Quoted from "Australian Glass Pioneers"
by Stephen Skillitzi
April 16, 2009
"…Some might say: ”Don’t we glass workers have bona-fide historians without a personal ‘ax to grind’ and who are above career-long ‘empire building’ like some latter-day Ghengis Kahn. Incidentally, I observed no Studio Glass in Outer Mongolia, the ‘last frontier’ to resist international Glass incursions. 'Surely they, those reliable historians, can give us the unbiased truth. So why does this panel dealing with this historical topic consist of 4 practitioners only and no pure academics or theorists?'
A simple answer is: we need to hear from those practitioners who have done the hard yards by planting the actual ‘glass seeds’ and seeing to their sprouting above ground before they were visible to those historians who got involved later on. Indeed we pioneers can mentally relive in 3D what those historians attempt to do via inferior 2D research. Sadly, I have observed often the neglect of open and useful dialogue between authors and practitioners before and after publication.But for serious history students of contemporary Australian glass the survey texts by the authoritative Dr. Noris Ioannou and Grace Cochrane are hard to beat. We should respectfully reread them! Another more individualized source of glass history is the so-called 'Eminent Persons Program', archived by the Canberra National Library. To balance the contributions of Nick Mount and myself, some more old-timers in Ausglass should have their histories preserved there.
Speaking personally, it seems my Glass got progressively better in reverse ratio to the ongoing unkind aging process I experienced. Pioneers by definition make mistakes, such as my sometimes lousy furnace designs, so those that follow need not repeat them. For example, my first solo show of clay with glass, at Sydney’s Grace Brothers store when aged only 18, was in January 1966. That was just before decimal currency started. I snobbishly overpriced my student items in guineas and half guineas because I saw mature artists doing just that. Of course a guinea was one pound and one shilling. In hindsight I’m thankful nothing sold. My point is that all us gray-headed pioneers have histories of individually-experienced steep learning curves and the taking of naive risks before we ‘learned the ropes’.
An ancient proverb states : “As the sapling is bent, so the tree grows”. I hereby pay a belated tribute to the Glass ‘old-timers’, the often underrated pioneers, who shaped our Glass tree by their risk-taking examples.
I and only two others, namely Brian Hirst and Richard Clements, have been to all 15 Ausglass conferences. We three can confirm that about half the names on this list have never been mentioned at a conference before. Incidentally in 1970 I observed Clements doing pyrex lampwork glass at Sydney’s Argyle Art Centre, using skills developed in England.
The narrow criteria for inclusion in my likely-incomplete pre-Ausglass list of in-Australia glass-artists are as follows: “Those who had a full-time Glass career, or who had a solo glass exhibition, or who had completed a major glass commission in living memory before Ausglass started in December 1978”.
Douglas Annand, Les Blakebrough, Bill Boysen, Maureen Cahill, Richard Clements,, Peter Dockerty, Anne Dybka, John Elsegood, Mike Esson, Leonard French, Bill Gleeson, Peter Goss, Paul Hayworth, Sam Herman, Helmut Hiebl, Regina Jaugietis, Gerry King, Rob Knottenbelt, Les Kossatz, Warren Langley, Dick Marquis, Stan Melis, Peter Minson, Stephen Moore, Nick Mount, Dennis O’Conner, Tom Persson, Cedar Prest, Con Rhee, David Saunders, Julio Santos, Stephen Skillitzi, Ron Street, John Walsh, Jimmy Whitman, Don Wreford, David Wright, Klaus Zimmer.
In that Potters’ Society magazine article of 1969, I stated: “So for me glass pots are a natural progression both technically and aesthetically from pottery. Here in U.S.A. most glass men of the new ‘studio school’ have been, or still are, potters—me included of course.” [end quote]
Regrettably today there is a wide chasm between clay and glass workers, in part bridged by Les Blakebrough’s involvement here. A narrower chasm exists between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ glass, such as Stained Glass or Engraving. Perhaps this emphasis on ‘hot’ glass is part of the reason non-blowing and non-casting Glass artists tend to avoid Ausglass conferences.
[...]
On my Massachusetts University campus, as my personal protest against Nixon’s April 1970 bombing of neutral Cambodia, I staged a public glass blowing performance. I advertised my event as a “non-violent campus demonstration”.
A blowing mold inscribed with the hippy slogan: “ make love not war” was used because as glass historians will know, a few of us 1960’s glass workers contributed to a subversive, anti-Vietnam War theme, known as “Blow Glass For Peace”. "
Skillitzi Quote Citation: "Glass Central Canberra" blog hosted by Wordpress. Accessed April 17, 2009.
Photo Citation: "Step Away From The Shadows" 2005 Ranamok glass prize finalist. Accessed April 17, 2009. http://www.ranamok.com/2005_detail_pages/skillitzi.htm
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