At the May 2021 meeting of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the International Year of Glass (IYoG2022) was approved for 2022.
This means that thousands of glass-related events will be held around the world to highlight glass in 2022. The plan is to hold congresses and seminars, industrial fairs and glass school exhibitions, plus features in the main scientific magazines in the sector.
Efforts towards this goal began in 2018, backed by the support of more than 1,500 organisations and institutions from 78 countries on five continents. Universities and research centres, societies and associations, museums, artists and educators, manufacturers and companies from all over the world promoted the idea. The International Commission on Glass (ICG), the Community of Glass Associations and ICOM-Glass worked together towards this outcome.
Professor Alicia Duran, President of the ICG said, “I have to thank from the heart the enormous effort made by the Spanish Mission at United Nations, which has led the project. My ambassador, Agustín Santos Maraver, and Ana Alonso, have struggled and advanced through the difficult twists and turns of diplomacy in such arduous times.
“Also, to all the national organisations, societies, museums and companies that have responded to this call. I have to cite some special persons as David Pye and John Parker, without forgetting the many experts and colleagues that collaborated to write the splendid documents that justified our project and all that were always available to connect with your Foreign ministries and UN Missions to ask for support.”
Pate de verre artist Julie Light likes to represent aspects of the human body in unconventional ways. In this interview with CGS Glass Network’s digital editor, Linda Banks, she explains the evolution of her glass practice and how she adapted her methods to complete a contemporary glass commission with a scientific theme, despite the constraints of lockdown.
It’s been a difficult year for many artists – what have you been working on? I’ve been very lucky from that point of view. Days before the first UK lockdown started, I visited labs at Leeds University, in the UK, having won a commission to respond to research to discover whether membrane-disrupting peptides could be used to develop new cancer treatments. The commission is destined to be displayed in the Clinical Research Facility at St James’ University Hospital in Leeds, where patients take part in research trials.
My studio is at home, so over the next nine months of lockdowns and the closure of the labs, I was still able to collaborate with the Leeds-based scientists at home via Zoom and to experiment in my studio to create the final piece, Diorama 1. Trying to show people samples and textures over Zoom is a real challenge, as a webcam doesn’t convey the details well at all, but we managed to find ways around that using images and screenshares.
The isolation of the lockdowns allowed me to work on developing a style of pate de verre which incorporated different textures of glass, to mirror some of the phenomena that informed the team’s research work. I also experimented with other techniques and ideas. It was a joy for me to be involved in creating a piece that celebrated research into treatment for a pervasive and life-threatening disease, but it was also a blessing that the disease was not Covid, because that was dominating everything else at that time.
Diorama 1 (Z Stack Detail), Photo: Robyn Manning Photography.
I have not been able to take the artwork to Leeds yet, owing to the travel and hospital restrictions, but I am delighted that I have been able to show Diorama 1 as part of a virtual international online exhibition of glass art created during the pandemic. You can see the show now at www.viralglass.org.
A lot of your work deals with scientific themes. What message do you want to convey with your art? As soon as I began making glass art, I started to explore themes around medicine and the body, and this interest continued to develop until I found myself studying for an MA in Art & Science at Central St Martin’s College a couple of years ago. I am extremely interested in how medical technologies allow us to experience our bodies visually in different ways, and so my artwork is often centred on unconventional representations of the body in health and disease.
A lot of us come across medical images in relation to our own health and wellbeing. When I had this experience myself, I began to ask, what does it mean to see yourself from the inside out, as we do with x-rays and MRI scans? How easily can we tell if a scan is actually of our own body? (I can tell you from experience that sometimes it’s not easy at all!) And what happens when we see our cells through a microscope? Do we know what we’re looking at? I would love to think that my artwork helps stimulate conversations and contemplation around these types of issues.
Cellscape (Detail), Photo: Julie Light.
I am also very interested in how forms and structures within our bodies influence our physical experiences. For example, the different shapes of some mutations of blood cells can create a variety of health conditions related directly to the shape of the cell. That is what inspired my Blood Morphology Series.
