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| Artist Statement
The influence of sailing every weekend while growing up in New England has brought inspiration into my life as an artist. As in nature, glass images contain states of being that create moments of beauty and contemplation. Kiln stages with glass physics require attention to a certain unpredictability that mimics the coastal waters from which my work is derived.
Solitude on the beach and quiet times on a boat stimulated my desires to share moments of reflection, beauty and curiosity. I have created quite an obsession with tidal action and my response has been actively collecting. The detritus and certain specimens have become inspirational as well as examples of the natural world and its own evolutions. My drawings from science and photography, wire inclusions, glass powders and kiln firing, result in a continuous exploration.
"Art allows reflection and insights to beauty"
"Every path has it's puddle" - English Proverb
"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art" Leonardo Da Vinci
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Process
(and Opinion!)
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In the case of fused glass, the word process can be a catch phrase for some secretive formula that makes your work special. There is some science to how and when the glass will melt and can be manipulated. The operations of your kiln, programs to compute, variables in design and the important annealing stage, are to be carefully considered. Powders, incursions and tools that contain some dangers are also part of the equation. Nothing, however, compares to the fun of opening a kiln, with the anticipation of a coveted gift, and the alchemy of those additional "happy accidents".
In the painterly images that I currently create, the use of glass powders and frits is unlike any other medium I've used. A base piece of fusible glass (has it's own Coefficient of Expansion to match other glass used in a single art work) is cut to shape. A sketched image is used as reference and sometimes traced on a light table with a fine sharpie. Copper wire is cut and bent to represent line and will fire to a black or sometimes blue-green or reddish patina. Glass powders and frits (crushed glass in varying sizes) are then layered in a manner similar to painting. Colors can be mixed pre-firing or layered to blend when melted in the kiln. I enjoy the depth that multiple firings will give as well as the simplicity and flow of light through a single layer of powders on the base glass.
The larger valuable part of the process is the dichotomy of continuous visual thoughts that work through the techniques and are ultimately the artist's voice.
Finding a process and medium to share a vision, results in the permanence of art. I dislike the restrictive "ifs" when designing for a kiln process, but relish in the "what ifs" in pushing the vision forward.
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