Evan Schauss, West Seattle sculptor

2009: ABJ Seattle Glass Online

We stand just outside the garage door of his home studio. We stand on the edge of the heat watching the glassblower moving back and forth between the bench and the furnace. He carries a long rod, on one end is a hand; it's all very cannibalistic.

The glass skeleton hand droops as it liquefies in the two thousand degree heat of the glory hole. The long fingers slowly curl forward then, with a flip of the pipe, back, into an unnatural double-jointed wave. The bones glow devilishly orange and the glassblower whips it from side to side as it melts to keep it centered on the pipe. Evan Schauss has been blowing glass for thirteen years and his understanding of the unruly material seems clairvoyant. Just when the definition of the knuckles begins to fade and the fingertips flame red, he yanks it out of the furnace and sits down on the bench to sculpt. The molten glass is untouchable; instead of direct contact, he uses a bench full of interesting tools to guide the glass into the shapes he wants. Some of the tools are old favorites (the jacks and tweezers), some are steel contraptions he created in response to the needs of his art.

The artwork he creates begins with an image in his mind, a completed image of what he wants, and he thinks about it every day for months until he figures out how to make it. This often involves welding on additions to his hot shop to handle the unwieldy sculptures.

"It's cool to have a big idea and stick it through with the little details, but it's also cool to be creative in the moment and allow that to make art," he says of the process. "I know the probability of whether or not I can achieve my goal the first time, or if it will take a few tries. I think you can figure anything out, it just takes a good effort."

His current project involves a life size skeleton holding one mask up to it's face and another mask by it's side. This sounds complicated, each bone is a perfect replica of the real thing, but making something easy is not Evan's style. He worked for the masters of studio glass around the world for the better part of his 25 years and, like other second generation studio glassblowers, he wants to create something new and he won't be satisfied until he has. Right now he's intent on following the twist and turns of a dark tunnel down to the catacombs of human emotion and bringing back with him new ideas for his art, ideas no one else is going anywhere near in glass today.

The piece he works on before us now seems easy compared to the final pieces he plans for the series. But it's easy because he spent months working on the technical process: The hand will be attached to an arm using a hot button of glass; then the skeleton hand will pick up a flower out of a kiln.
In the final wall mounted piece the hand delicately grasps a long-stemmed flower between the pointer and thumb. The "Holding onto Life" series shows a place beyond vulnerability where despair was been exposed so long it became calcified. Life is fragile, it can slip out of your grasp and shatter; glass is the perfect material to express this idea.

The entire skeleton series, which will also include bodies, heads, and masks, is psychologically darker than most glass art.

"Freakish," one person says, describing the skeleton spine that bloomed into a flower with sharp black petals and a bloodshot eye staring out from the center.

Freakish: Familiar parts put together in an unfamiliar way, and Evan Schauss's way happens to result in a total freakshow of plant and human anatomy. Known in his early days at Hilltop as the 'mad scientist of glass,' Evan continues his experimentation on Art.

Catch Evan Schauss and John Hogan at Bowling Green University giving glassblowing demonstrations all this week!

Watch Evan Schauss and John Hogan @ Toledo Museum's Glass Pavillion for First Friday!

John Hogan, graduate of Bowling Green and teacher at Seattle Glass Blowing Studio.

Evan Schauss, gaffer for Martin Blank and Glass House Studio in Pioneer Square.

November 6, 2009
Watch a glassblowing demonstration by these two Seattle artists at First Friday!

"Evan's Flower" by SeattleGlassBlowing

SeattleGlassBlowing. YouTube. Accessed October 18, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GFSp5C5GFM

2006 part four

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2008 part five

In this time line I pull quotes to illustrate a thread in popular and scholarly writing and criticism about glass. Here we will see current glass artists defending their art against the accusations and separating themselves from these stereotypes and, hopefully, find out how and where the now-common opinion was born. Fundamentally, the general thesis seems to be born of the question, What Is Art? This question I will leave to others to answer, here I am only documenting the written history of a popular way of thinking and a popular taste.

2008 Lisa Fondo:

"Glass and metal art are not the first mediums that come to mind when considering an art gallery's offerings. However, many galleries have round that carrying these niche mediums has been a profitable investment that bas diversified their sales and overall clientele.

Although glass and metal art are sometimes considered crafts, and its practitioners craftsman, the work by the fine artists in this article certainly challenges the generalization.

Craft Vs. Fine Art

The debate continues among many gallery owners and artists as to the distinction between craftsman and artist. "We straddle the line of art and craft, engineering and design," says Angelique Jackson of Jancik Arts International. "Craft is round in the shop drawings and glass and metal frame fabrications while art is found in the interpretations and results."

Livia V. Garson of Glass Place Gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyo., has been specializing in glass art sculptures since the 1980s when artists working behind the Iron Curtain were able to introduce their work to American galleries and collectors. She is of the opinion that glass art offers a myriad of possibilities for an artist and gallery. "The glass medium gives infinite possibilities to be played with; the tire of life is given the chance by artists to create new and unique pieces each day, from classic to contemporary shapes."

Dale Chihuly is arguably the best known, living glass artist in the world. He is an interior designer, ceramic artist and painter, but it is his work in the medium of glass that has garnered the most acclaim. Chihuly offered the following advice to anyone considering a career as a glass artist in the fine-art realm. "I would tell them to figure out what they want to do," he says. "Do they want to be an artist, designer, or do they want to be a craftsman? Naturally, the hardest thing to be is an artist."

The Transition to Fine Art

Initially a student of interior design and architecture, Chihuly realized he wanted to concentrate instead on glass. Chihuly enrolled in the University of Wisconsin's hot glass program--the first of its kind in the United States--established by Harvey K. Littleton, founder of the Studio Glass Movement. After receiving a degree in sculpture, Chihuly enrolled in the ceramics department at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and later established the renowned glass program at RISD.

"Back when I first started, I wanted to get a job as a professor, which I got at RISD, so that allowed me to have a glass shop and earn an income and be able to do my own work," he explains. "Some professors can do that, but some can't; it is not an easy thing to do."

Artist Max Gold, known as "The Father of Fusion Art," began his career as a glass artist for a more pragmatic reason. "I ran out of canvas, and there were some sheets of glass in the apartment building I was living in; I loved the way the reverse painting looked," Gold says.

The process then evolved into something different--sculptures that merge digital art and original reverse glass paintings. "My first glass sculptures came about a few years later when I would layer multiple sheets of painted glass; I only painted about 20 percent of each sheet, negative space was as important as the painted part."

