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Twenty five years of freelance design; graphic design for print and web; landscape and garden design, and craft design form the foundation for my fused glass work.
About three years ago, a persistent idea about making mosaics kept surfacing in my dreams. I don't know what prompted these dreams, or how I got so stuck on the mosaics, but I followed through. Using some books on the subject as my tutors; I created with broken pottery, ceramic tiles, stones and glass on thrift store furniture. Tables, chairs, even an antique ironing board were covered with mosaics. A series of glass on glass mosaics came about from my interest in Art Deco designs. |
Next, I looked into creating custom tiles, and came across a process called glass fusing.
An intro fusing course was all it took for me to fall in love with kiln formed glass. Mosaics are hard to do during the winter in New England. The tile adhesives and grout are harsh on the hands, and even harder on indoor plumbing. Now my mosaic projects are saved for the summer when the days are long, and the leftover cement can be hosed into the lawn- adding lime to neutralize our soil.
To create the products for my first shows, I rented studio space and kiln time.
Now, a kiln shares space with a lap grinder and tile saw in my studio. Can a sandblaster be far behind? |
Color has always been a large piece of my design vocabulary. That is another reason why warm glass work is so appealing to me. The colors can be vibrant or subtle, and with the ability to control transparency, the effects are unlimited. Creating patterns in glass, juxtaposing opaques and transparents, balancing fine lines with color blocks, adding accessory glasses and seeing the results as they are transformed by the heat of the kiln is very exciting. Somewhere along the way though, I plan to combine photography, printmaking and glass together...it's a persistent thought that keeps recurring in my dreams. |
is my 'go-to' medium when I need to work out ideas and figure out what direction to follow. Inspiration may come from sunbathing turtles or rocks in a stream, junkyards, beach umbrellas, or the iridescent frog in my backyard that might really be a prince.
Midwest farmland from an airplane window...Flowers through a macro lens...Music with a beat that makes you want to dance...Window shopping...Hardware stores...The herb garden in summer...Textures, wherever they are found...Paint samples.
Printing on Glass- nature prints, rubber stamps, silkscreen, transfer and digital processes.
Working bigger and thicker, and adding sculptural pieces.
...Old stencils...Beads and buttons...lichen..Walking through foreign cities...Snowflakes...Power tools...
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(most recent first)
The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Bullseye Glass, Portland, OR
Diablo Glass School, Boston, MA
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
DeCordova Museum School, Lincoln, MA
Clark University, Worcester, MA
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA;
BFA graphic design
University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