How did you get started with glass? I came to work with glass by complete chance. I had been in a corporate job for many years and was feeling a bit stifled, but then I heard about a Norwegian artist, Nico Widerberg, who uses cast glass. Despite the fact that I hadn’t made any artwork for a very long time, I knew I would love to try casting glass myself, so I signed up for a weekend to learn the basics. I was lucky that the course was taught by Fiaz Elson, who is a gifted teacher as well as an amazing artist.
I never looked back. Within a few weeks, I had found a studio space and a kiln and was practising casting small pieces. I continued to learn from other wonderful teachers, developing my skills at evening classes with Max Jacquard and then Angela Thwaites at Richmond Art School. I have also been lucky enough to participate in a couple of masterclasses at Northlands Creative. My first casting – of a human vertebra – was made about 12 years ago and I am as excited to experiment with different ideas and techniques now as I was back then.
Snow Wheels, Photo: Robyn Manning.
What techniques are you using at the moment? I still do some casting and coldworking, but recently I have been focusing much more on pate de verre. The work I did creating Diorama 1 has led to a whole new set of pieces using the different pate de verre techniques I developed for that piece, incorporating different textures and applying external decoration.
Sea Creatures (work in progress). Photo: Julie Light.
The result is the series of ‘fantasy sea creature’ vessels that I am making at present. These have a ‘backstory’ that the creatures evolved as hybrids between sea slugs and the plastic bottles that pollute the oceans. I’m still working on what the final installation might look like, as well as on perfecting the pate de verre process for creating them – and I am having enormous fun in the process.
Sea Creature (work in progress). Photo: Julie Light.
Where do you show and sell your work? Some of the work I make can be quite challenging and is not what everyone wants in their living room, although I have been surprised – and delighted – to find that some people do! Most often, I show my science-based work in exhibitions with a relevant theme or at institutions with a science focus, or it has been made as a specific commission.
A couple of online galleries stock my work, and I also find that a significant proportion of enquiries about sales come via my website. My next step is to create a dedicated shop page so that people can see what I have available.
I have just finished a five-year term as Chair of Just Glass, a group of more than 60 glass artists who have come together through learning warm glass techniques via adult education. Until the recent restrictions, we were holding shows regularly, and it has been a wonderful experience to exhibit my work with that of fellow members, as well as to help organise and curate these shows.
Find more of Julie’s work at www.julielight.co.uk or follow her on Instagram or Facebook as Julie Light Glass.
About the artist Julie Light was born and brought up in London. After a career at the BBC, during which time she gained a Masters and PhD in Media, she started casting glass in 2009. As part of her training in glass she studied for an HNC in 3D Craft Design at Richmond Art School and went on to receive a distinction in her MA in Art & Science at Central St Martins, University of the Arts London.
Julie has exhibited her work across the UK, at galleries, gardens, museums and hospitals. She often creates work collaboratively, and has completed a number of projects making and curating artwork with scientists, policy makers, and fellow artists, notably at The Royal Society, Kings College, London, and Imperial College, London.
Julie continues to serve on the committee of Just Glass, and works from her studio at home in Surrey.
Main feature image: Julie Light with Diorama 1, commissioned by Leeds University. Photo: Ernesto Rogata.
Henley-on-Thames’ River & Rowing Museum reopens on 20 May 2021 with a new display in its John Piper Gallery, entitled ‘Painting in Coloured Light’.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is John Piper’s vibrant cartoon for a stained glass window for All Saints Church, Farnborough, West Berkshire. The work was made in memory of the renowned artist’s close friend and collaborator, Sir John Betjeman, in the mid-1980s. It was the last stained glass window Piper designed before he died in 1992.
Piper and Betjeman (1906-1984), the Poet Laureate, writer and broadcaster, shared a close friendship, along with a love of the British landscape and churches, embarking on many a ‘church crawl’ together.
The window design features fish, a tree and butterflies. The central ‘Tree of Life’, with its brightly coloured fruit and flowers, suggests resurrection and eternal life. It was created in Piper’s barn studio at Fawley Bottom near Henley-on-Thames, where he created large-scale designs for stained glass windows and the theatre.
The cartoon hung in Piper’s home there for many years and was loaned to the River & Rowing Museum by the Piper family in late 2018.