Metal artist Jason Mernick started his career working in glass but made the transition to metal. "I like the element of tire in my creative process--there's no hesitation," he says. "I have been given credit in the industry for developing 'torch painting;' that is, I use tire the way painters use paint."

From Concept to Finished Works

Working in hard metals and glass can prove challenging, at times, for fine artists.

Mernick works with stainless steel, aluminum and copper at his studio in Lake Mathews, Calif. The designs he produces are free flowing and spontaneous. "I just begin, and the process takes me," he explains. "One thing leads to another. The keys are knowing when to stop and how one works with spontaneous developments."

Chihuly works with hand-picked teams in his Seattle studio to create works of art that vary in scale from small free-flowing pieces to large-scale installations that require serious planning.

Jancik Arts International provides large pieces for corporate and private clients. Known for its stained-glass domes, most pieces require strict specifications. "The right and left sides of our brains need to work together in order to create a work with structural integrity; we must use calculus to determine the surface area of a curved dome," Jackson says.

Brad Lorang, a metal sculptor from Oregon, incorporates various techniques, including engraving and heat-applied patinas, to create textural and reflective effects on the metal.

"The work I am now doing has really been more than a 30-year process of adapting techniques I learned along the way for my own specific purposes; each new corner I turned has taken my work a little further off the beaten path," Lorang says.

Defining Form and Function

Las Vegas-based artist Dale Mathis creates high-relief wall sculptures that challenge and defy many physical and artistic boundaries. A typical Mathis artwork is mechanical with hand-carved, moving gears and neon-lit areas. Weighing 80 pounds or more, the metallic mixed-media sculptures are created with what the artist has dubbed a Steampunk style.

"Steampunk is a mixture of old and new, Victorian era meets today," Mathis explains. "It's a blending of different forms and ideas, materials and function. I'm an artist and an engineer."

Artist Henry Jerome has also taken a unique approach to the functionality of his work. He has made a townhouse his personal gallery, allowing potential clients to view his glass and granite works in a home setting.

Works by many fine glass and metal artists can be found in private collections while corporate collections, museums and sculpture gardens hold pieces of monumental scale.

Translation to Sales

Maggie Munro, owner of Munro Gallery in San Diego, uses the glass art she features in her display window as a way to attract a diverse clientele into her store. She came across some fine-art glass and jewelry at an industry trade show a few years back and began carrying it in her gallery as a way to pick up some additional income and diversify her clientele. The initiative took off, bringing her an increase in holiday buyers and purchases from homeowners, corporations and interior designers.

Kelly's Fine Art Gallery in Joseph, Ore., has been offering hand-blown glass and metal art, in addition to bronze sculpture and paintings, for the past 10 years. Owner Kelly Wick began offering the two niche mediums as a way to add more color and variety to her offerings. She says glass and metal art appeal to collectors with contemporary and more rustic home settings and offers the following advice when selling these genres.

"For glass, proper lighting is very important," she explains. "I recently purchased a well-lit display case for some of my glass, and my sales went up significantly. Selling glass and metal require a personalized sales approach, like any other type of art. I stay in tune to what the client is interested in, tell them why I love the artwork and get excited about it with them.""

Fondo, Lisa. "Glass & metal art: in a time when new business is paramount, these niche mediums offer glaring possibilities." Art Business News. November 1, 2008. Retrieved November 05, 2009 from accessmylibrary: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-35970592_ITM

2008 Lotta Lewenhaupt.

The Swedish jury for Elle Deco’s seventh annual EDIDA/ELLE Deco International Design Awards has presented its choice: Kosta Boda designer Åsa Jungnelius is 2008 Designer of the Year.

Lotta Lewenhaupt, editor-in-chief of Swedish Elle Interiör, writes:

“Suggestive is a word that often comes up when describing Åsa Jungnelius’s works. With good reason: thought-provoking and beguiling, most everything Åsa does sends out double signals. And this is often extremely intentional; she likes to challenge and question conventions such as what is true or false, ugly or attractive. As always, the answer is in the eye of the beholder. For example, Åsa has her own way of commenting on phenomena such as consumerism and shopping, expressed even before she was hired at Kosta Boda in the form of a giant glass lipstick with obvious references to brand-name tubes. Once at Kosta Boda she continued with her Make Up series, which includes oversized bottles of nail polish and a serving dish with a relief pattern very reminiscent of the oft-imitated logo of a certain purse brand.

“Just like their creator, everything that Åsa makes is clear and confident. She is consistent; she follows her own path and has done so since she left school at 17 to become an apprentice glassblower at the National School of Glass in Orrefors. The addictive, intoxicating effect of glass as a material becomes evident when we see that Åsa has also worked in blowing rooms in the UK, Italy, Kenya and the United States (Pilchuck) over the years. In 2004 she earned a degree from the Ceramics & Glass department of the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. Her degree exhibition featured, among other things, a pair of transparent glass stiletto shoes and a crystal chandelier, which later appeared in Liljevalch’s Formbart exhibition in 2005, along with a pair of candlesticks that looked like melted wax. The latter is now a part of her Mysstake series at Kosta Boda.”

Åsa received the award at the Elle Interiör design gala in Stockholm on 3 February 2009, and the complete statement of the jury will be published in the February issue of Elle Interiör, which will be released in connection with the Furniture Fair in Stockholm."

Lewenhaupt, L. "Asa Jungnelius named 2008 designer of the year by Elle interior." September 2, 2009. Accessed October 26, 2009. http://www.kostaboda.se/index.php?id=press&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=238&tx_ttnews[backPid]=40&cHash=c832576018

2008 Evan Schauss:



Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online

2008 Lisa Orkin Emmanuel:

"CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) --

Artist William Carlson dips the large steel ladle into the blazing furnace and fills it with liquid glass. With sweat pouring down his face, he quickly moves to a graphite mold he has made and pours in the seething yellow-colored liquid.

He is making glass wall tiles with an imprint of fiber knots in them that he will remove with tweezers. This will leave a fossil of the knot. The tiles will then be hung together in a grid format. Carlson says he is trying to start a discourse about language with the way he lays out the fiber.

Glass art is attracting more admirers and collectors today, and gaining more attention as a fine art, as artists explore more with the medium. Meanwhile, prices for pieces are on the rise.

"It's a maturation of the field. More and more we are seeing people interested," said Michael Heller, vice president of the Heller Gallery in New York, where glass art is sold. "More and more collectors have also started to realize the value of work that has integrity."

