto the bike trail at the light and go through Daejeon Park.
Continue on the bike/foot path as it parallels the start of the I-90 freeway.
Cross Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, at the crosswalk, into Sam Smith Park.
Bike/walk through the I-90 tunnel.
[This video is going West through the tunnel, you are going the other direction.]

Bike/walk a short distance downhill to the I-90 Trail and cross Lake Washington.
Once on Mercer Island, you will stay on the bike trail, it's not completely intuitive, but follow signs and other bikers to get to the second part of the I-90 bridge.
Once off the bridge, get off the bike trail and take a sharp left onto the road (SE 34th Street).
Take a right onto 108th Avenue SE.
Ride/Walk 108th Avenue SE through the quiet neighborhoods (there isn't a bike lane here, you're on the road for now).
Take a left onto Bellevue Way SE. (you are now in Bellevue and very very close, so if you'd prefer a smaller street, any will do)
Cross Main Street.
Stay on Bellevue Way SE.
Gregg's Cycles is up this street on the left.
The Bellevue Arts Museum is up this street on the right.

Bellevue Art Museum by Steven Holl
Originally uploaded by FHKE

There is place to lock your bike up in the BAM parking garage.
Find the map at http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Pioneer-Square-to-Microsoft-via-I-90

Eyes for Glass @ Bellevue Arts Museum, review

2010-03-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

March 2010, ABJ Seattle Glass Online:

“You can either buy clothes or buy pictures.” -Gertrude Stein

Downstairs at the Bellevue Arts Museum, the people chose clothes; upstairs, pictures. Beth and Herbert Levine made and marketed women’s shoes; John and Joyce Price collected art. To read the review on toe-pumps and rhinestoned vamps please go to the Seattle Times. To read about the Price Collection, Eyes for Glass, continue below.

There are two main parts to the Price collection as it is arranged at the museum: Studio glass and Native Art. The accompanying brochure explains that the Price collection began with John Price’s childhood desire to collect the art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec after seeing the movie Moulin Rouge. Several Toulouse-Lautrec lithographs from the 1890s are shown, alongside them are two vessels by Walter Lieberman that feature paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec on their surfaces, accompanied by one of Martin Luther King, Jr. Was Lieberman commissioned to do the series of vessels for Price or did Leiberman’s interest in influential artists coincide with Price‘s love of Toulouse-Lautrec?

Certain artists, such as Lieberman, appear more than others in the collection and make the viewer curious which themes appealed to the Price’s. It wasn't just his portrayal of Toulouse-Lautrec that drew the collectors to him; Gregory Grenon and Jill Reynolds are both represented with multiple pieces, their painted-style, like Leiberman, standing apart from the Venetian vessels shown as singular examples by the artist (Dale Chihuly, William Morris, Benjamin Moore) and other forms of cast abstract sculpture.

Beginning in the 1970s, John Price began to collect glass from artists with a student/teacher/artist-in-resident connection to Pilchuck Glass School. As he explains in Wealth in 2006, “One of my main areas of expertise has been working with art dealers, and that’s absolutely key to putting together a significant collection…you can’t completely avoid [mistakes], but a good dealer will help you make sure you are acquiring original pieces.”

If collecting art is about establishing relationships with artists and art dealers, then showing the collection is partly about sharing this relationship with the viewer. The curator may be asking the viewer to simply enjoy the art on display, but one can't help but wonder about the personal events that shaped this collection. What part did Joyce Price play in the collection, is one unanswered question. But in this case the viewer is thwarted from looking for cues to the collector/artist story by the hollow quotes on art collecting on the walls:

“Collectors are happy people.” -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.

The second part of the Price collection on exhibit at BAM is an amazing assemblage of Native Art with the emphasis on glass. Joe David’s carvings and blown glass are shown in depth. His piece Whaler’s Spirit is a graceful form; it shows a killer whale carrying a clear glass skull atop its body. Preston Singletary’s sand-carved hats and many other sculptures are exhibited in a brightly lit gallery space, as opposed to how his work was shown recently in Tacoma at the Museum of Glass, and the pieces still feel powerful, and they still glow from within.

If there are artists in the exhibit [you can find a list here] that you have not yet had the chance to see in person, or if you are interested in the glass work of Native artists who are currently creating a ‘new tradition‘ as artist Ed Archie Noisecat says, Eyes for Glass is only $10, or $7 for students, at the Bellevue Arts Museum. The show runs until August 8, 2010.

Bibliography:
Unknown. "Master Collectors" Wealth. p. 24, 2006, Accessed March 22, 2010. http://www.northerntrust.com/wealth/06-spring/living.html

Op/Ed Letter: glass is 'old hat', rides are thrilling.

2010-03-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today the Seattle Times published four letters to the editor regarding Chihuly's Seattle Center proposal, all against it. Here's an excerpt from one:

"Seattle doesn’t need a Chihuly building at Seattle Center. There are already so many glass museums throughout the country that it has gotten to be an “old hat” — and the one we have in Tacoma has next to no appeal at all. Really, does any glass museum attract a broad group of visitors?

[...]

Kids need a place to experience the thrill of a ride. So, at least for now, why not put new rides back in place and spend a little money subsidizing them to keep it affordable. It’ll also help much-needed vendor sales in the food court. Promote the idea through media and schools and sell books of tickets at area stores like they do for the Puyallup Fair.

At least give it a try for a year until the economy picks up. The space is ready to go and who knows, maybe even the permits [for the rides] are still current?

— Cathy Schmidt, Issaquah"

More on OLD HATS here...,

Letters editor. "Chihuly's glass house shattering." March 21, 2010. Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/northwestvoices/2011391406_chihulysglasshouseshattering.html

HART @ Wright Park Conservancy

2010-03-20T05:41:00.001-07:00

Glass and Tourism...environmental effects explored

2010-03-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

March 2010 ABJ Seattle Glass Online:

In today's Seattle Times article "Grand plan to remake Seattle Center fizzles: makeover lacks money, political will; is Chihuly project next best option?", authors Emily Heffter and Susan Kelleher compare statistics on the major tourist attractions in the area. The Museum of Glass in Tacoma had 177,333 visitors in the 2008-9 fiscal year. The Space Needle, 1.5 million in 2009. The Pacific Science Center, 890,000 and the EMP/SF Museum 511,540 in 2009. Because Mayor Mike McGinn doesn't want to put a levy on the Center up to public vote, the plans cannot be seen through and a private option is the only way to go. Chihuly is said to be the only private option on the table right now. Estimates are that the Chihuly Center could draw 400,000 visitors.

Crosscut writer, Knute Berger, uses Glass Quarterly's recent info on the carbon-footprint of glassblowing to provide another reason to question the Chihuly Center proposed for the park at the base of the Space Needle. He cites an estimate of 90 hot shops "in Seattle." According to him, that would be about the equivalent carbon-emissions of 9,000 households. But this information is useless without something else to compare it to. Is that more "households" than other industries? That's like saying, "This toothpaste works 90% better." Better than what? Compared to what? I don't know the answer, maybe glassblowing is the most polluting industry in Seattle, I'm asking.

But Berger states that Seattle glassblowers are making "beautiful baubles for well-heeled collectors." Which makes all glass blowing in town a pointless endeavor anyhow and any carbon-footprint that comes of it seem like a travesty.

And that is why not just any comparison will do, what we choose to compare the carbon-footprint of glass to must be seen as a luxury good to this author. What could that be? What other "luxury goods" are manufactured in Seattle?

Everyone in the industry already knows that glass has to get more energy-efficient, if not for the environment, then simply to stay in business. But the Crosscut article questions Chihuly at the Seattle Center based on an environmental charge, and in doing so, questions all of the Seattle industry. And that is not a bad charge to make: It should be made on every industry. It is also a relevant charge, because if we're questioning the carbon footprint of the artwork, why not move on to the carbon footprint of all the tourists who will come to see the artwork? All the 1.5 million tourists who travel to see the Space Needle. All the jet fuel, the hotel laundry, the restaurant food... and tell me again, how much of Seattle's economy is based on tourism?