The cartoon has been expertly conserved, bringing its rich colours back to life and offering a close-up view of Piper’s techniques for creating stained glass windows.
His lifelong interest in stained glass began as a boy, when he traced the stained glass windows near his home in Surrey and on family holidays. This interest led to Piper designing more than 60 stained glass windows during his career, using a blend of ‘traditional’ early stained glass and modernism. His work is found in locations from local churches to major cathedrals, including Coventry and Liverpool.
Talking about how them medium of glass had captured him, Piper remarked, “Stained glass is a great leader astray of anyone who works at it – designer and craftsman alike. In terms of colour and form it is eccentric. Colour is abnormally bright, since the light comes through the material instead of being reflected from the surface; tone is usually dictated by bounding leads or area joints of some kind. The whole thing is imprisoned within glazing bars that form an inexorable grid and are structurally necessary. This is its proper splendid discipline.”
The Gallery highlights Piper’s lifelong passion for stained glass and his exploration of this medium, influenced by the medieval windows he encountered from childhood. It opened in 2016 and features works from private and public collections that demonstrate Piper’s artistic versatility, ranging from drawing and painting to stained glass and ceramics.
A general admission ticket to the River & Rowing Museum includes entry to the John Piper Gallery and the ‘Painting in Coloured Light’ exhibition. The Museum is open Thursday to Monday (10am-4pm) from 20 May 2021. Pre-booking is essential and tickets are on sale via this link. Booking is available up to 21 June 2021 in the first instance, but future dates will become available on a rolling basis.
The Glass Art Society (GAS) is holding its ‘Virtual 2021’ event from 20-22 May. The itinerary of this online extravaganza has been launched today, so head over to the GAS website now to register and plan your unique experience, which you can enjoy from the comfort of your home.
Virtual 2021 features more than 100 presenters from six continents, bringing you more than 24 live presentations, plus many more pre-recorded presentations and special events over the three days.
Kicking off Virtual 2021 are James Devereaux and Katherine Huskie, with a live-streamed hot shop demonstration, called the ‘Salmon SCHOOL Project’, to be held between 5am and 7am (Pacific Daylight Time – PDT) on Thursday 20 May. (There is a time zone converter link on the GAS website).
Other hot shop demonstrations, to be held across the three days, will include: Claire Kelly (read her recent interview with CGS Glass Network digitalhere) and the Corning Museum of Glass; Leo Tecosky; Ayano Yoshizumi & JamFactory; Kensuke Takeoka; Elliot Walker; Dan Friday at the Seattle Glassblowing Studio; Tegan Hamilton; Kenji Ito, and Jeff Mack and the Corning Museum of Glass.
There will be flame demonstrations on ‘Anatomical Sculpting’ and ‘Klien Bottle’, plus lecture/demonstrations by Evelyn Gottschall Baker on ‘Non-traditional pate de verre’, and Harriet Schwarzrock, who will present ‘Between stillness & movement: Experiencing an immersive plasma installation’.
There will also be a cold working presentation by Lothar Bottcher, Michael Robert Bokrosh, Samuel Weisenborn, Patrick Roth, Tobby Ritzkowski and Simon Holm, entitled ‘Lathe Riders: Secret Techniques from the Cold Shop’.
Each day, there will be interviews, under the banner ‘Glass Virus Conversations’. These will be held with: Jens Pfeifer and Michael Rogers; Caroline Madden and Joseph McBrinn, and Gayle Matthias and Erin Dickson.
Alongside this packed programme will be virtual gallery tours and exhibitions, showcasing GAS members and students, the ‘Trace’ exhibition, focused on sustainability in glass art, Manitoba Craft Council and the Traver Gallery’s Mel Douglas exhibition.
On the GAS website you can see details of the numerous pre-recorded presentations that will be released each day of Virtual 20201, plus lots more information on the full programme. It is sure to be a feast for glass artists and enthusiasts all packed into three days.
The Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) is delighted to welcome Natasha Duddy from Northern Ireland as its 1000th member. In recognition of this landmark, Natasha wins three years of free membership.