The artistic content of glass art has developed over the last decade or so, artists say.

"It's kind of coming of age where craft is no longer the title of the work. Craft is the means to an end. ... It really is the strength of the concept and power of the image," says Carlson, who also teaches at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.

Fran Kaufman, director of the contemporary art fair palmbeach3, says the reason glass art is on the rise is because many collectors aren't purchasing just one type of art anymore, but varying the kinds of art they collect. Prices are also getting higher, which is enticing people to buy it.

"Prices getting higher, that is appealing to collectors. People are looking beyond the more traditional glass pieces. ... Collections are not so specific anymore," Kaufman says. "I think the experimentation has grown more."

Mark Lyman, director of the two annual shows called SOFA, which take place in New York and Chicago, says that 10 to 15 years ago an expensive glass piece would cost between $50,000 to $100,000. Now, such works can reach anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million.

"It's a very active market for them," Lyman says of the glass pieces. "It's really come along. ... We're seeing a lot of growth and strength."

In an effort to expand public awareness, collectors Sheldon and Myrna Palley of Miami donated about 100 pieces that they have been amassing since the 1970s to the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum. The exhibit opened last month.

They say they have about 200 more works at home. The collection at the museum includes a piece by William Morris that looks like a prehistoric artifact with cave paintings on it. Next to it, attached to a metal stand, is a glass shaped to resemble a horn. It was created in 1992. Christina Bothwell's glass yellow baby with ceramic head and extremities also sits on one of the shelves.

Myrna Palley says they scour fairs and work with well-known glass art dealers to decide what they will buy.

"When you go to a cafeteria and there's all this food, how do you know what to pick?" Myrna Palley says of her experience buying glass art. "It just calls me."

Sheldon Palley says the feeling of power in Tom Patti's small glass objects really pull him to them.

"It's very architectural. They are like huge buildings, even though they are small," he says.

Patti, whose studio is in Pittsfield, Mass., says he also sees an increased interest in glass art.

"I think the interest in glass is continuously growing, getting larger," Patti says. "It's been accumulating. It's just something that if the art form is strong, it inherently progresses in many avenues. ... The museums are not just collecting it, they are seeing it as an applied art form that can be incorporated as part of the building itself."

Some artists credit Seattle-based Dale Chihuly for getting their art more publicity. His colorful glass works have reached audiences across the United States and throughout the world.

Studio glass was introduced into college programs in the 1960s and then increasingly explored by students. It really started being considered art after 1960 when artists began to work in their own studios and not in factories. Around the same time, a non-industrial glass furnace was created, which opened up opportunities for creative use, artist Carlson says.

Now, a common recipe for the material is sand or silica mixed with sodium carbonate, lime, magnesium carbonate and any additives that may change the color.

Wisconsin-based artist Beth Lipman, who creates glass still lifes inspired by Dutch, German and Italian paintings of the 1600s, says she feels a definite shift in the way her art is perceived.

"I think people are kind of hungry for more of a dialogue," Lipman says. "There is this overall shift of looking at the capitalist community that we're living in and being mindful about what you are using your money for."

(This version CORRECTS city of Tom Patti's studio to 'Pittsfield, Mass.')"

Emmanuel, L.O. "Glass art is attracting more collectors." June 27, 2008. San Francisco Chronicle. accessed September 8, 2009. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/27/entertainment/e130950D25.DTL

2008 Pauline Dubkin Yearwood:

"Visitors to the 15th-anniversary SOFA Chicago (Sculptural Objects & Functional Art Fair) at Navy Pier will view a spectacular installation in glass, among other always-impressive works from 100 galleries in 16 countries. "Chandelier" encompasses three of those objects and many others besides and is a visual meditation on no less a theme than the opposing pull of the good and evil sides of human beings.

A Tel Aviv showroom, Litvak Gallery, is spending $100,000 on the installation by Italian glass artist Lucio Bubacco.

How an Israeli gallery came to represent one of the top Italian glass artists in the world at first seems a puzzle, but Orit Topuol, a gallery spokesperson, explained it all in an e-mail exchange from Tel Aviv.

"The Litvak Gallery was established in 2006 by Muly Litvak, an art collector and Internet entrepreneur," she writes. "The gallery supports new and leading artists and assists them by promoting their work internationally." It also commissions large-scale projects from well-known "master artists" and commits to promoting them internationally, she writes.

As for the SOFA installation, titled "Eternal Temptation," Topuol writes that "Muly Litvak is an avid glass collector. His personal collection incorporates pieces from some of the world's leading glass artists, including Lucio Bubacco, one of (his) favorites. Since Bubacco is a master glass artist and is represented solely by Litvak Gallery, the two decided to collaborate on a project."

Bubacco, born in the Italian city of Murano, where he still lives, has been a glass artist since age 15 and is considered one of the world's foremost proponents of the "lume" glass technique, which involves hand-forming figures in glass and incorporating them in blown and cast vessels. He draws his imagery from Greek, Roman and Byzantine art and medieval and Renaissance theater, and often treats classic themes like love, birth, death, heaven and hell, according to a recent catalogue.

Mark Lyman, SOFA's founder and director, writes in an introduction to the show that the Litvak installation "personally raises the bar for the SOFA Fairs and at the same time matches the extraordinary surreal artistry of Bubacco."

Visitors to last year's SOFA who marveled at American glass artist Dale Chilhuly's spectacular chandelier might imagine "Eternal Temptation" to be similar, but Topuol, the gallery spokesperson, says it is not. Chilhuly's chandeliers, she writes, "are created using an entirely different technique. ... Bubacco uses lampworking to create his pieces, with each piece figuratively expressing specific topics and themes."

"Eternal Temptation" is composed of 15 major pieces, each containing dozens of elements, she writes. The centerpiece is a representation of "Man on his Journey through Life" with scenes of "Inferno" (hell) and "Paradiso" (heaven). Three chandeliers also represent Inferno, Paradiso and "the artist's fantasy chandelier." On the periphery are four vases, two depicting Inferno and two Paradiso along with five "watchers," all surrounding the centerpiece.

In the piece, Bubacco "shows his greatness as a surrealist figurative artist, with phenomenal human body sculpting, architectural instinct, and dramatic skill, combined to make an unforgettable impression on the viewer," Topuol writes.

"Eternal Temptation," she continues, "simply stretches the lampworking technique to its limits. (The piece) deals with ambitious topics, focusing on existential and moral dilemmas without taking a stand. Good and evil, paradise and inferno are portrayed as both tempting and threatening by the artist. In 'Eternal Temptation' Bubacco poses the ultimate question of the human dilemma: with the duality of good and evil evident in every direction, which path is the right path to take, and does the path we take even matter in the end?"