March 2010, Knute Berger:

"Seattle city council president Richard Conlin is reportedly enthused about the new Chihuly complex at Seattle Center, calling it an "extraordinary opportunity," but he's also the one leading the charge against carbon emissions, the ones created to make Chihuly's glass works in the first place. The proposed glass house would be a monument to what can be produced if you burn enough fossil fuel in pursuit of a kind of commercial, artistic alchemy, but symbolically at least, doesn't it rather undercut the city's green messaging?"

Berger, K. "Dale Chihuly's big footprint." Crosscut.com. March 15, 2010. http://crosscut.com/2010/03/15/mossback/19672/

BAM begins John and Joyce Price collection show

2010-03-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

On Thursday "Eyes for Glass" opens at BAM.

March 2010, from The Bellevue Arts Museum website:

"For John and Joyce Price, collecting art is a passion; a unique, personal way of entering into a rich and meaningful life experience as well as a way of being receptive and responsible to life. Collecting objects has allowed them to establish not only a dialogue with artists, but also to grow into lifelong friendships with them. Each object is a reminder of an intimacy established over time through giving and receiving. At a time when the world is fragmented and chaotic, the Prices have sought to share objects that speak of balance, beauty and harmony.

Enamored by the art created in the United States' Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, the Prices' collection includes works in all art and craft media by American and Native American artists. Eyes for Glass focuses on just one aspect of their collecting activities – works whose common denominator is glass – whether it be blown, cast, cold-worked, sand-cast, engraved, fused, slumped, carved, lamp-worked, painted or in combination with non-glass materials.

Artists included in the exhibition are: Sean Albert, Kenojuak Ashevak, Jane Beebe, Lisbeth Biger, Sonja Blomdahl, Curtis Brock, Frederick Carder, Dale Chihuly, Joe David, Laura de Santillana, Steven DeVries, Fritz Driesbach, Tom Farbanish, Gisele et Regis Fievet, Fabio Fornasier, Kyohei Fujita, Saburo Funakoshi, Ann Gardner, Mitchell Gaudet, Katherine Gray, Gregory Grenon, Susan Holland Reed, James Houston, Clarissa Hudson, Ulrica Hydman-Vallien, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Joey Kirkpatrick, Sabrina Knowles, David Leight, Walter Lieberman, Flora Mace, Joanna Manousis, Dante Marioni, Paul Marioni, Massimo Micheluzzi, Ohotaq Mikkigak, Yasuko Miyazaki, Tobias Mohl, Benjamin Moore, William Morris, Mel Munsen, Felice Nittolo, Marvin Oliver, Allan Packer, Jackie Pancari, Danny Perkins, Shaun Peterson, Susan Point, Anni Pootoogook, Jill Reynolds, Richard Royal, Ginny Ruffner, Judith Schaechter, Preston Singletary, David Schwartz, Therman Statom, Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, Lino Tagliapietra, Cappy Thompson, Cesare Toffolo Rossit, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Veruska Vagen, Bertil Vallien, Laura Ward, Dick Weiss, Sally Worcester, Willian Worcester, Hiroshi Yamano, Mark Zirpel and Toots Zinsky."

Accessed March 16, 2010. http://www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/upcoming/eyes_for_glass.htm

Two new articles on Seattle Center proposal

2010-03-13T21:43:00.000-08:00

"Glass vs. Grass" was the Seattle Times headline this Wednesday, as the city began public debate over what to do with the Seattle Center. Chihuly and the Wright's have proposed a privately funded permanent Chihuly exhibit, cafe, and shop. It was approved by the Seattle Design Commission and awaits the decision of the City Council and the Mayor. However, there is opposition to the idea. The expected entrance fee of $12-$14 goes against the popular desire for public space on city-owned property.

Thursday, The Stranger reported on the "60 public meetings" about the Center that occurred between 2006 and 2008 in which "the response was overwhelming: more open, green space" was wanted. The article, titled "Another Backward, Half-Baked Idea for Seattle Center: Owners of Space Needle want a Massive Chihuly Museum Next Door," gives evidence that not everyone is on board with the Chihuly plan and calls for public debate to ensure that public space is used for public good.

Artist Nori Sato is quoted in the article: "I just didn't know, if you were you going to set up a center like this, whether devoting it to a single artist was adequate--civic enough as an opportunity. My other concern was the way Chihuly was thinking about it; it just wasn't a big enough idea..."

Heffter, E., Gilmore, S., and Kelleher, S. "Glass vs. Grass." The Seattle Times. A1. March 10, 2010.

Graves, J. "Another Backward, Half-baked Idea." The Stranger. March 11, 2010. p 15.

Time is held in a piece of glass...

2010-03-12T21:58:00.000-08:00

Enjoy this essay on glass from local writer Michael Franich.

March 2010 Michael Franich:

Along the beach small bits of quartz accumulate over time, sparkling crystals that dry and blow away in the wind, the way snow does, just above the surface. Who was it so long ago that puzzled out a way to increase the heat from a wood fire, to melt mineral grains into a permanent liquid, one that flows in its own time and space. Humans transform nature into altered artifacts, and in this process, for a time they might experience more completely who and what they are. The story that remains over time reflects through shades of color, angular cuts and delicate lines. For as much as time might be captured, held against its insistent need to erode and erase all that came before, time is held in a piece of glass, as a way to remember.

A cruise ship on the Mediterranean is a wall of white metal, speckled with pieces of glass. On a sunny, flatwater day the view spreads out to the horizon. On a stormy, the wind driving rain against the glass, a wave approaches, rises up thirty feet and smashes through the window, killing tourists and spreading panic through the decks. Waves of two and three, traveling across great distances will rise up and reflect off solid objects. Like the window on a cruise ship, there is so much we take for granted, the window that offers protection from the wind, a room with a view, and then suddenly, the earthquake, the storm smashes through and life becomes a different experienced. Glass so much like a face and workplace attire, a boundary between the world and all the fragile life inside.

Glass begins as so many grains of sand, molten, fire red in a furnace of the sun, formed into practical plates and cups of Greek design, shipped over waters the cruise ships now travel. How the early craftsmen and women produced these goods should remain a mystery. The fact of fire that hot, contained and concentrated deserves a reverential respect. When ships are overcome with waves, when glass is left undisturbed at the bottom of a shallow sea, even with the angry waters above foaming in ten meter waves, the glass would seem to be eternal, sea green, at rest with the treasures waiting to be found, waiting to explain.

How often did Galileo reconsidered glass, in terms of a curse, forming and shaping a rough surface, polishing the lens to extend his vision well beyond his reach, to grasp the sight of Jupiter's moons and thereby deduce that earth, as precious as it might be, was not the center of it all. For all human efforts a price must be paid. And not being able to contain a truth like that, he endured house arrest, a villain in the eyes of a church that, at the time, would know all truth and demand that others respect this fact.

Glass preserves the fruit and pickles, seals out bacteria that would otherwise reduce the treasure of summer to unpleasant circumstances. Glass protects the stout and porter, the pale ale and fragile bite of clear Rhine wine. In the form of varied stem-ware, glass reveals the color of a personality, the scent and secrets within the bottle. Sauerkraut and artichoke hearts, mayonnaise and mustard, immune and beyond the effects of mild acid environments, glass protects and preserves.