On hearing the news of her prize, Natasha exclaimed, “OMG I am so excited to hear this. Thank you so much! I am delighted to have won this and to be your 1000th member.”
Natasha studied a BDes (hons), specialising in Glass, at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. She has been in business as Natasha Duddy Glass Designs for 20 years, making jewellery, personal and corporate glass gifts, recycled, eco-friendly products and architectural glass sculptures. She specialises in fusing and slumping.
Natasha Duddy’s glass sculptures are inspired by the coastal landscape.
Her glass sculptures are inspired by the local seascapes and rugged coastlines of the North Coast of Ireland, and she is well known for her jewellery designs. Find out more on her website.
Other new members who have joined the CGS this week include Sacha Brienesse from Holland, Vera Sadakova from Russia, Rosheen Young from Scotland and Emma Foster from the UK. This snapshot of new members shows the international reach and inclusivity of the CGS.
Everyone is welcome, so if you would like to join a vibrant community of glass enthusiasts and makers, simply click here now to sign up.
Main image: CGS 1000th member, Natasha Duddy, checking work in the kiln.
The exhibition ‘1som/1het’ (meaning ‘lonely/unit’) opens at the S12 Studio and Gallery in Bergen, Norway, on 30 April 2021, showcasing the work of six artists.
This project was previously known as ‘Glass, gravity and growth’.
All of the artworks on show have been made in the S12 studio, and all of the artists have close links with S12, through artist-in-residence programmes, or as co-workers.
The main exhibitors in 1som/1het are Timothy Belliveau and Æsa Björk, both because they have more work in the gallery space and because of the close working relationship that they have developed at S12 during the Covid pandemic.
Even though there has been a great deal of frustration during this period, with many activities cancelled, the hardship has also provided a possibility to analyse the art produced and promoted.
All of the artists participating in this exhibition are unique and differ from each other in many ways, as their artworks demonstrate. However, all of them show a genuine interest in the human element, while at the same time exploring new techniques and new technology to transmit their ideas.
The exhibition displays objects and elements that are tied together literally and figuratively, while at the same time having their own identity and integrity. Geological layers, interwoven hoses, shrubbery and twigs in glass and rust, and children by the seaside with discarded rubber boots at the beach.
Æsa Björk depicts a visual analysis of a human whole, seen through a body scanned intersection, alongside sculpturally assembled, handcrafted elements of fused glass based on 3D-printed PLA (polylactic acid) moulds, in a subtle grid of carefully assembled, commercially produced glass canes.
Timothy Belliveau combines traditional glass blowing with 3D-printed visions of science fiction and hand cast geometrical polygons based on drawing and calculations made on his computer.
Ingrid Nord combines graphic and photographic art, reproduced in glass, while Ida Wieth’s artwork features blown, pulled, fused and cracked glass tubes combined with iron dioxin.
Verena Schatz’s art shows a bundle of hoses made out of crystal clear glass that looks like PVC, and not the other way around, floating in thin air, held up by rope.
Meanwhile, Emma Baker combines blown, cut and fused coloured glass in a contemporary object reminiscent of an old geological intersection from her local coastline.
The exhibition runs from 30 April until 6 June 2021, from 12pm to 4 pm, Fridays to Sundays.
S12 is an open access studio and gallery specialising in the use of glass in art and design. It has a workshop with qualified staff and specialist facilities, and welcomes artists and designers from all over the world.
Its artist-in-residence programme particularly welcomes those who like to experiment with glass in all its diversity, explore its boundaries and combine it with other materials.
S12 Studio and Gallery, Bontelabo 2, 5003 Bergen, Norway. Website: http://www.s12.no
The National Glass Centre (NGC) has announced its first European Glass Prize exhibition. Glass artists from across Europe, at any stage of their careers, are invited to submit work.
A distinguished panel will select work by about 40 artists, which, in their judgment, “reflects the finest contemporary practice in European glass”.
The chosen artworks will be shown at an exhibition at the NGC in Sunderland, England, which opens on 16 October 2021 and will run until 13 March 2022. There will be three prizes: a First Prize of £3,000; a Second Prize of £1,500, and a Third Prize of £1,000.