A catalogue description of "Eternal Temptation" calls it "a combination of architecture ... and theater. (Bubacco's) architecture is constructed by means of a series of extended vessel forms, chalices, goblets, vases and chandeliers; his theater by means of a cast of many hundreds of small figures who enact the story of Eternal Temptation played out simultaneously in heaven and hell."

Unlike most of the works shown at SOFA, "Eternal Temptation" is not for sale. Later Bubacco and the Litvak Gallery will select eight scenes from the piece, from which the artist will crate "variations" that will be offered for sale, Topuol writes. She adds that while the piece is making its debut at SOFA, it will eventually be exhibited at other fine art fairs and museums as well as at the gallery.

Meanwhile SOFA celebrates its 15th year with its biggest fair yet, giving viewers a look at art objects from galleries as far-flung as Argentina and China. The United States is represented by 14 Chicago galleries, among many others. Special exhibits, besides "Eternal Temptation" and other works in glass by Bubacco, include more work from the Association of Israel's Decorative Arts and a celebration of the Racine (Wisconsin) Art Museum.

A special exhibit will feature works by Israeli artists Yael Herman, Noa Hagiladi, Rory Hooper, Alon Meron and Noa Nadir. The entire exhibit will be housed in a one-of-a-kind cavelike structure designed by architect Guy Zucker, a first-of-its-kind exhibit at SOFA.

In addition, a lecture series featuring museum curators, professional art advisors, artists, collectors, interior designers, critics and art market journalists will take place throughout the duration of the show (visit www.sofaexpo.com for schedules).

The artwork on display ranges from Japanese ceramics to hollowware by Scandinavian silversmiths to contemporary furniture to avant-garde American and European jewelry and much more. but-in answer to a question that still gets asked-no sofas."

Yearwood, P.D. "Glass that shatters expectations: Israeli gallery goes beyond the chandelier." Chicago Jewish News. November 7, 2008. Accessed November 2, 2009. http://www.chicagojewishnews.com/story.htm?sid=7&id=252443

2008 Bill Van Siclen:

"

The first thing you see as you enter “Chihuly at RISD,” the sometimes dazzling but ultimately disappointing Dale Chihuly exhibition at Rhode Island School of Design, isn’t one of the artist’s flamboyant blown-glass sculptures. Instead, it’s a copy of Chihuly’s signature blown up to billboard size and rendered in a swirling semi-abstract scrawl.

As it turns out, it’s a strangely appropriate way to start the show, which opens Saturday at RISD’s new Chace Center complex on North Main Street.

For one thing, the free-form twists and turns in Chihuly’s signature look a lot like the free-form twists and turns in his sculptures. And the color of the signature — a venomous shade of acid-green — seems appropriate for an artist whose titles (among them, Citron-Spotted Ebony Venetian with Coiled Lilies and Black Basket Set with Cadmium Orange Lip Wraps) often read like shopping lists for a color-crazed Impressionist.

Unfortunately, Chihuly’s super-sized John Hancock is also appropriate in less flattering ways.

As much a showman as he is an artist, Chihuly is best known for his large blown-glass sculptures — dramatic works whose lush colors and fluid shapes often evoke shells, flowers, baskets and other organic forms. During the 1970s and ’80s, these eye-catching, technically challenging pieces helped rekindle interest in glass as a medium for serious contemporary artists.

Along the way, Chihuly, a Tacoma, Wash., native who graduated from RISD in 1968 (with a master’s degree in ceramics) and later founded the school’s studio-glass program, became the most famous American glass artist since Louis Comfort Tiffany.

In recent years, however, Chihuly has spent much of his time seeking ever larger and more grandiose stages for his work. In 1995, a Chihuly-led team of glassmakers transformed the streets, bridges and canals of Venice into a giant outdoor glass gallery. The result, dubbed Chihuly Over Venice, also spawned a coffee table book and a video documentary.

Other high-profile projects include the lobby ceiling of the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas and Chihuly at the V & A, a 2001 installation at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

While these projects have helped introduce Chihuly’s work to a wider public, they’ve also taken a toll on his reputation. A 1999 survey of American art critics, for example, ranked Chihuly in the top 10 in both the “name recognition” and “most overrated” categories.

More recently, a prominent West Coast critic (Kenneth Baker of the San Francisco Chronicle) slammed Chihuly for indulging in “empty virtuosity” and mere “decoration.” (Ouch!)

The result is a kind of mid-career stalemate, in which Chihuly and his work remain hugely popular with everyday museum-goers while eliciting yawns — or worse — from a growing number of artists and critics (and, it must be said, from many of Chihuly’s fellow glassmakers).

It’s a pattern that “Chihuly at RISD,” which features about a dozen large sculptural ensembles as well as a smattering of smaller works, seems likely to repeat.

After making their way past the king-size “Chihuly” signature, the first thing visitors see is a smaller version of the famous glass-filled ceiling at the Bellagio Resort. In many ways, it’s a great way to start the show. Not only does it evoke one of Chihuly’s most famous artworks — the Bellagio ceiling — but it introduces many of the artistic concerns — lush color, the transformative properties of light, sensuous form — that have occupied him throughout his career.

If you’ve never experienced a Chihuly exhibit before, prepare to be dazzled.

On the other hand, if you have seen a Chihuly show before, you may have a different reaction: déjà vu. Indeed, ceiling installations have become something of a staple at Chihuly exhibits — the equivalent of a rock band kicking off a concert with a couple of crowd-pleasing oldies.

Next up: a huge wall filled with the poster-size “drawings” Chihuly likes to make in between glass-blowing sessions. Here again, casual museum-goers will probably be impressed by the sheer scale of the installation, which suggests a cross between a Jackson Pollock painting and an IMAX screen. On the other hand, there’s a lot more doodling than drawing in these pieces, most of which look as if they were tossed off in a few seconds.

Next, it’s on to one of the show’s highlights: a trio of blown-glass chandeliers. Though Chihuly has been making these show-stopping works for a long time now, the ones at RISD, all of which were completed in 2008, are among the best I’ve seen — visually striking and inventive, yet surprisingly elegant and understated (at least by Chihuly’s standards).

Then again, “understated” is not a word I’d use to describe to Mille Fiori, one of several large installation-style pieces in the exhibition. Located in the same area as the chandeliers, Mille Fiori consists of dozens of tube-shaped glass sculptures that seem to sprout, like a crop of mutant tulips, from a mirrored black floor.