There are those moments late at night when prescription glasses can be removed and the eyes peer outside to see the world another way, ring after ring of auras glowing in sparkling colors. The miraculous vision may be do to a cataract, or the general condition of near sightedness. At other times, the lens defines the experience of life, manipulates waves of light into a realistic image, seen through glass, or the modern equivalent of polycarbonate. How it is the simple curve of a convex lens can change all things, bring into focus in a clear and immediate way, those objects near and far way. At times, perhaps as a form of escape, the glasses might be removed. For a time, walking or paddling along, enjoying an alternate reality becomes a simple pleasure, as innocent as imagined afternoons that appear in the middle of a busy day. When reality intervenes, the glasses go back on. They dip into the bathtub once a day, washing sweat off the nose piece, dust and dandruff flakes, to be shined and polished for the day to come, all the magic that might be seen when the world is approached, one breath at a time. They are no longer heavy glass but they remain a reminder of eye exams, the years that build a pile of different colored frames.

There is more than one way to see, to know and understand, to look and search inside, and to bring forth into the world an image of what this experience means. To gather up a glowing ball of light, to work and shape the surface, paddle here, inflate with the force of straining lungs, twist, flame, rotate and spin into existence what never was before. Asbestos gripped and lowered, cooled in the darkness, waiting for what the light reveals about the efforts of many hands, glass tells a story in its unique way, a newer page in the book of time, the legend of the world.

Chihulys give $150,000 to Artist Trust

2010-03-12T21:05:00.000-08:00

From Regina Hackett @ Another Bouncing Ball:

"The new Dale Chihuly grant is a hefty chunk of change: $25,000 for two Washington State artists in any discipline annually for three years, administered by Artist Trust. Chihuly and his wife Leslie gave $150,000, and Artist Trust turned it into a recession gap-grant with bells on."

Read more at Another Bouncing Ball.

Hackett, R. "Hefty Dale Chihuly grant." Another Bouncing Ball. Artsjournal blog. February 2010.

Chihuly Museum and Garden moving along

2010-03-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

Seattle National Public Radio's Megan Walker is reporting this morning that the Chihuly project at Seattle Center awaits approval by the City Council and the Mayor. If approved it will begin construction in the fall. Concerns by one city council member are that the lease is 30 years long and the lease is with two private families, the Wright family and the Chihuly family.

This spring and summer will hold some interesting debate for Seattle on the subject of glass.

Sotheby's March 9th, 2010 Contemporary Art Sale Results

2010-03-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit: Sotheby's

Lot 213 in SALE N08617, Dale Chihuly
(Sold for $10,000, estimate was $8-12,000)

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08617&live_lot_id=213

Pratt Fine Arts @ City Hall

2010-03-09T16:27:00.000-08:00

There's a lot of open space at City Hall:

Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online

And that's just downstairs. The main level is spacious and less red, a good place for the Pratt Fine Arts' showcase "Incubator: Revitalizing the Seattle Arts Community." Curated by Paula Stokes, it features blown glass by Granite Calimpong, Boyd Sugiki, Sabrina Knowles and Jenny Pohman, Sean O'Neill, and Chuck Lopez. Below is "Stack No. 2" (2001) done by Granite Calimpong.

Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online
2010

(The City of Seattle has a fondness for these crazy womb rooms):

"Red Hall 3"
taken in the Seattle Central Library
flickr user: mamamusings
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liz/835478/in/photostream/

Pratt Fine Arts @ City Hall

2010-03-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

Incubator for Artists: Revitalizing the Seattle Arts Community
March 1 - April 13, 2010

City Hall Lobby Gallery and the Anne Focke Gallery, 600 4th Ave
Public Artist Reception: Thursday March 25th from 4 - 6pm
City Hall Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 7am - 6pm

Incubator for Artists will showcase the breadth of Pratt's programming, presenting art work created by past and present instructors, scholarship recipients, Master and Visiting Artists, Youth Program Participants, and studio renters.

a way back to the magic

2010-03-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

Neil Roberts
BA na na BA na na MAN go
PHOTO CREDIT: Glass Central Canberra
http://glasscentralcanberra.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/tour-de-force-the-show/

Here's an excerpt that was posted online at Glass Central Canberra's Wordpress blog. It's from the catalogue to the show Tour de Force, showcasing eight Australian artists: Tom Moore, Jacqueline Gropp, Ian Mowbray, Trish Roan, Neil Roberts, Nicholas Folland, Deborah Jones, and Timothy Horn.

February 2010, Megan Bottari, curator:

"It mustn’t be imagined that Tour de Force is yet another in a long line of group exhibitions purporting to showcase ‘the best of’ Australian contemporary glass practice – on the contrary, it is deliberately distanced from such superficial, though standard, hyperbole. What the show does

represent, however, is a line of demarcation between the conventional status quo that currently appears to hold the Australian studio glass scene in thrall and our (now ever so slightly flagging) expectations regarding the next wave of creative regeneration. Glass has become disappointingly same-same; and while imitation is clearly considered an acceptable, and often sincere, form of flattery – notwithstanding that appropriation is a post-modern art form in itself – it doesn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, enrich the ‘gene pool’.

In many ways Australian studio glass is a victim of its own success. A model (even pampered) child of the times, it’s been tainted like everything else by the rampant global consumerism of the past decade or so and hooked on that most fateful of homogenizing agents, bourgeois aspiration. The progressive spirit that spawned the pioneer movement in the 1960-70’s has been all but suppressed by arch conservatism and the truckling for approbation and (small-f, surely) fame. But patronage has always been a tricky business in the arts, and one suspects that creative integrity will always remain key. So how did we get to the stalemate of derivation and corporate ennui that presently characterizes mainstream contemporary glass, and is there a way back to the wonder and the joy? To the magic.

[...]

Studio glass in Australia has hit a critical watershed, particularly in view of the Global Financial Crisis. The sky has fallen in on the reliable bourse environment that supported the (seemingly invincible) buoyant art market, and the sector now faces the potential of straightened circumstances. This is not to say that the purse is empty, but the good old days of plenty, when literally anything could sell, are over. The market from here on in is likely to be a little less liberally indulgent. Artists will need to reassess their modus operandi – apart from anything else, there’s the duty of care to the planet to consider. Studio glass has a carbon footprint that, frankly, wouldn’t bear close scrutiny and in view of the looming environmental-global warming crisis, it behoves practitioners to reconsider very carefully what they make, and why. And, at the very least, make it count. Instead of banging out a succession of predictably vacuous objects, artists should start to think about engaging both empathetically and intelligently with material to produce something a little more enlightening. Something that inspires us to lofty sentiment, that alerts us to divers ethical imperatives, that expresses the very essence of our being. Because this is the role of the arts, is it not? A visual expression of the cultural currency of the day."

Sand and Glass, post 1

2010-03-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

Interesting Facts and Figures from the book Sand by Michael Welland.

2009 Michael Welland:

~Earliest glassworks discovered: Nile Delta, 125o B.C.

~Discovery of glass not in Egypt (as Pliny describes in Natural History), but in Mesopotamia.

~Simple beads found in Iraq and Syria from 2300 B.C.

~Most of these beads were made in Venice: 1800's exported 6 million pounds of beads/year

~Resources of copper oxide, gold, and pure copper (additives to create color in glass) determined where the centers of glassmaking developed.

~"Cagoli" is Italian for pebbles. The Ticino river in NW Italy carries quartz glass and pebbles from the Alps which were used to make glass (no longer).

~Receded sea bed in Fontainebleau (outside of Paris) contains tracts of up to 100ft. thick white sand. (current source).

~1739, Jamestown, VA: Caspar Wistar (a German immigrant) brought over German glassblowers and opened a factory in NJ where there was lots of sand and oyster shells.

~The United States consumes well over eleven million tons of glass sand every year."

Welland, M. "Sand: The Never-ending story. University of California Press, 2009.

Subversion in Moscow, Idaho

2010-03-05T19:37:00.000-08:00

February 2010 Becca Johnson:

"MOSCOW, Idaho – “SLAG: The Anti Art Glass,” the single most important exhibit in the University of Idaho's Prichard Art Gallery history, opens Wednesday, Feb. 24, and runs through April 10. SLAG has been created to expand perceptions of glass art.

