The Memorable Glass of Judith Schaechter

Two years ago I attended the Glass Art Society conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  There were a few parts that particularly stood out to me.  One was the auction--actually, just the set up for the auction--such a variety of spectacular pieces of glass art.  The other was the notable lack of speakers and presenters in the areas of fused, torch worked and stained glass art, despite an over abundance of blown glass representation. There were also several workshops I attended that have stuck in my mind.  One of those was a group discussion about the future of the glass art industry.

I'm sorry to say that I couldn't name the other panelists even if you offered me $1,000,000  (and believe me, that would motivate me to do so) off the top of my head--I could in fact, look it up I suppose.  But, without prompting, I do remember Judith Schaechter.  She was one of the few stained glass artists  featured as a speaker in a sea of blown glass artists.  And her work is phenomenal.

My personal favorite is her "Multiplication Table."

(c) Judith Schaechter, "Multiplication Table," used by permission of the artist.

When I view her work, I often see dark, dreamlike images. The people in her artwork are often distorted and stretched in a odd way.

(c) Judith Schaechter, "Agnus Dei," used by permission of the artist.

(c) Judith Schaechter, "Joan of Arc," used by permission of the artist.

(c) Judith Schaechter, "Mad Meg", used by permission of the artist.

(c) Judith Schaechter, "Sin Eater", used by permission of the artist.

In recent years, I've seen a definite turn with many artists toward dark, odd, sometimes unpleasant and occasionally downright disturbing subject matter.  Scheachter's work borders on the disturbing side in a near meeting of Alice in Wonderland meets Tim Burton dreamlike sequences.  Of special appeal to me personally, they often seem to have a spiritual bent to them as well.  And the detail she achieves is extraordinary.  Take for example, "Specimens" (below).

(c) Judith Schaechter "Specimens," used by permission of the artist.

Schaechter has quite justifiably earned several fellowships, has had numerous solo gallery shows and been a part of many group shows.  Most of those shows have been at less well known locations. It certainly seems to me that the world is ready for her works' unveiling at larger venues.  It is my opinion that the art world would devour (in a good way) this artwork in a feeding frenzy once they got wind of it.  She teaches, writes and clearly is a leader (however it might be reluctantly?) of the stained glass art world by creating modern, relevant, sometimes surreal glass panels.  She is sure to continue to be a force in the glass art world, shaping and guiding stained glass to include not just the traditional, but embracing modern design and subject matter. I anticipate seeing more of her work as her career continues to gain momentum, particularly with glass art collectors.

Text (c)SZing, 2012.  All photographs and artwork in this blog entry (c) Judith Schaechter, used by written permission.

Celebrating Glass Artist Daniel Yerdon

Yesterday I got away from both my desk and unpacking the studio and went into Ocala for an art meeting and adventure.  Along the way, I happened to stop at a consignment furniture shop that had a "stained glass" sign in its window.  At the very back of the store, there is another shop called The Glass Studio where glass artist Daniel Yerdon has his studio and display shop.  His shop is located at 2005 E. Silver Springs Blvd, Ocala Florida.  I'm excited also because there might be some opportunity in the not too distant future for me to perhaps do a few enameling or other glass related glasses at this venue.  Since I love to teach and don't really have a lot of studio space to do so anymore, this would be so wonderful.  And Daniel is quite likable and approachable artist.

Daniel was working with a customer when I stopped by so I browsed around.  He had some lovely large stained glass panels including this lovely window panel of wine, cheese and wineglass, featuring the bottoms of actual wine glasses in the top portion of the panel.

(c) Daniel Yerdon, wine, cheese, wineglass, used by permission of the artist. Photo by SZing.