Selection Panel
The selection panel will include Sandra Blach, Exhibition Officer at Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark, Reino Liefkes, Senior Curator and Head of Ceramics and Glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England, and Julia Stephenson, Head of Arts at the NGC, Sunderland, England.
Criteria
In order to be eligible for selection:
Work must be made in or have a direct relationship to the medium of glass.
Work submitted must have been made after 1 January 2018.
Artists must be working in a European country (as listed under ‘Europe’ by the United Nations) at the time of submitting an application and it must be possible to collect work from, and return work to, this country.
Works must be delivered to the NGC by a date to be confirmed in September 2021.
Selected work must be available for inclusion in the exhibition until it closes in Spring 2022.
The artist must complete all points included in the application form.
Artists must submit one piece, or one group of works, taking into account that all artists must be equally represented within the exhibition.
NGC has limited capacity for suspending work and may be limited in its ability to display work owing to factors including size, weight and potential health and safety challenges.
Packaging and Transport
Each selected artist will receive a payment of £250 to support the costs of two-way packaging and transport, which, along with insurance while in transport, will be the responsibility of the artist.
Applications must be received by the deadline of 5pm on Friday 4 June 2021.
Look out for the latest Glass Network print edition, which is landing on CGS members’ doorsteps this month. Its editor, Kirsteen Aubrey, outlines what you’ll discover.
This edition focuses on collaborative practice, exploring various ways we share discourse, ideas, skills and practice.
In an interview with Luke Jerram we delve into the importance of concept in order to drive an idea, discovering methods that secure a long term, profitable collaboration for all parties involved.
Inge Panneels highlights the need for agility and adaptability through which to successfully navigate changes in circumstance.
Developing a partnership through studio sharing is addressed in Linda Norris’s feature, where we learn the importance of collage, friendship and humour to sustain creative collaborative practice.
Meanwhile, Amy Whittingham’s collaboration sees her welcome new challenges, collecting kelp in the sea and learning the art of furnace building, on a journey with artist Abigail Reynolds and glassblower Ian Hankey to create glass from scratch, using seaweed and sand.
Many artists work with galleries, collectors and museums, for the purposes of research, curiosity, or to showcase work. We learn how two organisations collaborate with artists; Chris Day shares how collaborative experience has proved a gateway to new platforms with Vessel Gallery, while the head of arts at the National Glass Centre, Julia Stephenson, explains a new initiative, ‘Glass Exchange’, that will enable four contemporary artists to develop concepts and large-scale commissions.
Each feature explores new ways to encounter and sustain collaborative practice, and hints at the challenges of which we need to be mindful.
This edition of Glass Network celebrates the opportunity, diversity and inclusivity that collaboration can bring to one’s practice.
Kirsteen Aubrey Editor, Glass Network
Look out for your CGS fundraising raffle tickets in the envelope with your Glass Network magazine. Read more about what contemporary glass prizes you can win and what the money will be used for here.
If you would like to read the full print edition of Glass Network and are not yet a member of CGS, you can sign up to join here. Additional benefits include access to weekly online presentations by glass artists, glass collectors and enthusiasts, discounts from glass suppliers and for training courses, exclusive member exhibitions where you have the opportunity to sell your work, plus your own dedicated gallery page on the CGS website.
Please note that the new website for Pearsons Glass (as advertised on the back cover of the latest Glass Network print edition) is going live in May 2021, so be sure to check it out then.
Feature photograph: (left to right) Collaborators Abigail Reynolds, Ian Hankey and Amy Whittingham at Kestle Barton in Cornwall. Photo: Otis Reynolds.
During the pandemic, we have all been asking each other the question, “How do you feel?” For our next virtual exhibition of members’ work, the Contemporary Glass Society (CGS) is raising the same enquiry with its members – but with a twist. Glass artist members are invited to answer the question of how they feel with their hands, to respond to the exhibition theme of ‘Texture’.
Texture can be defined as the tactile quality of an object’s surface. Within art, it can appeal to our sense of touch, which can evoke an emotional response. Texture is the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface. It is usually described as smooth or rough, soft or hard, coarse or fine, matt or glossy.
