 I earned a B.A. in studio art from Michigan State University in 1982 and took my first glassblowing class soon after that. About fifteen years later, glass re-emerged as a strong interest in my life and work, gradually becoming my favorite medium. For the past ten years I've worked almost exclusively in glass, and now am exploring encaustic as well. My studio is in Madison, Wisconsin.
I find that I am best able to translate my ideas into glass when combining the techniques of blowing, lampworking, and fusing. This varied approach allows me to achieve painterly effects that are unusual in the field of glass art. In my current body of work, I combine blown elements into fused, framed glass panels. In a many-step process of making, breaking, and re-making, I assemble areas of pattern, texture, and color, which I then combine to create painterly, archeological, or quilt-like effects. Encaustic is a process of layering a mixture of beeswax and damar resin with pigments and sometimes other materials as well. I dye silk using compost and decomposition to impart color and pattern, and then incorporate the fabric into my encaustic pieces. I often burn or brand the fabric with a torch or a heated metal implement, and I use oil pigments to add color where necessary. Some of my encaustic work incorporates rice paper, and some of it uses image transfer as well.
In my current body of work I explore the question of what sudden revelation or mystery has the power to move us from a dark place into a lighter, more joyful frame of mind. I think sometimes this is a simple beautiful surprise, like a bright light in the center of a shadow, or a patch of surprising complexity that is not visible at a distance. Sometimes it is more like a hieroglyphic or mysterious communication from another sphere that slants into our day and elevates the ordinary to the extraordinary, or causes us to relax and take a deeper breath, feeling a moment of transcendent peace. And sometimes it is a flash of memory, rich and complicated, seen in a new light after the passing of time.
Professional Memberships Glass Art Society: glassart.org American Craft Council: craftcouncil.org Glass Artists: glassartists.org Madison Artists Alliance: madisonartists.org |
Artist's Statement
Encaustic allows me to put my hands right into my work and create more deliberate and direct marks. Glass allows me to take advantage of both reflection and refraction of light, and to include shadow as a design element in my work. Both glass and encaustic are process-heavy media, and both rely heavily on heat and an element of chance that allows mystery to arise in my pieces.
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