"These groups of artists are equally diverse in their cultural backgrounds, geographic locations and artistic approach to glass," said Roger Rowley, director of the gallery. "They expand assumptions about glass art and blur the lines of artistic practice between media."

“Elegance of form and interplay with light are not the overriding theme in any of the art," said Rowley. "This isn’t to say there aren’t any elegant forms. Conversely, some of the artists actively subvert notions of beauty in their work.”

Each of the artists has a story to tell. Walter Zimmerman’s life experiences lead to questioning of one’s place. Marc Swanson’s concern with the natural world can be seen in his work. Elizabeth Lyons translates her experiences of work and construction through feminist ideals. Renée Stout approaches autobiography through make-belief characters and voodoo traditions. Einar and Jamex de la Torre channel the culture of the Mexican-American borderlands including Mesoamerican iconography.

“In the end, the diversity of the backgrounds of the artists in SLAG is readily apparent,” Rowley said. “The SLAG artists are largely from the margins of the dominant American culture and inhabit the margins of the glass art tradition. This enlivens the exhibit with numerous avenues to look at their work.”

This is where artists dealing with different social issues use representation like the grotesque to enrich what glass art can be.

“There is beauty but there is something else as well, each in its own way exquisite,” Rowley said.

[...] The Gallery recently received $7,000 from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation in New Mexico to support this exhibit. [...] "

Johnson, B. "“SLAG: The Anti Art Glass Exhibit” Opens Feb. 24 at the Prichard Art Gallery." University of Idaho News and Events online. February 12, 2010. Accessed March 5, 2010. http://www.uidaho.edu/newsevents/item?name=slag-the-anti-art-glass-exhibit-opens-feb-24-at-the-prichard-art-gallery

mites crawl up/tights fall down...

2010-03-05T19:27:00.001-08:00

H.R. Giger made glass stalagmites for the Animal Collective show Transverse Temporal Gyrus at the Guggenheim. See the Solomon R. Guggenheim Photostream on Flickr.

last chance for laser tag...

2010-03-05T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here's an update from the Seattle PI blog on the Fun Forest>>Chihuly exhibit. Followed by some comments off the blog....

March 2010 Vanessa Ho:

" [...] Talks are ongoing between Chihuly's people, the Seattle Center and the Space Needle to convert the south end of the Fun Forest into a permanent exhibition space for the Northwest's iconic glass artist, complete with a store and cafe. [...] In 2007, the city decided to shut down the Fun Forest, after watching a steady decline in revenue and crowds no longer attracted to the park's skee balls, bumper cars and "Puff 'n' Dumbo" ride. Created in the wake of the World's Fair, the park had deteriorated so much that then-Seattle City Council president Nick Licata deemed it "a dreary forest." [...] Whatever happens, just don't call the project a "museum." That much was clear from earlier discussions. A museum has rotating exhibits and the exhibit would be a permanent installation of Chihuly's works."

Ho, V. "Chihuly exhibit may replace Fun Forest." Seattle PI blog. March 4, 2010

"Posted by Tenochtitlan at 3/4/2010 8:31 p.m.

It occurs to me that the only time I hear anything about glass art, it's Dale Chihuly's glass art. I've got nothing against the man himself, but surely there are other people in the Pacific Northwest who work with glass, yes? Are they all so utterly inferior as artists that they never warrant attention? Or have they been covered in these pages, and I failed to read about them?"

"Posted by lala555 at 3/4/2010 9:08 p.m.

Enough of the Chihuly! Let's feature some other artists for a change."

"Posted by ken7489 at 3/5/2010 12:10 a.m.

What a waste of prime real estate. Can we stop spending time and money creating things that only have value when you go just once? Take EMP for example - you go once and it's great...but that's about it....maybe again when you have out of town visitors. Can we have things that are worth going to multiple times? Sure there are other artists if you want a platter to put over your mantle. But if it must be glass art on the scale in that conceptual design, then it's gonna be Chihuly. There is nobody else when it comes to this scale."

"Posted by bdouglas0 at 3/5/2010 5:09 a.m.

Great idea. Replace carnival rides with carnival glass."

"Posted by Clark W. Griswold at 3/5/2010 9:44 a.m.

I think most of us agree the Center doesn't need Chihuly's "first-class" artwork. His schtick is getting old. Bring in some younger artistic talent with a fresher sensibility."

"Posted by MAXIMA at 3/5/2010 9:51 a.m.

"For us, it fits our mission, and it would be something unique in the world, and very appropriate given what Dale Chihuly has done for the region," said Seattle Center spokeswoman Deborah Daoust.

And just what is that mission? Decorating?

No thanks, I'd rather have a fun forest."

"Posted by Kurosawa at 3/5/2010 11:23 a.m.

And what's wrong with simply converting it to open space? Folk Life, Bumbershoot, and the Byte could certainly utilize the additional space. We could even include a "free speech" corner for soap box speeches and harangues and/or an open mic for performers (with a "boo meter" to shut off the mic?).

I mean, let's use some imagination. We're Seattle, not a Tacoma copycat."

"Posted by NYFLWA at 3/5/2010 11:31 a.m.

RE: Kurosawa. I'm not sure if the Pier 48 can support that weight.

RE: Chilhuly haters
Yes, we have many talented glass artists in the PNW and their works are are featured in several of our institutions: SAM, MOG, TAM, BAM, etc...

However we're talking about Seattle Center. Chihuly has cache beyond Pugetopolis so when people come to Seattle Center they want to see Chihuly. When you go to Rome you want to see Da Vinci & Michelangelo.

Granted, I hope there'll be room to showcase some of talent but Chihuly is the draw. I love this idea. Looking fwd to the Center House concepts.

The Center's golden anniversary is upon us, time to implement some Century 21 evolution.

And for the record, the EMP is a relevant viable institution. In addition to its permanent exhibits, touring exhibits have thrilled visitors not to mention Sky Church serving as a unique performance hall for Bumbershoot and other festivals. And this weekend EMP hosts the Sound Off! Finals f. the best of our underaged talent. Gigs at Bumbershoot and NW Folklife are up for grabs.

It's taken far too long but much needed attention is being paid to our community's backyard, Seattle Center."

"Posted by Mag00 at 3/5/2010 2:54 p.m.

While I like Chihuly I would much rather have Fostoria Heirloom, go look it up on Ebay. This glass has been around since the 50's and everytime someone comes to my house they ask if it is Chihuly's. So many of his pieces seem to be a badly done example of the Fostoria Heirloom line."

The Blue Hour

2010-03-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

2002 Deloris Tarzan Arment:

"At Northwest latitudes, summer sunsets can be prolonged for as much as an hour. The effect is unknown in tropical areas, where the sun plunges over the horizon in brief red glory.

Northwest twilights linger. The sky is in no hurry. Gradually it deepens, until finally the sun slips down as if reluctant to leave. Malcom Roberts, active as a surrealist painter in the 1930s, called this daily magical interval the "Hour of the Pearl." French painters know a similar phenomenon on the Riviera as l'heure bleue."

Arment, D.T. "Morris Graves: Northwest Gothic." Iridescent Light. U of W press, Seattle. 2002. p 112.

like being inside a Tobey painting?

2010-03-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

2002 Delores Tarzan Ament:

"...a shimmering light that reflects the idea of mist still permeates much of [Northwest] art, regardless of style. And symbols--birds, the moon, a hail of strokes reminiscent of Mark Tobey's 'white writing'--make regular appearances. Most prominent are references to water--particularly rain.