Just like 3D forms, texture can be implied or real. For example, texture can be created through cutting, building, tearing or layering of materials.
This online exhibition will be curated, with selected work displayed in an online exhibition on the CGS website and available for sale. All CGS members, both international and UK-based, are eligible to enter. Entries must not have been shown in other CGS virtual shows.
Work will be chosen from submitted images, so please ensure your image is top quality.
The show will run from 8 May to 9 June 2021 on the CGS website.
What textures are you inspired by, or what textures inform your work? Now is your chance to take up the challenge and submit your glass work on the theme of Textures. As mentioned, this is a CGS members only exhibition. If you are a glass artist and not a member yet, join us today for the opportunity to take part.
Submission deadline is 26 April 2021. To enter, log in to your profile and select the ‘Submit to Exhibitions’ tab, open a new exhibition window, then select ‘Textures’ from the Exhibition drop-down menu.
Claire Kelly has a mastery of glass cane and murrine techniques, with which she creates magical, safe worlds that highlight the fragility of nature. CGS Glass Network digital’s editor, Linda Banks, finds out more.
What led you to start working with glass? The art school I attended, Alfred University (1992-96), has a glass programme. Once I was able to start taking studio classes in glass I was a goner. It was just so exciting and rare. After I graduated, I continued my glass journey as an intern at the brand new Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass. I was still such a newbie, but I knew that this was the path for me and I have continued finding ways to be in the glass studio ever since.
Claire Kelly demonstrating her animal sculpting skills at the Corning Museum of Glass.
What glass techniques have you used in your career and why do you have a preference for the methods you use today? Bold patterns are the signature of my work. I integrate cane and cold working into a mosaic-like process that maximises the effects of densely coloured components to create my patterns and colour combinations. Early on, I had seen cane work in shows and museums by notables like Dick Marquis and Dante Marioni. I was just so struck by the kinds of patterns they were making and how juicy the colour looked when applied this way.
Claire Kelly is happy to spend hours chopping up glass cane for her mosaic designs.
It was later that I began to understand the origins of glassmaking and that cane and murrine are so ancient. As my work progresses, I never seem to tire of using cane as a starting point. I love everything about the process and possibilities. Even some of my animals, that don’t look like cane-work (the foxes), actually are.
The stages of glass mosaic creation for the piece ‘Recursive’.‘Recursive’ (2020). Glass: blown mosaic.
Can you tell us something about how you developed your glass working methods? Do you draw your designs out or dive straight in with the materials? I give a ton of credit to my first real assisting job for a glass blower in Vermont, Robin Mix. He worked in cane and murrine in a way that was unique among small studio glassblowers. It was while working for him that I really began to develop the skills and techniques that I employ now in my work. I can’t overstate how valuable it is to work for another artist. Even if it’s not similar to the work you want to make yourself, it establishes artistic practices that will carry you forward when making your work.
I only began drawing regularly when I began my body of work with patterned glass animals in 2014. I wasn’t able to access hot glass very often, so drawing was my outlet and focus. It gave me a place to get my ideas on paper and then also a to-do list once I was in the hot shop. I discovered what a stress release drawing is, and now I employ drawing as a matter of course for my artistic practice. Plus – it’s free! Everyone should draw, all the time. The sillier the better, in my book.
What is your favourite tool or piece of equipment and why? I have two. One hot, one cold.
My new favourite tool in the glass studio is the hot torch. When I began blowing glass it wasn’t so common to have a torch on hand, except perhaps to fire-polish punties. So it wasn’t a tool I was used to. Then, when I began designing my animals, I struggled to realise them the way I wanted. I decided to get some help and took a class with Raven Skyriver and Kelly O’Dell. There I was able to really learn what the torch was capable of. It would have taken me ages to make those breakthroughs on my own. So, I was thrilled when the elephants began to actually look like my drawings.
My other, and true favourite, tool, is my diamond saw. I use it for everything, but it gets the bulk of its use cutting up cane for my mosaic patterns. I pop on my headphones, listen to a book on tape, or podcasts, and slice glass for hours. I bought the saw in 2001 and it’s travelled up and down the east coast of the United States a few times.
Claire Kelly cold working a glass sculpture.