Isn't this a lovely panel?  Would be a delightful addition to a wine or cheese shop or a cozy restaurant in my opinion.

artwork (c) Daniel Yerdon, photo by SZing, used by permission of the artist

Spontaneously decided to take photos so I could share them here, so no preparations were made for better exhibiting or lights, but his website shows much better photos of his lovely works.   I love the serenity of the heron.  Unfortunately, the lighting didn't work out for the photograph of a large mermaid panel that I especially liked. Glass can be quite challenging to photograph I've found over the years and almost impossible to not have some glimmer of light show on it.

 photograph (c) SZing of Daniel Yerdon in his studio

This is Daniel.  He was so very friendly and willing to share his work and story with me.  He told me he is a K-5 math and computer teacher during the school year and his studio is open from 4 to 6 or 7 p.m. during that time frame.  During the summer, he opens the studio from 11 a.m. to ummm, I think he said 5 but it might be 6 p.m.  He said he teaches some classes and has students who come by (one came in while we were chatting) to get his advice and assistance on various projects.

 photo (c) SZing

 photo (c) SZing

photo (c) SZing

Daniel works in both leaded and Tiffany-style stained glass and also does fused glass, particularly jewelry.  He uses COE 96 glass as his preference.  In his shop, he also provides supplies to local glass artists if they require assistance getting specific items.  (So good to know since I, for one, usually only like to order if I'm getting a lot of stuff at a time.)

 (c) Daniel Yerdon.  Small glass faces made into jewelry. Used by permission of the artist.

Aren't these little faces adorable?  I just love them.

Daniel and I discussed the continuing popularity of dichroic glass.  It can be quite mesmerizing.

GLASS SCIENCE LESSON FOR THE DAY:

I've always found it quite interesting and love explaining to students how a single pattern of dichroic (dichroic material causes visible light to split in distinct wavelengths i.e., color) glass might have as many as 50 layers of micro lasered metallic imprints on the glass the sum total being less than 30 to 35 millionths of an inch--about 760 to 890 nm--that's nano meter.  1 nano-meter is 10^(-9) meter or 0.000000001 meter.  PRETTY THIN, which is why it is technically called thin-film optics.

The process is apparently quite involved and quite expensive--1/4th pound of dichroic glass (a fairly small amount for a glass artist) can cost $50 or more (retail). The difficulty in making the glass is the reason dichroic glass itself is so expensive and the process requires very specific laser equipment and technological know how.  There are a few suppliers providing a fairly large array of patterns, but it isn't something that anyone could go into the kitchen and create.  I acknowledge here that I am most certainly simplifying the process excessively but I want it to be easily understood by the lay-person, so my apologies to the experts out there who might take exception to this explanation. 

Anyhoo, Daniel uses a lot of dichroic patterned glass in his smaller jewelry piece.  Here is my very favorite piece which I discovered in his shop yesterday. 

 

(c) Daniel Yerdon, Dichroic Gecko necklace.  Used by permission of the artist. Photo by SZing.

Isn't that just the coolest piece of jewelry?  Gorgeous and fun.  If I were still living in New Mexico, I'd be wearing that with a black turtleneck this winter!!

If you happen to be in the Ocala area, I highly suggest a stop by Daniels shop. And to Daniel, I say, THANKS for letting me share your work and taking time to visit with me.  I hope we'll be able to do some artwork together and I look forward to the possibility of teaching at The Glass Studio.



Celebrating Glass Artist Karen Reed

I had intended to do this three weeks ago while the 50th anniversary of the studio glass movement was being celebrated and the Glass Art Society conference was being held in Toledo, OH, but, as happens, technology and life got away from me.  So today I am celebrating my good friend and the amazing fused and stained glass artist, Karen Reed of Earthstar Glass in Huntsville, Alabama.

(c) SZing The delightful Karen Reed (blue shirt),

and three of my other favorite glass art people

(Raphael Scnepf, Allison Klinger and Marlena Marenka) at Arrowmont.

Karen and I met while taking a class at Arrowmont School of Craft in Gatlinburg, TN several years ago.  I was impressed with her kindness and skill.  She brought "give aways" of shards/leftovers from some of her screen printed glass pieces.  As I am a frustrated wanna-be quilter and deeply in love with textures and pattern, I fell instantly in love with the lovely tid-bits she brought.  She made a "quilted" panel and I also made a small sampler from some of the screen printed pieces she shared.

The lovely quilted sampler of screen printed pieces fused together--made by Karen Reed.

