This year marks the start of many new beginnings and a great deal to be excited for. Last week, I shipped off 4 new pieces headed to Millville, NJ for GlassWeekend at Wheaton Arts. It is the first time that I will be showing at GlassWeekend and marks the introduction of my newly formed relationship with Heller Gallery. I am excited for the opportunity to show my work on the east coast and to grow as a practicing artist. 

In January, I got a new camera and as a result spent a lot of time taking photographs of the city. As I wondered around the streets taking pictures, the alienating nature of the city and the apparent anonymity of being in an urban environment crept upon me.  The work I made for GlassWeekend throughout Winter and Spring focuses on the anonymity of individuals in an urban environment and looks at the moment we fuse into our surroundings and become apart of the background. 

Unfortunately, I will not be able to personally attend GlassWeekend.  I will be teaching a workshop at The Studio at the Corning museum of glass. It will be my first year teaching there without Mr. Harcuba and my first teaching with printmaker, Marshall Hyde, who worked with Harcuba many a time at the Corning Studio over the years. Marshall and I aim to  continue the tradition of engraving for Harcuba, who taught his last class there last year. We'll need to do a Skype session with him...

A stirring Winter came to an end and Spring has brought many new beginnings, a few endings and many new lessons. 

My sweetheart recently shared a prose with me. We find recognition in the words. 

…but when I said that nothing had been done, I erred in one important matter. We had definitely committed ourselves and were halfway out of our ruts. We had put down our passage money -- booked a sailing to Bombay.  This may sound too simple, but is great in consequence.  Because until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth - the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  A whole stream of events issues from this single decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings, and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.  I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: 

“…whatever you can do, or dream you can… begin it - boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

-W.H. Murray “The Scottish Himalayan Expedition”

I've recently shaken the hands of many old friends and am reminded of the bonds of friendships I have made over the last  decade. I am grateful for the people that I have had the opportunity to grow with and learn from and I am humbled to exhibit alongside my friends.  

The Museum of Glass is exhibiting a show entitled, LINKS: Australian Glass and the Pacific Northwest - May 2013 - January 2014.  In conjunction with this, Pilchuck Glass school is hosting many but not nearly all of the greatest Australian glass artists throughout the Summer. And to top it off, Traver gallery is hanging a show featuring Australian artists for the month of June. 

Late in 2011, the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, opened a glass studio with the intent of offering daily glass blowing demonstrations and educational programing for the public. In celebration of the new studio, the museum's curator of glass, Kelly Conway, invited artists to participate in a series of week long residencies with accompanying exhibitions throughout the year.  

I am excited to announce that this coming week (Nov 13-18) I will be artist in residence at the glass studio! In conjunction with the residency, an exhibition of my work will be on display in the museum, until December 30th. This exhibition debuts sculptural works along with photographs and wall pieces. If you are interested in finding out any more information on these pieces or this residency, please contact me directly through the contact page on this website. 
(Pictures of work in this post!)

When making work for this show I  found myself contemplating a question that I have been asking myself repeatedly over the last few years. That question being: 

What is the larger purpose of making art, specifically glass engravings, that look at the connections between people and their environments? 

Or more simply: What is the purpose of making art? 

These questions could be answered a million different ways for a million different reasons from even more differing perspectives.  While I have thoughts to these questions in broad terms, specifically relating to my art,  I have come to two working  conclusions (abbreviated here). 

The first conclusion, perhaps more straightforward than the second, is simply to help keep a dying tradition alive. Engraving is traditional craft that takes both time and skill accumulated by a lifetime of practice to master. Something that perhaps is lost on Western contemporary culture. This point in my work becomes increasingly important as I notice a shifting trend in attitude that leans towards quick gratification versus a vested interest in the long term. 

The second conclusion that I came to is that my work is marking a time of extreme global and social change. When everything else is becoming digitally documented and stored in a cloud somewhere above our heads, I  use the voice of art as my way of expressing the beginning of the 21st century. In the form of glass engravings that depict varied scenes from life that could serve as archival records of our age, for future generations.

Full in thought about our capitalist system of governance, I happened upon this poem by Alice Walker on radio program, Democracy Now. 

