So I sat down to
think about this presentation and how I would start it and while I
was thinking about it I started a little blog post about getting
ready for this residency that, as many do, devolved into what is
blooming in my yard
which meant that to illustrate it I had to take a
wander for pictures
and some of the pictures I had to wait for while
the breeze gave me an opportunity and while waiting I noticed the
baby anoles that are hatching now
and how tired all the foliage is
starting to look
and I was listening to the hot summer noises of the
cicadas
and birds and looking into the summer blue sky with the white
puffy clouds
and...where was I?
Oh yeah, trying
to figure out what to write and say about me and what pictures to
choose to illustrate who I am and where I come from and how it
relates to my work.
I think my
attempt at starting has pretty much illustrated that.
As far as my
career as a functioning artist and my involvement in glass goes, I
began my little studio about 38 years ago doing etched glass
commissions for architectural installations and in the mid 80s played
with fused and cast glass abandoning fusing for casting and later in
the mid 90s, I started working in the technique of pate de verre
specifically.
We, my
husband/partner and I, still do the commission work and it is, in
fact, how we make our living.
The commission
work
differs from the 'gallery' work in that the art for the
commission work is rooted in the requirements of the job and desires
of the buyer. While I will prepare sketches based on a design
consultation, they will decide which one gets done.
And while I tend
to fall into favorite subject matter that I don't have to think about
too much, the commission work will challenge me now and then to offer
an idea that I then have to figure out how to do.
But, that's just
technique mostly.
It's hard for me
to say what inspires me in my personal work, the cast glass pieces.
My imagery in both endeavors is deeply rooted in nature and I have
always strived to remain connected to and to protect and encourage
the natural world. I must have windows in my work space that I can
gaze out of.
And outside those windows, I plant things that flower
and I add features that attract birds and butterflies and insects and
frogs and snakes too. And while my environment is rich, I'm afraid
my content is often shallow.
Mostly the early
pieces are just trying to be pretty. We were learning how to do what
I wanted and also what we could and could not expect to happen.
My
first three dimensional form was a small bowl and they were based on
the colors and patterns of the of the earth, flowers, and sky.
In my more
recent work, the peach box that is currently under construction
is
simply an ode to the peach because I like peaches. Other work,
like
the Reliquary For A Night Sky, is a lament, this one over light
pollution. I guess that pretty much sums up all the boxes, Odes or
Laments. These are stories, because each one has a story that goes
with it, even the Odes, like
The Book Of Wren, which is about the
spring that wrens built a nest in the garage.
Backing up a
little bit, at some point, as the work became more sculptural and the
form changed from bowl
to cup
to vase
to small sculpture
to box,
the
pieces started developing stories and so that's what I've come to
think about my work in general, that these are stories. Sometimes
they were intentional and other times the story just evolved.
I wrangled a one
person show from my local gallery one year and tried to do some
'serious' work. The theme of the work was the loss of an old inner
city neighborhood, mine, through gentrification. It didn't go over
too well, but I did try some forms that were not vessels.
Up until
then all the work was all different forms of the vessel.
I'm leaving the
vessel form behind for now and though I'm not through with the boxes
yet, I don't really consider them a vessel, not in the traditional
sense.
The pieces I'm
currently working on that I loosely refer to as 'botanica erotica'
are focused on the reproductive parts of flowers or the suggestive
nature of the way petals unfold.
I like the
erotic nature of nature, the biological imperative to reproduce; the
way plants just 'do it in the road'
to quote John
Lennon while our culture cloaks it in taboo and repression. I guess
you could call them flower porn.
Only one story
here.
I'm already
thinking about the next series I want to do after the botanicas which
will be a collection of stories, or memories, based on my river days
and I want to move more in the direction of including other
multi-media components in this work like I did with the wren box
which has a bronze component and includes a handmade scroll.
Other than that,
I really don't think too deeply about my work or from whence it is
derived. There is no great symbolism involved and the only agonizing
I do is in that period between image in my head and finished model
when I think I'll never get from one to the other. I've never
thought that there was any underlying unity in my work beyond being
nature oriented, an extension of my deep belief that we are only one
part of an integrated whole, a part of nature rather than being apart
from nature.
Finally, when I
first started writing this, I wrote down three things that came to
mind that I have learned from different people but that I haven't
been able to work into the dialog. I've learned many things, of
course, but these are the three that surfaced so these are the ones I
am going to leave you with.
The thing I
learned from my drawing teacher was to look for the details.
The thing I
learned from Spider Woman of the Navaho pantheon is that balance in
your life is essential.
And the thing I
learned from my friend Gene is perseverance. If you want to do
something, you don't give up.