The Northwest School has left an indelible imprint on the region's art. Its themes and techniques have jumped to new media--a step that had already begun in the 1970s when Doris Chase moved into producing films and video. In the nearly fifty years since Tobey and Graves left the Northwest, and others of their circle have dispersed or died, far more Northwest art has moved into three dimensions, and many more women artists have emerged, particularly as sculptors. Norie Sato and Nancy Mee layer clear glass in ways that build transparency into substance, much as fog over Northwest water transforms Northwest air. Julie Spiedel's totemic bronzes and Steve Jensen's wooden poles carved with formalized patterns of water are contemporary echoes of the symbolic carved totem poles traditional to some Northwest tribes. Gerard Tsutakawa continues the tradition of his father, using classical Japanese forms as departures for bronze sculpture.

[...] Nothing reflects the change in Northwest art more dramatically than the phenomenon of Dale Chihuly, who was designated in 1992 as America's first Living National Treasure. Chihuly entered the art scene unremarkably in the early 1970s, at Seattle's Foster/White Gallery, with a show of simple glass tumblers featuring embedded patterns that harked back to the weaving of Northwest Indian baskets. Year by year, he expanded the scope of art glass to audacious new applications, with a genius for promotion that soon had even his coworkers calling him simply Chihuly, like a rock-star phenomenon. He became the greatest impresario of art promotion since Salvador Dali, with his own publishing company to document his work. He even founded a glass museum in Tacoma, where he had grown up unremarkably as the son of a butcher.

The difference between Chihuly's style and the understated, often reclusive nature of earlier Northwest artists can be understood in part if we recall that while painting is a solitary and contemplative activity, glass is blown in a team context, surrounded by noise and fire, with the necessity for constant awareness of the dangers attendant to molten glass and sharp broken shards. Glass work is intense. Physical exertion is significant; appetites are hearty.

No one could be oblivious to glass art after Chihuly hit the headlines. Every art gallery in the greater Northwest, it seems, represents at least one glass artist. Most have more than one. Because he has made glass art the trendiest, most collectible art in the world, all glass artists--including some more gifted than he--receive more recognition and higher prices for their work.

At first glance, nothing might seem more radically different from the whisper-soft imagery of Northwest art fifty years ago than massive installations such as Chihuly's feat of suspending glass chandeliers that resemble gaudy, multi-breasted fetishes over the Grand Canal of Venice. Lost again. Glass is entirely about light. Chihuly calls it 'the light of the future and past.'

Chihuly rejects the idea of symbolism in his work and he denies narrative content. Yet he speaks movingly of glass as a magical material made of sand and breath, and of the marvel of human breathe giving life to fragile matter. And he has chosen such forms such as the mountain and the moon, which have a long history in Northwest art. Not to mention connections with water such as Seaforms, the ruffling seashell shapes with which he scored his first major success.

[...] In a dozen individual pieces [at the Citadel], Chihuly reiterated Northwest themes in three light-chomping dimensions. The largest Crystal Mountain [...], was formed of rebar welded in random cross slashes, embedded with chunks of the pink glassy plastic Chihuly calls Polyvitro. The mountain rose as a web of crystals 33 feet high, emanating the recorded prayers of three religions. Anyone who entered its interior was bathed in sparkling pink light. From that vantage, looking up in any direction yielded the sensation of being inside a Mark Tobey painting, with the famous slashes of white writing having become black, as if one had walked through the looking glass and found the world reversed.

[...] The Northwest School--the school that never really existed--is not only alive and well in art today, it is making appearances around the world. Each of the artists who helped to define the look of Northwest art half a century ago had a markedly individual style. Yet the more personal their imagery and symbolism, the more universal it appeared in affirming the unity of all life."

Arment, D.T. "Now" in Irridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art. U of W press, Seattle and London, Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner. 2002.

blown slightly off topic...

2010-02-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

(this is a blog post on a blog posts, sorry!)

1. Bldgblog has an interesting post on the book Sand by Michael Welland: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/vincent-van-gogh-and-storm-archive.html

2. Washington Glass School blog has awesome pictures of the American Craft Council Show. Tommie Rush is selling "Happy Pills" in one photo. Whenever I see pills, it makes me think of snooping in medicine cabinets (a popular theme of TV and movies in my childhood)...makes me want to know who buys these giant glass pills (does it seem to you that Tommie Rush's buyers should be protected under some sort of HIPAA, to protect their privacy?)
http://washingtonglass.blogspot.com/2010/02/running-around-acc.html

3. Mark Hill Collects "Buyer Beware"
http://markhillcollects.blogspot.com/2010/02/beware-online.html

"Quality Assured Visitor Attraction"

2010-02-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

Clean Bathrooms? Costumed characters respectful of personal space?

February 2010, Sunderland Echo: "The National Glass Centre is hoping for a boom in visitor numbers after being awarded a prestigious tourism accreditation. The Sunderland attraction, which is 12 years old in June, has been awarded the Enjoy England accreditation of Quality Assured Visitor Attraction for its excellent customer service and commitment to delivering a quality visitor experience. [...] James Berresford, chief executive of visitEngland, said: "The National Glass Centre in Sunderland runs a changing programme of first-class art works as well as permanent exhibitions. "It is a well-managed attraction with well-trained front-of-house staff and a policy of continually upgrading elements of the attraction. "Having the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme stamp of approval is a testament to the high standards and fulfilling experience that the attraction offers its visitors."Ruth Hall, Tourism, hospitality and visitor services manager at the Glass Centre, said: "We are over the moon to yet again be able to fly the Enjoy England logo that so many attractions proudly aim to achieve.""

Sunderland Echo. February 20, 2010. "Tourism accolade for Glass Centre." http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Tourism-accolade-for-Glass-Centre.6090750.jp

current glass on auction

2010-02-20T21:34:00.000-08:00

Untitled, Dale Chihuly @ Sotheby's New York, March 9, 2010. Estimates are between 8-12,000. Lot 213 in the Contemporary Art Auction

"Bolle" vase, Tappio Wirkkala @ Sotheby's New York, March 10, 2010. Estimates are between 3-5,000. Lot 59 in the 20th Century Design Art Auction

"Pezzato" vase Fulvio Bianconi @ Sotheby's New York, March 10, 2010. Lot 21 in 20th Century Design.

Untitled (Tear and Blood), Kiki Smith @ Christies New York, March 11, 2010. Lot 64 in First Open Post-War and Contemporary Art.

"Liquid Sculpture"

2010-02-19T14:21:00.000-08:00

martin waugh's photos of water drops

Hot Sheet blog features ABJ post on Glass & Tourism

2010-02-19T13:05:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit: David Harpe, Martha Hewett Gallery
Martin Janecky "Violin with Mask"
http://www.martahewett.com/detail.php?cid=janecky07&artist_id=Janecky&no_a=1&artwork_id=60609

Glass Quarterly Hot Sheet blog has two posts by ABJ Seattle Glass Online inspired by a Douglas Lloyd Jenkins article in the October 24, 2009 edition of the New Zealand Listener called "Art: the last bubble." You can read that article here.

In it, DLJ wonders if the city of Wanganui's promotion of glass will negatively affect the value of glass.

In refute of the Listener piece, The Wanganui Chronicle published a have-your-say here in which three in the NZ glass community argue for the promotion of glass in Wanganui, as the idea worked well in Wagga Wagga, Australia.

The blog of the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass wrote a response as well, read here and here, challenging DLJ's premise that glass is bought as an investment, but also offering a few solutions to the problems of quality and over-production.

This debate, along with many recent developments in the United States and abroad in which production hot shops and art museums have begun to feature glass blowing as a cultural tourist attraction, led to questions which I put forth in two blog posts for The Hot Sheet:

Guest blogger: Glass as tourist attraction Part 1.

Guest blogger: Glass as tourist attraction Part 2.

This was a short journey into the world of tourism and glassblowing and there is a lot untouched on the topic. At the end of Part 2, my post concludes with the statement that glassblowing on the museum floor constitutes a performance, and as such, adds the public's pressure to produce more interesting glass work and theater show, to which the glass community will have to respond quickly to.

