This week I had a little lull that is typical of commission work. I have an installation scheduled for this afternoon and was waiting for final approval on the details of a new commission. So I started working on an idea that has been bouncing around in my head. I've been wanting to create some different fused art glass pieces and also weld some steel stands to hold them. I found a process that creates a really lovely glass flow by working with fused elements that are built in a separate firing. Because I don't have a tile saw (yet! Christmas is coming!), I had to do some clever cutting and arranging to create little layered blocks. Those got fired again at 1500 degrees where they smoothed down into a funky little rectangle. Yesterday I got to work creating the stand. In the photo above, everything is still clamped in place as I finished welding the stand onto a base. (I put my welding shield in the photo just because it matched!) This piece is still a work in progress; in addition to not having a tile saw, I don't have a belt sander and I need to do some "cold working" of the glass to finish it. But all in all, I'm happy with the way it's coming out. In the mean time, if any of you have a belt sander, give me a holler!
In the beginning of August, I got a call from a couple asking if I could create a transom for their home in Stone Harbor. At the time, I was in the middle of a few other commissions and I was getting ready to go out of town. We were able to begin the first part of the commission process by sending photos and sketches back and forth over email. Now we are at the point where the full-sized drawing (known as the cartoon) for the stained glass window is finished and glass needs to be selected. We set up a time for me to visit their beautiful home today-- perfect timing! Last weekend a hurricane was forecast but today is HOT! We had a very productive meeting and they selected 7 sheets of glass that I am going to use to make a gorgeous transom for them. And then I punched out and went and stuck my toes in the sand. Nice work if you can get it!
Having come to my career of glass art later in life, I really love taking classes with experts in the art world. I find as an adult and working artist, I have a deeper appreciation of learning now than I ever did. So I squeezed in one last art workshop this summer-- a four day class at The Bullseye Resource Center in Mamaroneck, NY. Bullseye started in Portland, OR as a glass manufacturer and they have expanded to be one of the most significant innovators in glass art. They present workshops with some of the most creative, talented artists working in glass today and I had the pleasure of learning from one of them, Nathan Sandberg. The class uses a vitrigraph kiln-- basically a kiln with a hole in the bottom that allows you to work with the glass while it's hot (over 1500 degrees!) without having to have a "hot shop" set up. The glass world is divided into what temperature the glass is when you work with it. As a fuser, I am technically a "warm glass" artist and people who blow glass are "hot glass" artists. Since I don't have the resources for that type of setup, I am limited in what I can do except that the vitrigraph kiln sort of allows you to "cheat" and manipulate the glass when it's hot. We jumped right in on the first day and made "cane" which is a rod of glass that measures about three quarters of an inch; the photo above shows me pulling the hot glass out of the bottom of the kiln. If you want to see more pictures of the process, check out my "What's New" page for some images and descriptions. Hot fun in the summertime!
I started working on this piece when I was up in Vermont at The Carving Studio in June. I bent the standing portion into an undulating curve before welding it to a segment of a railroad tie and brought it home unfinished. The empty spaces had been staring at me since then, begging for glass. I put it in a corner of my studio and looked at it for a while, thinking about all the different directions it could go with the addition of color. Initially I thought I might go with an ocean palatte since the steel had a wave-like bend but the orientation didn't seem right. Day after day as I looked at it, I got a feeling of celebration; the metal seemed to be dancing. When I decided to fill in the openings with a rainbow of glass, I had it outside and the sun was shining through it and casting the most beautiful, vibrant splotches of color on my deck. I finished it and immediately the name came to me: "Happy Dance." I am donating it next week to a fundraiser for the Raritan Bay Medical Center, a hospital I have been artistically involved with for many years. Whether you're in a hospital setting or in your daily life, sometimes you actively have to push towards happy. Whether it's love, new adventures, babies, opportunities, old friends-- whatever it is-- let's celebrate and do a happy dance today!
Transformations Gallery, a Metuchen Art Gallery of which I am a co-curator, is putting out an open call to artists. We are excited to start shaping our upcoming calendar so if you're an artist and have an idea for a show (either solo or with others), we'd love to hear from you!
A few weeks ago, I blogged about a client of mine who was opening an arts center. She and I met when she commissioned three windows to go into interior doors in her home in Westfield (one of which is pictured above). When we met, she told me she was an artist and that she was very clear on what she wanted. Having been doing commission work for 16 years, I enjoy the range of vision and involvement my clients have. On either ends of the spectrum, some are very comfortable describing what they like and others have a hard time getting starting with the process. Some know exactly what styles they love and others need direction regarding what works with the age of their home and other design elements they already have. Even once the design is created, the glass itself offers texture, color and opacity and all those choices can be overwhelming as well. My job is to listen to my clients, hear what they say about how they want a piece to feel (classic, contemporary, funky) and what they want it to do (block a view of their neighbor's house, add a focal point to a room, blend in with their furnishings) and translate that into a piece of glass art. Regardless of how the process starts or what path it takes, my ultimate goal is for the finished window to feel right to them and be exactly what they wanted, whether they knew how to describe it or not. That is a successful commission!