The result is quintessential Chihuly — technically challenging, dramatically presented and beautiful to look at, yet with more than a hint of calculated slickness and showmanship. Indeed, you could also imagine Mille Fiori and its two companion installations — the lilac-hued Neodymium Reeds and the neon-lit Glass Forest — as high-end Christmas-window displays.

Museum visitors will also find several displays devoted to Chihuly’s smaller table-top sculptures, including examples of his Venetians, Baskets and Navajo Blanket Cylinders series.

Of these, the Venetians make the strongest impression, perhaps because they represent Chihuly at his most flamboyant and over-the-top. (Chihuly being Chihuly?) The pieces from the Baskets and Navajo Blanket series, meanwhile, all date from 2008, suggesting that Chihuly has begun mining his past work in much the same way that aging rock stars mine their back catalogs.

Meanwhile, Chihuly’s influence on other glassmakers is the focus of “Studio Glass in Rhode Island: The Chihuly Years,” a small companion exhibit installed just outside the Chace Center’s main gallery.

Besides giving props to some local talent — many of the artists are based in Rhode Island — the show highlights the diversity of contemporary art glass, with some artists emphasizing fluid shapes and colors (Toots Zynsky), others referencing art history (James Watkins) and still others treating glass as an offshoot of minimalist sculpture (Steven Weinberg, Howard Ben Tre).

The show also features several older Chihuly sculptures, including one of the original Navajo Blanket Cylinders that helped launch the artist’s career back in the mid-1970s. Though small and nearly colorless by Chihuly’s current standards, it has a freshness and unassuming beauty that’s missing from many of his more recent works. Indeed, it may be the best Chihuly of the bunch."

Van Siclen, B. "Chihuly glass dazzles, with a touch of deja vu." Sept. 25, 2008. Acc. November 2, 2009. http://www.projo.com/art/content/wk-artscene25_09-25-08_VJBM3P4_v18.323c1e.html

Burn Gallery

door burn

Pilchuck Poleturner's 2009

photo credit: Verity Burley

2009 Verity Burley:

"...As a team we seemed to gel instantaneously like a dragon-fly to the tongue of a bullfrog. Everyone in the team got on exceptionally well and we managed to exceed our quota for the Pilchuck Centrepiece Auction while having immense fun and working hard to achieve our aims. Setting the wheels in motion, project manager and Gaffer Jay Macdonell oversaw the smooth production. Two lead benches gaffed by Jeff Ballard and Martin Janecky were fed start up stuffed cups by Nick Davis, Granite Calimpong, Evan Schauss and Hugh Willa. People adapted accordingly along the way to avoid repetition and allowing flexibility within the team to gain technical insight.

In four days of intense production, 120 benefactor gifts were pumped out by Jette Bøge Sørensen, Jessie Bean Goodman, Michelle Rak, Ryan Marsh Fairweather and I. The pristine white cups were stamped with a small bird stamp made of graphite in the style of Jiri Harcuba; Centerpiece Designer and master engraver from the Czech Republic.

There was a good balance of muscle provided by Brad Smith, Jon Moreno, Tim Belliveau, Scott Graham and Ian Milligan in carrying the larger works to and fro the gloryholes. Carrie Grula, Jen Somerville, Armelle Bouchet, Sasha Tepper-Stewart provided the much needed colour appreciation society in starting up the stuffed cups that saw the subtle colour fade appear as if each piece was made from the light of sunset skies. Like angels guarding the gates to heaven, Leah Duperreault, Jamie Perian and Peter Wright made sure the gloryhole doors were at the ready for opening or closing when reheating the larger works on the two main gaffer benches. Phil Bandura fruitful entertainer and laughter instigator of the Bee Kingdom, well thats all he needed do really. Thank god for assistant project managers like Sue McDowell, who did the obligatory beer run on a daily basis for our hard earnt effort. Without each and every one of these people we wouldnt have made a complete team nor had such fun, woops I mean worked so hard!

But wait theres more! The finishing process was aided by a multicultural coldworking crew which depended largely on Kai Scholfield as co-ordinator and specially selected Karel Novák and Vojtech Starosta from the Czech Republic; Itzell Tazzyman from Australia; Pierre Camilien of French origin and a Mexican - Hector Flores who all ground and polished beautifully."

Burley, V. "Poleturners 2009". Contemporary Glass Society, UK. June 30, 2009. website accessed July 13, 2009. http://www.cgs.org.uk/NEWSmoduleASP/NEWSMOD_newsitem.asp?type=Articles&itemid=598

Artopia, Georgetown-Seattle 2009

The mobile shop @ Artopia in Georgetown tomorrow 2-10pm

It's made from a keg and other recycled steel. It uses stored heat to anneal the tiny pieces you made during the day. It uses less than twenty pounds of propane in an eight hour working day.

Picture of the Day, June 12, 2009

John Hogan and Evan Schauss work on one of Hogan's satellite pieces in West Seattle.
Photo Credit: ABJ Seattle Glass Online

Fluent Steps

"Fluent Steps" @ The Tacoma Museum of Glass.

Four who work on Martin Blank's talented hot shop crew: Bryn, Jason, Evan and Pete.

Martin Blank and Tim Close wade into the reflecting pool to cut the ribbon.

The Madrona Log: Martin Blank brought a Madrona into the MOG hot shop to sculpt with.

On April 17, 2009 at 5:30, Martin Blank's permanent installation in the reflecting pool at the Tacoma Museum of Glass, after 2 1/2 years, was finished.

April 2009 Tacoma Museum of Glass

Martin Blank and Evan Schauss Photo Credit: Tacoma News Tribune, http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/arts/2008/08/

Martin Blank's installation Fluent Steps is coming along outside the Tacoma Museum of Glass. It should be completed this weekend.

"The proposed sculpture will capture the play of light and water echoing the Pacific Northwest's unique environment."

-Timothy Close, Director/CEO, Museum of Glass in "Martin Blank Reflecting Pool Proposal booklet.

"My intent with this installation is to awaken the viewer's eye to keenly observe, interact and respond to the emotive nature of water. Water is the vehicle for capturing light, motion, time, fluidity and transparency. It can be placid, sublime, and in an instant a tremendous surge of raw power. This installation is a visual exploration capturing the chase between the macro and micro qualities of water using glass as a conduit to translate my thoughts."