"Democratic Womanism"

You ask me why I smile
when you tell me you intend
in the coming national elections
to hold your nose
and vote for the lesser of two evils.
There are more than two evils out there,
is one reason I smile.
Another is that our old buddy Nostradamus
comes to mind, with his fearful
400 year old prophecy: that our world
and theirs too
(our "enemies" – lots of kids included there)
will end (by nuclear nakba or holocaust)
in our lifetime. Which makes the idea of elections
and the billions of dollars wasted on them
somewhat fatuous.
A Southerner of Color,
my people held the vote
very dear
while others, for centuries,
merely appeared to play
with it.
One thing I can assure
you of is this:
I will never betray such pure hearts
by voting for evil
even if it were microscopic
which, as you can see in any newscast
no matter the slant,
it is not.
I want something else;
a different system
entirely.
One not seen
on this earth
for thousands of years. If ever.
Democratic Womanism.
Notice how this word has "man" right in the middle of it?
That’s one reason I like it. He is right there, front and center. But he is surrounded.
I want to vote and work for a way of life
that honors the feminine;
a way that acknowledges
the theft of the wisdom
female and dark Mother leadership
might have provided our spaceship
all along.
I am not thinking
of a talking head
kind of gal:
happy to be mixing
it up
with the baddest
bad boys
on the planet
her eyes a slit
her mouth a zipper.
No, I am speaking of true
regime change.
Where women rise
to take their place
en masse
at the helm
of earth’s frail and failing ship;
where each thousand years
of our silence
is examined
with regret,
and the cruel manner in which our values
of compassion and kindness
have been ridiculed
and suppressed
brought to bear on the disaster
of the present time.
The past must be examined closely, I believe, before we can leave
it there.
I am thinking of Democratic, and, perhaps
Socialist, Womanism.
For who else knows so deeply
how to share but Mothers
and Grandmothers? Big sisters
and Aunts?
To love
and adore
both female and male?
Not to mention those in between.
To work at keeping
the entire community
fed, educated
and safe?
Democratic womanism,
Democratic Socialist
Womanism,
would have as its icons
such fierce warriors
for good as
Vandana Shiva
Aung San Suu Kyi,
Wangari Maathai
Harriet Tubman
Yoko Ono
Frida Kahlo
Angela Davis
& Barbara Lee:
With new ones always rising, wherever you look.

You are also on this list, but it is so long (Isis would appear midway) that I must stop or be unable to finish the poem! So just know I’ve stood you in a circle that includes Marian Wright Edelman, Amy Goodman, Sojourner Truth, Gloria Steinem and Mary McLeod Bethune. John Brown, Frederick Douglass, John Lennon and Howard Zinn are there. Happy to be surrounded!

There is no system
There is no system
now in place
that can change
the disastrous course
the Earth is on.
Who can doubt this?
The male leaders
of Earth
appear to have abandoned
their very senses
though most appear
to live now
entirely
in their heads.
They murder humans and other
animals
forests and rivers and mountains
every day
they are in office
and never seem
to notice it.
They eat and drink devastation.
Women of the world,
Women of the world,
Is this devastation Us?
Would we kill whole continents for oil
(or anything else)
rather than limit
the number of consumer offspring we produce
and learn how to make our own fire?
Democratic Womanism.
Democratic Socialist Womanism.
A system of governance
we can dream and imagine and build together. One that recognizes
at least six thousand years
of brutally enforced complicity
in the assassination
of Mother Earth, but foresees six thousand years
ahead of us when we will not submit.
What will we need? A hundred years
at least to plan: (five hundred will be handed us
gladly
when the planet is scared enough)
in which circles of women meet,
organize ourselves, and,
allied with men
brave enough to stand with women,
men brave enough to stand with women,
nurture our planet to a degree of health.
And without apology —-
(impossible to make
a bigger mess than has been made already) -—
devote ourselves, heedless of opposition,
to tirelessly serving and resuscitating Our Mother ship
and with gratitude
for Her care of us
worshipfully commit
to
rehabilitating it.


-Alice Walker

Above poem borrowed from Democracy Now website.

Last September, I submitted a proposal entitled, 21st Century Antarctica: The Science and Landscape of Palmer Station to the National Science Foundation's, Antarctic Artists and Writers program. An NSF program that offers artists and writers the opportunity to travel to Antarctica to gather research to complete proposed projects. After a very long and involved process, I have received final confirmation that my application has indeed been accepted into the program! I will be deploying to Palmer station on the Antarctic peninsula, in the Austral Summer of 2013/14 for about a month and half. I will travel from Seattle to Punta Arenas, Chile, where I will board icebreaker vessel L.M. Gould for an approximate 5 day voyage to Palmer Station. While deployed, I will work side by side with the scientific research and support teams with the goal of gathering information and inspiration to make a body of work upon my return. 

Traveling to Antarctica has been a dream of mine since I was an early teen when I met a family friend who said that he was a 'toxic-waste' garbage man at McMurdo station, in Antarctica. That one could travel to and live in Antarctica was enough to peek my interest, but that he was a garbage man had my imagination reeling! I had just or was just about to read, Endurance the story of Shakleton's voyage and was (and still am) entirely captivated by the story of great explorers and survivors. But as I vividly imagined Shakleton's adventure, it did not quite fit into the contemporary picture of Antarctica that I was hearing about. It was then I started to think about the incredible differences between Antarctica pre-twentieth century and Antarctica post-twentieth century. And so my curiosity about the elusive place started it's own voyage in my imagination. 