What message do you want to covey to your audience through your brightly coloured glass work? I often say that my work is a reminder to care. I make sculptures that tell a story about the fragility of these creatures illuminated by innocence and play. I have provided them a universe where they are free of constraint and thrive with beauty and design. Where my work stands out for its technical acuity, it also has an aesthetic that is whimsical, fun and approachable. This pairing is attractive to audiences from varying perspectives and is a factor in my work’s impact. My glass landscapes and animals are advocates for the precious worlds they represent.
‘Poetic License’ (2020). “Freedom to depart from the facts”. Created from blown, sculpted, and assembled glass.
Where do you show and sell your work? I work with select galleries to exhibit my work in the US and Canada. I’m very fortunate to have a relationship with wonderful representatives that work very hard to promote glass art and to find an audience for their artists’ work. Once or twice a year, I participate in retail venues such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, that give me the opportunity to meet and talk with collectors and art enthusiasts in person. I also sell one-of-a-kind work on my website that is not available through my galleries.
Do you have a career highlight? I was selected to be an Artist in Residence at the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass in 2017, which I used to create a new body of work using glass from Effetre, a glass company based in Murano, Italy specialising in coloured glasses. As a direct result of that residency I was selected to be a demonstrating artist at the Glass Art Society Conference in Venice, Italy in 2018. The demonstration was at the Effetre factory on Murano and, while I don’t speak Italian, I was able to ask for all the colours I wanted to use by their Italian names. Being chosen for such a seminal conference was really special and it connected me to the history of glass making in a way that I felt in my bones.
[Watch ‘Domine’ being created in a livestream demonstration at the Corning Museum of Glass on YouTube here]
‘Domine’ (2020). Blown, sculpted and assembled glass. String created using Effetre glass from Italy.
Who or what inspires you? Inspiration can come from an uncomfortable place. For me, that was my anxiety and fear caused by the uncertain future of our planet. I found inspiration in my art practice and used it to pull myself out of that dismal state of mind.
The result was my first blown glass elephant, situated on a fantastic landscape. This refocused energy creates a cycle for me to process my mental and emotional health and I view it very much as a form of therapy. Many of my recent works are about perception and, in particular, the need to move away from a human-centric view of the world. I have been inspired by fables and added to my menagerie of animal figures to illustrate my tableaux.
‘Circumstellar Pink and Lime’ (2020). “Circumstellar: surrounding or occurring in the vicinity of a star”. Glass: blown, sculpted, and assembled.
How has the coronavirus impacted your practice? I just got my first shot of vaccine as of this writing – The next will be coming soon! During the depths of the pandemic, I finally invested the time and materials to pursue a facet of glass making that I had wanted to try for a while, namely beading. I learned how to make woven bead tapestries and I am slowing learning to turn those into three-dimensional objects. It’s still very new and I don’t know where it will end up, but I love doing it and find it as soothing as drawing. I went down a fun rabbit hole online trying to find out how seed beads are made. Turns out they’re quite secretive about it…
Beaded snake, by Claire Kelly.
If you’re interested in keeping up with news from her studio, Claire Kelly invites you to visit clairekellyglass.com and you can join her mailing list here. You can also follow her on Instagram and Facebook at Claire Kelly Glass.
About the artist Claire Kelly graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Alfred University in 1996. In 2004 she was granted the EnergyXchange fellowship in Burnsville, North Carolina. In 2008 Claire moved to Providence, RI to work with acclaimed glass artist Toots Zynsky. She has been an instructor at Penland School of Crafts, Pilchuck Glass School, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and the Centro Fundacion del Vidrio in Spain. She has been a resident artist at the Pittsburgh Glass Center and received the Rosenberg Residency at Salem State University in MA.
Her work is on show at major institutions and galleries in the United States and worldwide, including a collaborative sculpture commemorating the 30-year anniversary of the conclusion of the liberation of Kuwait.
She relocated to Corning in late 2020, where she creates her work using the glass blowing facilities of the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass.
Main feature image: Claire Kelly’s ‘Parallax: Busy Forest’ (2019), created from blown, sculpted and assembled glass.
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