-Artist's Statement, Martin Blank

Photos ABJ Seattle Glass Online

Picture of the Day

Skeleton hand entering the glory hole. photo by ABJ. Artist: Evan Schauss. Copyright ABJ and ES Glass Art, LLC 2009.

2006

Three opinions you hear frequently about glass are quickly becoming solidified as a truth. In this time line I pull quotes to illustrate a thread in popular and scholarly writing and criticism about glass. Here we will see current glass artists defending their art against the accusations and separating themselves from these stereotypes and, hopefully, find out how and where the now-common opinion was born. These accusations are just that, opinions. Fundamentally, the general thesis seems to be born of the question, What Is Art? This question I will leave to others to answer, here I am only documenting the written history of a popular way of thinking and a popular taste.

2006 Matthew Kangas:

"Like it or not, American studio glass is here to stay. Possibly the most important art movement to arise and flourish in the Pacific Northwest after Mark Tobey and the Northwest School, glass art has been centered around the Pilchuck Glass School since it opened near Stanwood in 1971. A number of prominent art collectors have assembled collections of works made by the numerous regional, national and international figures to have worked at Pilchuck. Usually technically complex and brightly colored, Pilchuck glass has assimilated techniques from all over the world, including, most importantly, Italy.

As the new Seattle Asian Art Museum exhibition demonstrates, glass art is much more than virtuoso blowing. "A Transparent Legacy: Studio Glass Gifted to the Seattle Art Museum from the Collection of Jon and Mary Shirley" highlights 60 examples that the Medina couple acquired over the years and have now given to SAM. Most, but not all, of the big names in the movement are there and, in most cases, the Shirleys chose superior examples. To put it mildly, as trustees and longtime supporters of the Pilchuck Glass School, the Shirleys were usually in the right place at the right time.
While SAM has been attentive to the glass scene, "A Transparent Legacy" is a good opportunity for newcomers to not only learn and look, but to become connoisseurs on their own, selecting favorites and developing their own taste just as the Shirleys did when they began collecting more than 30 years ago.

Start with the historic masters — Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Harvey Littleton (Chihuly's teacher at University of Wisconsin), Marvin Lipofsky, and Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová. These are the major figures of late 20th-century glass art, all of whom passed through Pilchuck. With Chihuly, Littleton, Tagliapietra and Lipofsky's emphasis on elastic, fluid blown shapes, it's important to recognize that the sand-casting of the husband-and-wife team Libenský and Brychtová came first.
Associate curator of modern and contemporary art Susan Rosenberg spreads out the riches in three rooms. With their crisp new white walls and restored skylights, the galleries have never looked better. Color is central to glass art, and Rosenberg has generously spaced the vases, vessels and sculptures so that nothing seems crowded or cluttered, as is so often the case with craft exhibits. Given first-rate installation and elegant, even lighting, the pieces quietly glow, all the better to view their intricate and sometimes fussy details.

Because blown glass is hollow, artists tend to make vases or vessels. Chihuly is a good example, but so are his ex-"gaffers" (chief glassblower) Tagliapietra, Richard Royal, Dante Marioni and William Morris. Each is distinct with his own vision and degree of talent.
Sculptures are sometimes assemblages of multiple-element pieces or solid, as with the central European pioneers included besides Libenský and Brychtová: Zoltan Bohus and Michael Pavlik. American solid-glass sculpture began with Littleton, Tom Patti and Sidney Cash, all on view.
Lampworkers like Ginny Ruffner, Susan Plum, Kari Russell-Pool, Jill Reynolds and Gianni Toso compose differently, element by element. They are represented by some spectacular examples, including Ruffner's "The Invention of Games You Shouldn't Bet On" (1991) or Toots Zynsky's glass-thread bowl, "Firebird" (1992).

Non-Northwest glass is ably represented and may be of the most interest to glass fans. Michael Glancy combines glass with electro-formed copper while Klaus Moje fuses colored strips in a kiln to make large plates. Etsuko Nishi and Seth Randal's "cage work" bowls revive an ancient Egyptian and Roman process to a contemporary end. They round out a dazzling display."

"An overview of glass art from near and far." Kangas, M. The Seattle Times. May 12, 2006. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20060512&slug=visart12

2006 Jen Graves:

"Nevertheless, Chihuly is hailed as a hero of glass, a man who fought for its place at the high-art table. But while he may have found his own place at that table, his popularity has not magically transformed glass into a respectable stand-alone medium, and may have even set it back. Its reputation as a lowly craft material used for utilitarian or decorative purposes by rote technicians directed by mere designers began to change in the 1960s and '70s, when the American studio-glass movement started to unite technician and designer toward forging modern artistry in the medium. Early on, Chihuly was in on this. But the post-1979 world-famous Chihuly, lacking the ability to be a technical wiz, separated the two functions again, and treated the craftsmen as medieval laborers not even deserving of name recognition. To this day, there has not been a modern master glass artist. Chihuly is a glass celebrity instead, and his lawsuit threatens to call attention to the disparity."

Grave, J. From the Feb 16 – Feb 22, 2006 issue of The Stranger. Seattle, WA. "Dale Chihuly Files a Lawsuit That Raises Big Questions... About Dale Chihuly". http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=30734

2006 Lee Lawrence:

"It's a typical day at the Washington Glass School in Washington, D.C. WGS founder Tim Tate leans into an open kiln and presses a plastic locust into a narrow strip of plaster powder, making a clean indentation. This will act as a mold into which he will later melt plate glass, creating a cast so finely detailed that the pattern on the locust's wings will show. Nearby, co-director Michael Janis sits at a worktable, sprinkling crushed glass onto a clear surface, using it to paint a silhouette in graffito that will become one layer in a castglass work. Across the room, the third WGS partner, Erwin Timmers, crouches near a sculpture in progress, puzzling out the details of combining neon with salvaged metal and recycled glass.

This is a far cry from glory holes and other icons of the glass studio movement. Yet it is typical of what is happening across the country as more and more artists use glass to express an expanding range of content, often by combining techniques and materials.

Martha Drexler Lynn, author of American Studio Glass 1960-1990 and, more recently, Sculpture, Glass and American Museums, notes that "Artists are not just doing straight glass. They're using glass as an expressive component in a larger whole, and that's great because at that point glass becomes just one more material in the arsenal."

This may sound like a demotion to some, but it is really a leap forward for glass. "It subjugates the medium to the artist's intent, which is exactly what should happen," says Lynn. In some ways, this is the latest chapter in a debate that has characterized the American studio glass movement since its inception: what should take precedence, technique or content?