Aside from the vast differences between Antarctica today and 100 years ago, my interest in Antarctic exploration grew as I considered the symbiotic relationship between the explorers, scientists and artists who went to great lengths in the name of science and discovery. While the role of the artist in scientific discovery has perhaps changed in the 21st century, the artist serves as a useful link between modern day science and the public at large. As science becomes increasingly complex, and in many cases is only comprehendible to an elite few, the artist's role becomes important as serving as a comprehensible link between the work of the scientist and the public at large. 

An excerpt from my application about the intent of my project.

‘21st Century Antarctica – The Science and Landscape of Palmer Station’, is a research project aimed at expanding the public’s knowledge and understanding of the scientific research, unique biology and rapid climate change occurring on the Antarctic Peninsula and in the Southern Ocean during the 21st century. Nearly one hundred years after the end of the Antarctic Heroic Age[1] of exploration and discovery, the 21st century witnesses Antarctica with year-round stations, laboratories, evidence of global warming and a need for international conservancy. However, most people remain confused and grossly misinformed about the southern most continent and the research occurring there. The goal of my project is to produce a body of work that conveys a new understanding of Antarctica that will serve as a link between the scientific research and the people at large. The final exhibition produced will focus on being engaging, educational and apprehensible.

[1] A period of exploration in Antarctica from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

While I could write all day, in the words of a wise woman I will, 'save some room for later' and leave this post: To be continued. And in the meantime, I've got my mind on the ice. 

In July, I had the great opportunity and honor of teaching at the Corning studio with Mr. Jiri Harcuba. It was my first time there and Jiri's last, after 15 years. Over the near decade that Jiri has been my teacher, I have learned innumerable lessons on life, art and engraving. After teaching our last class together, I am faced with an undertaking that I have been anticipating since I became a dedicated engraver and student of Mr. Harcuba's. That undertaking being to help keep engraving alive by passing on the lessons that I have learned, to make engraving contemporary and for our time and not to forget to forever be a student of life.

When I first learned how to engrave, Harcuba very smartly said to me, ‘Forget the details’.  At the time I did not understand this sentiment but have later come to fully appreciate what he meant with that short phrase. 

Wheel engraving onto glass is an age-old craft that has changed little since its inception. Historically, it is a craft largely used to embellish functional glass objects with decoration.  Traditional wheel engraving is taught in apprentice style schools and takes years to learn. Students are taught how to replicate decorative patterns and intricate fables and are encouraged to stay within the boundaries of tradition. When Harcuba told me to, ‘Forget the details’ he was telling me to forget the finest engravings I had been inspired by and rather to find my own way of expression in the sculptural cuts of the wheels. His lesson to me was that by stepping away from tradition (in the subject), a glass engraving could be considered contemporary art and perhaps even modern!  

So in an age of rapid change when many traditional crafts are being lost, I choose engraving as my voice. I am slowing down and focusing my energy on a craft that has been practiced for millennia but on one that may not be around in 100 years time. And perhaps that is a bold statement, but in a world that is quickly becoming dominated by digital technologies and when time is perceived as a race against itself, I feel it of utmost importance to continue on the traditions of our collective past. Even if the practice of engraving does not keep up with the pace of today and is in a way, against the very grain of our society, it makes me feel like I am doing something meaningful in the larger scheme of things. If I do not help carry on the tradition, who will? Is it not the past that we learn from to avoid mistakes in the present? For me, the very act of engraving feels like a protest against our time. Or at the very least, a question posed to the pace and direction our technological advancements are changing the course of humanity as we know it. 

What are the things that you do, to make your life feel meaningful? 

Well folks, it's that time of year again. The GAS conference is upon us! Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American studio glass movement. Wish I could attend myself, but I can't. So it goes... However, if you are able to attend, you should check out (among a million other things) the Bullseye gallery pop-up exhibition, Import at the Toledo School of Art gallery.  Aside from some of my engravings, the show features work by 13 artists - Richard Marquis, Klaus Moje, Jessica Louglin, Mel Douglas, Mel George, Jane Bruce, Richard Whiteley - to name just a few!! Bullseye always does an amazing job hanging shows, I'm sure it'll be worth your time! Check out the link for more details!! 


Images of the pieces they took to Toledo below! 

After a busy Winter in the studio, I am pleased to announce the openings of a few groups shows that my work will be in this Spring. The first of which opens June 4th and runs through September 22nd. This show is entitled Images and is at the  Walter E. Terhune Gallery Owens Community College,  Perrysburg, OH. It is running in conjunction with the GAS conference, so if you find yourself in Toledo, check out the events they will be holding! 

And opening June 5th running through August 31st: G8: A Group Exhibition Celebrating Eight Contemporary Artists Working in Studio Glass / Winston Wachter / Seattle, WA. I am especially excited to announce this show because I will be presenting for the first time, blown engraved glass! 

Today reminded me of the 17th of March. Except on that day, the president didn't support marriage equality and today he does. It's not all bad, hey?