To explore this more, we will have to look at the economics of theater in relation to glassblowing, art, and cultural tourism.

NYT blurb on "Three Visions in Glass"

2010-02-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

"The pitfalls lurking in the gap between art and craft are tellingly, if inadvertently, illuminated in side-by-side exhibitions of three artists who work in glass in Venice, the European city most associated with this astounding material. Cristiano Bianchin and Laura de Santillana push their medium in the direction of installation art and painting, but rarely look more than derivative. Yoichi Ohira sticks closest to traditional processes and vessel forms. Alternating between intricately colored vases and sturdier ones in carved clear glass, he also makes the strongest impression."

New York Times. February 11, 2010. Museum and Gallery Listings. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/arts/design/12art.html

Our response to artistic technique is human nature...

2010-02-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

...and therefore art based on technique will be timeless, but our response to conceptual art is not. New Zealander, Dennis Dutton, explains how conceptual art, with its concept-maker disconnected from it's fabricator, has "jumped the shark tank" by ignoring our "direct response" to skill.

Excerpt below:

"...We ought, then, to stop kidding ourselves that painstakingly developed artistic technique is passé, a value left over from our grandparents’ culture. Evidence is all around us. Even when we have lost contact with the social or religious ideas behind the arts of bygone civilizations, we are still able, as with the great bronzes or temples of Greece or ancient China, to respond directly to craftsmanship. The direct response to skill is what makes it possible to find beauty in many tribal arts even though we often know nothing about the beliefs of the people who created them. There is no place on earth where superlative technique in music and dance is not regarded as beautiful.

The appreciation of contemporary conceptual art, on the other hand, depends not on immediately recognizable skill, but on how the work is situated in today’s intellectual zeitgeist. [...] Future generations, no longer engaged by our art “concepts” and unable to divine any special skill or emotional expression in the work, may lose interest in it as a medium for financial speculation and relegate it to the realm of historical curiosity."

Dutton, D. "Has conceptual art jumped the shark tank?" Op/Ed in New York Times. October 15, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/opinion/16dutton.html

Safeco Insurance donates 840 pieces of NW art

2010-02-12T09:03:00.000-08:00

I believe the first time I saw Chihuly's art was in the lobby of the Safeco Insurance building in Seattle's University District. The company's 37 year-old collection of Northwest art also includes glass by Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora Mace, Dante Marioni, and Sonja Blomdahl. The Seattle Times today is reporting that Safeco has donated 840 out of 2,200 pieces of its collection to the Washingon Art Consortium. "180 three-dimensional objects including glassworks, ceramic pieces, and bronze sculptures" are a part of the collection. Artwork featured in the Times includes Mark Tobey's "Les Signes," Guy Anderson's "Summer Wing I," Roger Shimomura's "Diary," and Fay Jones' "Lotus-Eaters."

The Washington Art Consortium is made up of the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (Spokane), Seattle Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State University's Museum of Art (Pullman), Whatcom Museum of History and Art (Bellingham), and Western Washington University's Western Gallery (Bellingham).

Safeco Insurance was bought by the Boston company Liberty Mutual, but the tradition of community support will continue. The paper reports, "...some Safeco employees--seeking creative ways the company could give to the community without constraining the budget--came up with the idea to donate a sizable portion of the company's 2,200 pieces of art... Plus, several years ago, the company had decided it would no longer buy new art to build its collection--a decision it said was not budget-driven but came from a change in direction in how it wanted to spend its philanthropic dollars."

When the company moved from its University District location to a building downtown, the University of Washington moved into the old place. The University of Washington News reported in 2007 that Safeco donated an estimated $10 million dollars in furnishing and also a Roger Sperry sculpture to the school.

Among many charitable gifts, Safeco Insurance donated at least $20,000 to Pratt Fine Arts, in 2008, and continued support in 2009 at the Pratt Art Auction. Mark Dederer, director of the Safeco Insurance Foundation, was on the 2009 King County Allocations Committee for the ArtsFund, also including representatives of Starbucks, and Microsoft, which granted $ 2.2 million dollars to local non profit arts groups last year. The Museum of Glass in Tacoma received a grant of $6,450 in 2009. But Seattle's ACT Theater was the largest beneficiary: It was granted $109,318.

As for the 800 pieces of donated NW art, a selection will be on view starting in April at the Wright Space on South Lake Union.

As reported in The Seattle Times: Tu, Janet L. "The gift of Northwest art." The Seattle Times. February 12, 2010. Pages A1-A6.

Waterford Crystal bought by US Company

2010-01-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

A U.S. private equity group bought Waterford Crystal and will hire 80-90 employees to work at the factory and visitor center. Waterford Crystal closed after bankruptcy in 2009 and, according to Reuters, 480 workers lost their jobs.

The poignant PBS documentary "Raise the Last Glass" reports that the workers showed up for work one day and found out they had no jobs. The workers occupied the visitor center and 6,000 people marched to protest the factories closure. However in the end the union voted for a settlement in which 840 people divided 10 million euros...$16,000 per person and the worker's no longer had any say in the company.

350,000 tourists used to come to watch the famous crystal being cut and that business supported the town. Now only the highest end luxury crystal will be made in Waterford, and the other manufacturing will be sourced to other companies that partner with the US equity firm.

January 25, 2010, Reuters, Dublin:

"A new crystal factory is to open in Waterford..."

Reuters, Dublin. "Waterford crystal gets its sparkle back." January 25, 2010. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/waterford-crystal-gets-its-sparkle-back/article1443257/

Watch the PBS documentary from 2009 that documents the failed sit-in at Waterford Crystal:

PBS Wide Angle. Produced by Lucy Kennedy. "Raise the Last Glass." June 11, 2009. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/raise-the-last-glass/video/4956/

Yuka Otani @ Tompkins Projects, Brooklyn NY

2010-01-24T17:03:00.000-08:00

Yuka Otani is part of the curatorial team yukanjali profiled by ABJ last week, and can been seen in Brooklyn, NY right now. One of her works advertising the show is a C print of collapsed sugar bubbles called Inflate/Deflate.

From Studio Fuse art blog:

"Tompkins Projects announces its second exhibition, Full Disclosure, a group exhibition of work that focuses on transparency and the visible versus invisible. Yuka Otani creates blown sugar sculptures, Cody Trepte bleaches paper and Maria del Carmen Montoya covers her body in ground glass. The show includes sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, and video by Heather McPherson, Maria del Carmen Montoya / Naomi Kaly / Kevin Patton, Yuka Otani, Cody Trepte, and Jonathan Vingiano and Lizzie Dolan."

http://studiofuse.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/full-disclosure-tompkins-projects-january-15th-february-6th-2010/

Louisville video

2010-01-22T21:30:00.000-08:00

YUKANJALI

2010-01-22T01:01:00.000-08:00

January 2010, ABJ Seattle Glass Online:

The question had been put to the studio glass artists many years ago: Is your art exploring new ideas in visual expression, or are you simply reinterpreting the art movements of history with a new medium. Even glass's own supporters found themselves describing new work using painting references from earlier times: Lino Tagliapietra's work was described as op-art in a curatorial statement and William Morris reminded one critic of so-and-so with a dash of the other. It was a fair question to be asked at the time, and it still would be a fair question today with the exception of a recent paradigm shift brought on by the young curatorial team yukanjali.

As we have so often experienced in museum glass shows, the curatorial essays and catalogs anticipate, cover up, and/or over-explain the misapprehensions and antagonistic feelings about the material by its critics before expressing delight in the viewer's immediate connection to the art. The art comes with a preface, and the preface's sweaty hand grasps at you through the entire show.

That might have been necessary in the previous decade, but with the arrival of yukanjali (Yuka + Anjali) with their first show 'How Is This Glass?' in 2009 and their upcoming 2010 Video Festival, the glass world is hopefully thankful that the awkward and heavy days of unnecessarily defending glass's reputation in the greater art world are coming to an end.