Some artists have made careers of pushing the envelope and have filled many a gallery, home and museum with creations of mind-blowing beauty. Others, meanwhile, have focused on mastering technique in order to express the content they want to convey.

As early in the movement as 1972, studio glass icon Harvey Littleton took a stand. At a National Sculpture Conference in Kansas, Littleton famously declared that "technique is cheap." In his wake, the '80s saw a wave of content-laden work—sculptures by Howard Ben Tré, Mary Van Kline, Paul Stankard, Ginny Ruffner, William Morris, Therman Statom and others, who were, in turn, followed by the likes of Mark Petrovic, Jack Wax, Robert Carlson and Michael Rogers in the '90s.

"It's addictive to make the perfect vessel," Tate admits. "The trick is to overcome that." Janis calls this hardto- resist attraction "the quest for the perfect bubble," and he, too, confesses he is not immune. But, like a growing number of artists, Tate and Janis subscribe to the motto their glass school hammers home to students: "Learn your craft, then move beyond it."

As though to prove this point, Tate curated a show, "Compelled By Content," which was shown last spring at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, Md. The show proved so successful that "Compelled By Content II," including works by Tate, Janis and other glass artists, will be on display until June 4, according to the gallery's Lennox Campello.

And if you eavesdrop on any number of workshops at WGS, you will notice that, while students and teachers work on technique, they spend at least as much time discussing how to translate concepts into three-dimensional works.

At the school they also argue over what exactly constitutes "content." In this they are not alone. "

All these words are slippery," Lynn says, by way of explaining why she defers to renowned art historian and critic Rosalind Krauss: "Content," Lynn says, paraphrasing Krauss, "is anything that relates to a basic human experience." In other words, content can range from narration to emotion, from personal reminiscence to political commentary, from plays on words to musings on faith, death and destiny.

Even within a small sample of Washington artists, "content" varies widely.

For Tate, subjecting technique to content has brought forth a body of work that evokes healing, rebirth and memory. In his series of blownglass hearts, for example, "Repository" contains speckled eggs made of ceramic and pte de verre, while "Brood" features an etched cross proportioned like the American Red Cross logo and, inside, a collection of cicada husks.

The cross recurs in a cast piece in which a man's form emerges from a glass panel as if from underwater, his chest sporting a cross. Although Tate does not speak about it often, he lives with HIV, a threat he has responded to by celebrating life. Fittingly, the title of this panel is "Portrait of a Positive Man."

In Janis's works, issues of memory and identity loom large. In "Personal Dreamtime," furrows arc across a textured field, converging but not touching. One carries two Australian banksia seedpods—a nod to the 10 years Janis lived "Down Under" —and both are f illed with writing in which he explores the gap between expectation and reality.

Janis pushes this exploration further in "Amnesiac," in which he overlays the image of a woman onto drawings of a brain scan. Both are done in graffito and encased in a block of clear glass, inviting questions about the transparency of one's own mind and its workings.

Elsewhere, Janis integrates metal stands into his work—"Self-Portrait," for example, features a cast face separated from the world by thin layers of glass filled with fine writing, its components held by a metal skeleton as elegant in its simplicity as a rib cage.

Very different in feel, Elizabeth Ryland Mears' "Shelter" series consists of twig-shaped poles of flameworked glass that form the skeletons of teepee-like structures. The structures consist of combinations of waxed linen, copper and brass wire, string, horsehair, charred wood, steel, bones and quartz wool. Their translucence and gem-like ref lectivity evoke both the value we place on our shelters and their ultimate fragility and transience. This holds true whether we interpret Mears' sculptures as representations of homes or of the artist's physical body, which, she explains, "protects my inner world."

Timmers' "Sequence," on the other hand, celebrates what happens when we are not protected and life spins out of control. Timmers replaced the glass panels of a discarded traffic light with tempered glass he melted and re-formed so that the top panel is solid, the second shows signs of deterioration and the bottom panel appears to melt and drip out its frame. "A sequence of events can lead to something beyond your control," Timmers explains as he fiddles with an electric connection. Indeed, his work took a drastic turn after the 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles, in whose wreckage he discovered material for art.

When light suddenly shines through the bottom panel, the piece takes on the role of a metaphor—a metaphor for the explosion of creativity that is occurring as more and more artists use their mastery of glass to give content the green light."

"Arts Focus: Filling Glass with Meaning" by Lee Lawrence. American Style Magazine. Issue Date: June 2006.
http://www.americanstyle.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=0F68108660AD480D812D318017076C68 Accessed March 30, 2009.

2006 Evan Schauss:

Schauss, Evan. "Walking on Glass" youtube video. Tacoma, WA. Tacoma Glassblowing Studio.

2006 Robin Rice:

"Boris Shpeizman, a Fall, 2006 Resident Fellow at the Creative Glass Center of America, estimates that he is one of no more than ten people who blow glass in Israel — an ironic state of affairs when one considers that historically glass is believed to have been “born” somewhere between Syria and Lebanon. Today, fusing, slumping and flame working are not rare, but Shpeizman says that his new hot shop, Trio Vietro, shared with two partners in Tel Aviv, is unique in the country.
Shpeizman’s projects, which have been executed in various parts of the world, are often ambitious and sometimes disturbing. “I try to shock people by making beautiful things,” he says. So far, the most challenging and unusual was “Wearing Glass,” his fabrication of glass costumes partly joined by steel coils and carefully tailored to a specific model. They were shown on the original live model at the Oxo Gallery in London.

The works are “clothing” in the sense that they conform to and are supported by the body; however, they could never be worn except in a highly controlled performance setting. They are transparent, glittering, and potentially fragile. The glass extends dramatically beyond the figure where it could easily encounter something, a wall or another person, which might break it. The “clothing” is literally dangerous to the wearer and others and this danger is part of the meaning.
In one costume, a bird, apparently a rooster protrudes penis-like from the groin of the female model whom Shpeizman videotaped walking on a treadmill against a black background. The model’s face is not visible but her body is healthy, attractive perhaps in some circumstances but unremarkable —neither erotic in her movements nor physically exaggerated in some pin-up sort of way. The otherwise nude woman tightly grips the bird’s long, stretched-out neck in her right hand. Perhaps she merely supports the weight of the glass, but the gaping, shrieking pink beak inevitably suggests that she has a more deadly purpose. The bird’s wings flare upward against the model’s breasts and ribs, miming struggle. Its body passes unseen between her legs and its feet extend and are held loosely behind her buttocks in her left hand.