Artwork (c) Karen Reed, picture taken by SZing and (c) SZing, used by permission of the artist.

A gorgeous piece and amazingly just a "play around" panel.

Karen is well known for her stained glass and is frequently commissioned to do large scale windows and works.  She teaches at Arrowmont (I am looking forward to the day when my schedule will coincide with hers so I can take one of her classes), and she also is a regular writer for Fired Arts & Crafts Magazine, among others.

You can see the "quilting" influence here.  WOW!  I aspire to emulate the skill and beauty of Karen's delightful works.  Amazing!  I can only imagine how long this took for her to assemble and fire.

 (c) Karen Reed "Dreamtime", used by permission of the artist.

Some of her work reminds me a great deal of the great artist Susan Seddon Boulet, but is uniquely Karen's own work.  Astounding frit painted glasswork!

 (c) Karen Reed "She Who Sees Through Dreams", used by permission of the artist.

(c)Karen Reed, "Silent Wonder", used by permission of the artist.

My hat is off to Ms. Karen Reed for her inspiring, delightful and gorgeous body of work in the field of glass.  My hat is also off to Ms. Karen Reed for being one of the nicest, most noble human beings I've ever met.  May she continue to prosper and thrive!

Celebrating 50 years of Studio Glass Art

I am very sad that I am not able to attend the Glass Art Conference in Toledo Ohio this week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Studio Glass art movement.  When we were living in Ohio just a few short months ago, I had intended to attend since it was only a five hour drive.  Sadly, that travel distance is now more than about 20 hours one way and just not "do-able" this time around.  I feel the loss of being a part of this keenly as not only are many of the icons of the studio glass movement going to be present, but there are many mini-classes that I wanted to attend which I will miss out on now. 

While much of the focus of the Glass Art Society is unfortunately focused mainly on blown glass, I feel it is important to note that fused, cast, stained and torchworked glass also has a role in this movement.  I suppose because blown glass has an enticing excitement and immediacy it is certainly more entertaining and visually intriguing in process to watch than the process of laying down frit or painting glass on glass or cutting, grinding, foiling or soldering glass panels are to an audience. 

It is a shame because there are some tremendous contributions from artists who are not primarily blown glass artists--Narcissus Quagliata immediately comes to mind for his astounding large scale fused and painted panels (a little misnomer as he paints with frit and finely ground glass, not paints), Richard La Londe, who I am desperately hoping to get to take a class from in the not too distant future and who also does large scale public art installations, and one of my own teachers whom I adore for his quirky sense of humor and his astounding skill with airbrushing glass on glass, Raphael Schnepf, all have made fused glass works that are every bit as gorgeous and astounding as a Dale Chihuly work (who is my favorite blown glass artist just for his artistic vision and ability to market himself and his work in an extremely successful manner).  You might, if you are a glass artist, recognize Raphael's work as being on the cover of the System 96 glass catalog. 

Raphael giving us our first lesson in airbrushing on glass. 

Raphael and Karen Reed (another of my FAVORITE fused and stained glass artists

and a delightful friend!)

Raphael showing us how to "paint" with glass.

Detail of the process of painting with glass.

Rene Culler, who has focused on fused glass and pushing the boundaries of the medium, and Judith Schaechter who pushes the boundaries with the subject matter she chooses, and Karen Reed who does astounding fused and stained glass artworks, are my three favorite female glass artists and I have great respect for all of them not only for the works they create but for striving to and excelling in yet another male-dominated work environment.  I have many more artists whom I admire and whose work I am fascinated by, but these are my top six non-blown glass favorites.

Besides missing out on the goblet grab, and the lectures and demos that surely would inspire me, the other activity that I am sorry not to get to partake of is the public auction.  While I have not yet won the lottery and cannot at this time afford most of these works, just being able to spend time examining the intricacies of these works is worth the time and cost of attending the conference.  You can see the pieces that will be in the auction here:  http://www.glassart.org/2012_Auction_Online_Preview.html.  Ah well, I hope that I will be able to attend next year's conference.  In the meantime, I need to go... unpack more boxes.