Anjali Srinivasan and Yuka Otani met at the Rhode Island School of Design while they were both grad students. During the 2007 Glass Art Society Conference in Pittsburg, while in a cab stuck in traffic, they had a conversation about feeling misplaced with the group of people who had converged for the conference. Otani explains, "Anjali and I shared a thought that our practices do not fit comfortably into those of pre-existing glass art genres, like blown glass, cast glass, flamework, etc." They wanted to start a dialogue with a broader peer group of artists on the subject of glass and so they became a team.

Alexander Rosenberg
"Drawing 2"
Photo Credit: YUKANJALI
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MYw6u0aJGW4/SYPBxN4aGkI/AAAAAAAAACM/ziBAjgfzyaU/s1600-h/Rosenberg_1_4+copy.png

Glass is not an art, Srinivasan says, "Glass is a material. An amazing and wondrous thing that inspires the human spirit to create. It cannot, by itself become passe, although perhaps human intent can be, and maybe that lack of breakthrough is what we are facing now."

The pair cite William Warmus's essay "The End?" as the beginning of their curatorial and artistic work. In it he writes: "Studio glass itself is not stagnant, it is complete." Studio Glass was not an appropriate category for the work they saw and made and so they defined the term 'Post-Glass' to distinguish between the two types of art work.

"So far, people are quite kicked about post-glass-ism. It is simply a voice for works that interest my practice," Srinivasan explains. "It is a word we are using to point to ideas or presentations thereof that are

1. multidisciplinary,
2. switch something about the way we comprehend or encounter something around us,
3. undeniably related to the vocabulary, history, perception or context of the material in some way."

But they aren't pushing the title, says Otani: "There is no pretension within this term to take over the current glass art scene."

In their curatorial debut 'How Is This Glass' in Corning, NY, they showed works by video artists, photographers, glass blowers, sound technicians, projection artists, performance artists, and sculptors. Each work relates to glass in a nontraditional way, each work grows from a groundwork laid by studio glass, and some works explore the scientific stereotypes inherent in glass.

"We would like for work to exceed these associations, [which is] not the same as negation of them" Srinivasan says, referring to the commonly held perceptions about glass, that it is "pristine," "immortal," "clinical," and "casteless."

Rebecca Cummins, Samuel Geer, Carmen Montoya and Naomi Kaly, Angus Powers, and Andrew Bearnot are a few of the artists represented in their first show. Photos of pieces/screen shots are available at their blog for which yukanjali received a Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant. On the blog are photos and commentary on post-glass works, and artists known affectionately as 'glass guerrillas.'

Although they use the academic language of art criticism to describe pieces in their Post-Glass show (2009)--"A group of organic, blown glass blobs, will be placed without particular fanfare or explanation into a public setting. When filled with water, they reflect the surrounding environment upside-down, and are subject to ephemeral phenomenological experience..."--yukanjali can also be lighthearted in a way that Glass Museum curators are not.

For example, the blog describes "Les Instantanes," a 1998 work by Julien Marie (one of the forerunners making works that can be called post-glass) as such: "My own experience of the work was a simple sigh of admiration and sheer joy at witnessing the precious construction of a moment." It is enlivening to read about art that confirms your spontaneous reaction to art as legitimate; so often glass inspires emotion based on it's reflective and luminous qualities, but those emotions can be felt while relating to glass and it's properties in other ways, and that is a break though for post-glass.

Rebecca Cummins

"Shooting Stars"
Photo Credit: YUKANJALI
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MYw6u0aJGW4/Satu80AdKDI/AAAAAAAAAMU/2rXW9fLXHAY/s1600-h/Ben+Moore+FL+100.jpg

"Going beyond treasuring glass becomes a driving force of post-glass," Otani says. She adds, "[An] increasing number of glassblowers are becoming interested in exploring the process of work rather than the resulting objects. And this type of practice could grow into a unique post-glass art." Yukanjali are currently accepting submissions for a 2010 Post-Glass Video Festival. Many of the post-glass entries from their first show in 2009 were from glass blowers, where as most of the 2010 submissions are from non-glass people in Europe.

It will be exciting to see where How Is This Glass goes after this. "Based on what information we glean from that experience, we will know where (if) to head thereafter," Srinivasan thoughtfully predicts.

Anjali Srinivasan, from India, has a professional background in accessories design and grassroots empowerment of artisans through craft practice. She studied glass, ceramics, and expanded media at Alfred University before working with organizations in New York and New Delhi on research, product development, and education. She completed her graduate studies in glass and digital media at RISD, and currently works for Ann Hamilton as well as hold the position of visiting scholar at Ohio State University.

Yuka Otani is from Japan. She obtained her BFA and studied glass in the traditional craft contex at Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan and then completed her MFA in the US at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has is a featured artist in the upcoming group show "Hand+Made Contemporary: The Performative Impulse in Art, Craft and Design" at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX.

Quotes from this blog post are taken from How Is This Glass? and from email interviews conducted with Anjali Srinivasan and Yuka Otani in January of 2010.

Great NW Glass Quest Feb 12-28 in Stanwood

2010-01-20T20:55:00.000-08:00

The Stanwood-Camano 2010 Winter Tourism Committee's Great Northwest Glass Quest will be held February 12-28. Hopes are that it will boost tourism for the community as visitors try and find 500 plastic balls (which are then traded for snowballs made of glass) in local businesses and parks.

January 2010, Gale Fiege:

"Snow isn’t in the forecast, but people who want to go on a unique treasure hunt here next month could end up with a beautiful snowball made of glass..."

Fiege, G. "Stanwood offers treasure trove of glass artwork." Everett HeraldNet. January 20, 2010. http://heraldnet.com/article/20100120/NEWS01/701209853

NYT on glassmaking in US

2010-01-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

The New York Times' Louis Uchitelle takes a look at the industry of glassmaking in the United States and how it is suffering due to cheaper imported Chinese glass. He also looks at the art glass market which is failing due to a fall in discretionary income. Tim Tuttle, chairman of the glass industry branch of the US Steelworkers, argues for tariffs on Chinese glass, and Sherrod Brown (Ohio-D.) is mad that Chinese glass will be used to rebuild the World Trade Center, as the gig was awarded to the lowest bidder. Despite the fall in sales of their art glass, George Fenton, of Fenton Art Glass, doesn't know if the government should tax incoming glass or subsidize U.S. glass as it does steel. And It was also only a matter of time before Wal-Mart showed up in the blog somewhere and this time it's unexpected: Bottles made by Anchor Hocking for Wal-Mart are still made in the U.S., but in fully-automated plants.

2010 Louis Uchitelle:

"The majestic steel beams of a soaring office tower beginning to rise from the ruins of the World Trade Center are a tribute to American resilience..."

Uchitelle, L. "Glassmaking thrives offshore, but is declining in US." The New York Times. January 18, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/business/19glass.html

Christian Garbis blogs on the Cafesijan Center for the Arts

2010-01-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

Christian Garbis blogs at Notes from Hairenik. Here is his post on a recent visit to the Cafesijan Center for the Arts.

Christian Garbis, 2010:

" ...The museum is quite impressive to say the least. Seven halls comprise the center, one of which is an auditorium where currently jazz concerts are performed. The other rooms are used for display space for artwork and Cafesjian's own collectibles.

..."