Other examples of this couture series are more abstract-seeming. Curving almost baroque glass is connected by flexible metal coils. The cumulative sense of “Wearing Glass” is disturbing. Does Shpeizman mean to represent an aggressive perhaps sadistic attitude on the part of the woman? Or is she the object of a kind of torture or bondage? Or perhaps, the artist illustrates that both things could be true.

In real life, as opposed to the viewer’s experience of the performance with the glass costumes, Shpeizman made sure the glass was as comfortable as possible for the wearer. He first cast her body in plaster and used this as a template for free-blowing the hot glass.
“It was just a job for her. I asked her what she thought about doing it and she says, ‘Okay. Glass is fine.’ The model was scared because the glass was very heavy. I was scared too. I asked her after she wore it if she had done something like this before. She said, ‘No.’”

Clearly designed to be worn by a woman, Shpeizman describes the objects as “very beautiful things and very bizarre. All clothes are a fetish of some kind,” he explains. “I took it to one extreme. Glass is the opposite of clothing; it is not flexible; it is cold and heavy.”

Shpeizman says that part of his “obsession is to connect glass and the body.” His interest in and understanding of the body goes beyond that of the ordinary art student who takes a few classes in life-drawing. Born in Russia, Shpeizman immigrated to Israel when his political activism became a problem. In Russia, he was a dentist. Because of his training, he says, “I feel very familiar with the body and with bones. It’s my material.” One of his sculptures encases a portion of the skull of an animal in glass threads. It is especially evocative of his understanding of the structure of the head.

He abandoned dentistry because he asked himself, “Someday when I die who will remember? It was not enough to make a lot of money. When you work in medicine, you are so limited in your decisions. You have a protocol. I decided on art and when I saw glass art it was so exciting to me that I decided to make glass.”
Though it has undeniable beauty, his glass is not for the squeamish. “I work with flesh,” he says simply. Shpeizman has made figures of animals and humans, seemingly flayed, bloodied; sometimes in tortured positions. A large standing dog is a horrific image of living death. In another work, crimson blood pulsing in contorted skeletal human remains tells of agony denied the comfort of mortality.

At CGCA, Shpeizman constructed the elements of an installation which will include a large tree, perhaps ten feet tall: “like a tree of meat but made from glass of course.” The trunk will be partly constructed of steel covered in copper. He made numerous insects to be placed on the tree, for each one coating a copper armature with hot glass and attaching petal-like wings. “I think through my hands sometimes,” he says. “It helps me to understand what I’m doing and to think more clearly about what I’m going to do.”"

Rice, R. (resident critic) "Boris Shpeizman" Wheaton Arts, NJ. Creative Glass Center of America. website accessed May 2, 2009. http://www.wheatonarts.org/creativeglasscenteramerica/criticresidency/robinrice/shpeizmanborisessay

2006 Caroline Ednie:
 

"Reflections: A Decade of North Lands Creative Glass is a beautifully staged exhibition and one that also provides a rare oasis of calm, tucked away, as it is, within the secluded special exhibitions gallery on the third floor of the NMS. Yet that’s not to suggest that the glass stars of the show are participating in a too tranquil or tame affair - far from it. For scratch – or indeed blast or blow – beneath the surface of these exhibits, which represent the eventful first ten years in the life of the Caithness based North Lands, and what becomes apparent is a wildly varied cast of characters: at times exhilarating; sometimes controversial; and even unsettling on occasion. But as an ensemble piece, it’s a fine achievement, even boundary pushing.
Admittedly ‘boundary pushing’ has become such a glib and over-used turn of phrase these days that it is in danger of losing any meaning or ‘kapow!’ but to evade it within this context would be doing a huge disservice to such an eye-opener of an exhibition. And what makes it all the more surprising, not to mention enjoyable, is that fact that it’s the medium of glass - so often associated with safe functionalism or simple decoration – that is being pushed into unexplored territories.
But any of the masters and practitioners who have decanted to the rugged North East Coast and experienced or practiced at the North Lands School - and many of whom are exhibiting here - will readily admit that playing it safe has never been part of the North Lands tradition. And it shows in pieces such as ‘Dress’, the frankly spooky white baby’s dress cast in glass and black painted wood by Karen Lamonte which recalls so many of the creepy taboo busting images by Czech film maker Jan Svankmayer, the so called ‘alchemist of the surreal’? Similarly with Slovakian artist Zora Palova’s ‘Bridge’. This is a bold and unsettling piece, its striated edges recalling a primitive weapon but its amber glass alluringly appeals like rich home made toffee?
Less enigmatic though equally disarming is Kate William’s kiln cast uranium glass model of ‘Dounreay’ appearing like a ghostly, luminescent, sickly yellow full stop at the end of a series of more aesthetically orientated, sensuous studies in glass. Key amongst these are Lotte Thorsøe’s blown glass ‘Puffin’ which suggests pillow softness and Steve Klein and Tom Rowney’s ‘Untitled’ cased black over white glass bowl with swirling diagonal striped decoration which appears more like the finest porcelain objet d’art than a glass bowl. It’s a daring juxtaposition but ultimately one that works.
‘Untitled’ accounts for the identity of so many of the works on display, but instead of being confusing and irksome, in this case it only adds to the intrigue. In any event it’s not hard to detect the influence of the Caithness landscape, not simply as a backdrop but in essence. From Bernard Dejonghe’s cut glass Caithness farm houses and Bibi Smit’s blown, cold worked and cast glass composition based on the same theme, to Loretta Lowman’s ‘Sky, Sea, Earth’ cast glass fish and Gabie Kienle’s ‘Whale Tale’, the feel of the wind lashed fishing village of Lybster is never too far away. Even the Caithness glass paperweight tradition receives a glancing nod – and a beautiful, subtle and gem-like one at that - in the shape of Alan Scott’s black glass paperweight featuring applied and lampworked clear glass figures.
So often with compilation exhibitions of this its nature it’s a case of honing-in on the few stand out examples and politely forgetting about the rest. In this case it’s trying to work out if there are any forgettable pieces in the mix at all. So it is therefore a must to go along and commit this fine collection to memory.
The exhibition is open at the Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF tel: 0131 247 4422 from 21 July 2006 to 7 January 2007. Open daily from 10am to 5pm. Admission free."

Ednie, C. "Glass Reaches Unexplored Territories in Unforgettable Show." Date Unknown, 2006. Website Accessed May 9, 2009. http://www.craftscotland.org/reflectionsnorthlandsreview.html