Garbis, C. "At the Cafesijan Center for the Arts" January 17, 2010. http://noteshairenik.blogspot.com/2010/01/at-cafesjian-center-for-arts.html

RELATED POSTS:
http://seattleglassonline.blogspot.com/2009/11/libensky-and-brychtova-cafesjian-center.html

Photo of the Day

2010-01-15T19:05:00.000-08:00

Ceramics artist Richard Shaw:

Streets of Apathy, 2008

glazed porcelain with overglaze decals

6.5 x 12.5 x 11 in

PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Lloyd Gallery

Still Life with Skull and Glass, 2009
glazed porcelain with overglaze decals
6 x 10.25 x 9 in

PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Lloyd Gallery

http://www.franklloyd.com/dynamic/artwork_artist_display.asp?ArtworkID=2095

Wexler Gallery: 'Contemporary Studio Furniture & Historic Glass'

2010-01-15T17:27:00.000-08:00

Press release from Wexler Gallery in Philadelphia. I'm wondering about the title 'Historic Glass.' It is used here, somehow, as a subset of 'Contemporary Glass.'

January 4, 2010:

"Wexler Gallery presents a survey of contemporary studio furniture including works by Timothy S. Philbrick, Silas Kopf, Tom Huang, Wendy Stayman, John Dunnigan, and more. Historic pieces by master glass artists such as Mark Peiser and Joel Philip Myers will also be on view. The show will run from January 4 – February 27, 2010. *An opening reception will take place First Friday, February 5, 2010 from 5 – 8pm.

The exhibition will include one-of-a-kind or limited production furniture objects designed and produced by local and national artists. Blurring the line between sculpture, craft, and design, featured objects will explore boundaries between the functional and dysfunctional and the representational and abstract."

Wexler Gallery. "Contemporary Studio Furniture & Historic Glass." http://www.wexlergallery.com/wexler.html

Name the Year:

2010-01-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

What year did this issue of Vogue Living come out with this page on decorating with sculptural glass? It's not the eighties and it's not the nineties...

"Off the Grid" Glass and Ceramics Kiln

2010-01-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from an article that will appear in Ceramics Monthly by Fred Herbst, a teacher at Corning Community College. He writes an interesting blog called the Firing Log.

January 2010, Fred Herbst:

"The first collaborative wood-fired glass and ceramics trial run took place in snowy November 2006 and was highly successful. Over the next few firings, it became evident that the design of our anagama was not ideal for expanding the scope of this research collaboration. We agreed that a new, purpose-built hybrid kiln design was needed. After much discussion with friends and fellow woodfire potters Liz Lurie, Julie Crosby, and Simon Levin, my concept for a new design firmed up. After completing the initial CAD drawings, I worked with Gibbs and Lewis Olson, gaffer at the Corning Museum of Glass to develop the unique glass working elements on this kiln. These features include the large side openings used for gathering molten glass and reheating pieces during the forming process, blowpipe heaters, and a wood-fired annealing chamber.

[...] A final critical goal was to make glass blowing as practical as possible “off the grid.” Contemporary glass blowing relies heavily on the use of gas furnaces and equipment to keep the material molten 24 hours a day. This hybrid kiln allows for the use of renewable waste wood fuels in order to fire periodically – saving huge amounts of energy and resources. Construction of the new Corning Wood-Burning Furnace began in November 2007 with a mix of new and recycled refractory materials, and it was fired for the first time in August 2008.

[...] The interior space is approximately 8 feet deep, 4 feet tall, and 27 inches wide. This allows room for three stacks of ceramics, glass melting crucibles, and space for reheating glass.

[...] Through our collaboration, we’ve discovered many similarities and new possibilities for hybrid techniques for glass and ceramics. However, there is a major technical difference. That difference is expansion, contraction, and the cooling cycle. If hot glass is cooled too quickly it will shatter or crack. Blown glass pieces must be annealed or slow cooled from approximately 900 degrees to ambient temperature over a span of many hours. In our experiments with applying molten glass to ceramics while in the kiln or loading pieces with glass frit in place, we have discovered that the glass stays attached to the surface. However, it will end up crazed just like normal glaze crazing since the expansion and contraction of the glass and ceramic body do not match.

[...] The summer of 2009 brought about a new era for the Corning Wood-Burning Furnace. On June 11th, hundreds of people attended a firing and glass blowing demonstration as part of the Glass Art Society international conference.

[...] Now nicknamed the “Glassagama,” this design proves that cutting-edge research and 16th century technology are not mutually exclusive."

Photos of the project here:
http://www.anagama-west.com/photogallery/main.php/v/fred_herbst/

Herbst, F. "The Glassagama: Ceramic and Glass Artists work together to conserve resources." Ceramics Arts Daily.com. January 13, 2010. http://ceramicartsdaily.org/firing-techniques/kiln-plans-and-diagrams/the-glassagama-ceramic-and-glass-artists-work-together-to-conserve-resources/?floater=99

ABJ Seattle Glass Online

Pilchuck Auction 2010

Ginny Ruffner

The "Clear Benefits" of Glass Recycling

Chrysler Museum of Art will open Studio in 2011

Louisville: Not a Boring Backwater

Collateral Matters @ MOCC

David Meinart on Chihuly/KEXP

Chihuly in MOHAI?

Puff & Gasp

M-Space: A Fire in the Belly of an Old Brewery

"Corporate Legacy - A Continuing Cultural Gift" @ The Wright Space

Lynda Benglis @ MOG June 23-27

Thomas S. Buechner, NYT obituary

The Seattle Times supports Chihuly for the Seattle Center

Christopher Knight on watching artists work

Geoff Manaugh & Josiah McElheny

If everyone spends $1,000....

Sequim Glass Art Festival seeks submissions

New Voices @ Pratt Gallery open until June 25

Pratt Fine Arts presents The Brychtova Forum in July

Seattle Center Update

The Seattle Art Museum's new AD CAMPAIGN...

Resonances in Glass @ MoNA (review)

1968

Seattle Sidewalk Prisms, photo by Bradleyolin

Sidewalk Prism photo by zenobia_joy

Crossing the Line on Seattle Glass Online?

Seattle's Sidewalk Prisms, slideshow

Seattle's purple sidewalks

Einar and Jamex de la Torre @ Traver Gallery

Elias Hansen @ Lawrimore Project (review)

Account of city council meeting on Seattle Center

Inspiring the collector, Habatat Galleries 38th Annual Invitational

David Meinert on Seattle Center/Chihuly plans

SLAG: anti-art glass, reviewed online

2004 part three

Eli Hansen @ The Lawrimore Project

2006 part five

2008 part six

Jean Godden: Chihuly should be in Pioneer Square and not Seattle Center

Marcus Amerman @ Ahalenia Studios, Santa Fe

conviction makes an admirable collector

Eyes for Glass, more thoughts

Eyes for Glass @ Bellevue Arts Museum, review

Op/Ed Letter: glass is 'old hat', rides are thrilling.

HART @ Wright Park Conservancy

Glass and Tourism...environmental effects explored

BAM begins John and Joyce Price collection show

Two new articles on Seattle Center proposal

Time is held in a piece of glass...

Chihulys give $150,000 to Artist Trust

Chihuly Museum and Garden moving along

Sotheby's March 9th, 2010 Contemporary Art Sale Results

Pratt Fine Arts @ City Hall

Pratt Fine Arts @ City Hall

a way back to the magic

Sand and Glass, post 1

Subversion in Moscow, Idaho

mites crawl up/tights fall down...

last chance for laser tag...

The Blue Hour

like being inside a Tobey painting?

blown slightly off topic...

"Quality Assured Visitor Attraction"

Sunderland Echo. February 20, 2010. "Tourism accolade for Glass Centre." http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Tourism-accolade-for-Glass-Centre.6090750.jp

Premium Article !

Premium Article !

Registered Article !

current glass on auction

"Liquid Sculpture"

Hot Sheet blog features ABJ post on Glass & Tourism

NYT blurb on "Three Visions in Glass"

Our response to artistic technique is human nature...

Safeco Insurance donates 840 pieces of NW art

Waterford Crystal bought by US Company

Yuka Otani @ Tompkins Projects, Brooklyn NY

Louisville video

YUKANJALI

Great NW Glass Quest Feb 12-28 in Stanwood