About a month ago, I was asked to make a gift for an 11 year old girl who was moving from Metuchen to Seattle with her family. Her friends wanted her to know they would always remember her and they wanted to give her something that she could look at and think of them. After a little discussion, we settled on a windchime with 5 hanging pieces. Since many of them played soccer together, there is a soccer ball. There is also the Metuchen bulldog pawprint with the town's zipcode painted on it (fluttering backwards in the picture above). Because she likes polka dots, I fused on brightly colored dots of different sizes all over the top piece. One of the most fun parts for me was when they sent me some of her fashion drawings. They wanted to see if I could incorporate any of those-- I thought that was a really sweet acknowledgement of what they know she loves. I selected one I really liked and they chose the other. Finally, I created the space needle which is hanging in the center of the piece with all the others hanging around it. They gave her the gift earlier this week and they told me that both she and her mom loved it and cried. It was an honor to make this thoughtful gift that she will be able to hang in her new house as a remembrance of her good friends on the East Coast.
Today is the opening reception for "Outside In" at Transformations Gallery (491 Middlesex Ave.) featuring the work of 18 artists: Amy Dees, Anita Gladstone, Beryl Koblin, Carson Memory, Cathy Tardosky, Margaret Cohen, Michael Fried, Thelma Fried, Jeri Greenberg (painter of the image above), Imma Barrera, Janice Fried, Ruth Jansyn, Michael Gabriele, Nancy Wilton, Robert Hopkins, Thomas Martin, Thomas Maugham, & Yimeng Ling. We received almost 90 submissions for 18 available spaces, our biggest show yet in terms of numbers of pieces submitted and number of artists & artwork accepted. The show pays tribute to the Hudson River School of Painters but is so much more than that! There is watercolor, acrylic, & oil painting as well as pastels, photography and even fiber art. We are excited to welcome all the artists into the gallery and will be celebrating their work from 7-10 pm tonight. We hope you can stop by but if you miss this event, the show will be hanging through October 7, 2016.
In February 2014, I got a call from a family who was in the process of renovating their Westfield home and wanted to incorporate some stained glass into three interior doors. Because of changes in their construction plans, the design phase ended up lasting nearly two years! There were a few times when I thought they had changed their mind completely and decided not to incorporate stained glass only to get an email that they wanted to move forward. During the process of creating the windows, Sharon and I began chatting and I learned that, in addition to their home renovation, she had bought a building in Garwood that she was renovating to become an arts center. This morning I visited South Avenue Arts shown in the photo above. While it isn't open just yet, it is getting close-- they are scheduled for final inspections next week. The space is bright and open and I think with her energy and vision, it is going to be an incredible arts center. There is a large classroom, a studio space and a light-filled art gallery area as well as thoughtful touches like lockers for members to store their supplies. A few of us in my town of Metuchen have been talking about creating a place like this too and I think it would be great to have a partnership with other arts centers in New Jersey. I wish her all the best and am excited to hear how things go when she opens the doors to the arts community!
Summertime and the living's easy. Or not! Many days it feels pretty hectic. Having my studio right behind my house is really convenient for a lot of reasons but with my two teenage kids, there is also a lot of running around. My son is a senior in high school and my daughter is a sophomore-- I know my days to hang out with them are numbered. So even though I have commissions that are waiting for me, I made the commitment to spend one day each week this summer doing something fun with one of them. This week I spent the day with my daughter in Atlantic City. We had a great time-- walking on the boardwalk, swimming in the ocean, we even made a lop-sided sandcastle. Spending time with my family always leaves me re-energized. There's a quote from Leonardo da Vinci that says, "Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to work your judgement will be surer." I appreciate the permission to take a break and enjoy some fun with my kids. Now back to work!
While I have been busy in the studio this week, there has been a lot going on inside my house too. We are finally having a 1970's era bathroom updated and last week's demolition has moved on to this week's construction. The walls and floors which were opened up have now been drywalled and the floors have been replaced. Which brings me to the blurry picture of our elusive cat, Kim-- the only picture we have of her in her 8 years in our home. My daughter rescued her and she has always been very nervous and hidey. We often go for a few days without seeing her but know she's around because her food is eaten and she visits her litter box. But when we realized earlier this week that she hadn't been doing either, we started to worry. Maybe she snuck out when one of the construction guys left the door open? The treats I left her, trying to lure her from her favorite hiding spots, went uneaten. We called to her and got no response. On Wednesday night, I heard a series of meows followed by long silence. I tried to follow the meowing but each time I thought I found where it was coming from, she would stop. After checking every possible drawer, suitcase, closet, and corner, I came to the sick realization that it was likely she had crawled into the open sub-floor and accidentally got trapped when they put the floor back down. Fortunately we were able to pull-up a loose floorboard and a short while later, out she crawled, hungry and scared but ok. This is my cautionary "tail" for you-- watch your skittish pets! Happy Independence Day to all and especially to Kim, we're glad to have you back!
I just finished up an inspiring (and exhausting!) week-long workshop, "Welded Steel Assemblies," at The Carving Studio in West Rutland, VT. Our fearless instructor was John Tidd whose previous work includes a giant steel, fire breathing dragon as well as a huge pair of steel hands, entitled "Cat's Cradle," that were installed at Burning Man. At the beginning of the week, we took a field trip to the scrap yard and gathered lots of dirty steel which we then began cleaning and manipulating with welders, plasma cutters, and a variety of other loud, sparky power tools. It was amazing to see what everyone created-- being Vermont, there were multiple fish, birds, and a bear, as well as some free-form geometric pieces (ok, those were mostly mine). I almost always create in other mediums with an eye to add glass later and this week was no exception. In the photo above, I'm standing behind one of my pieces, "Without End" which is a small tower of steel circular shapes that are welded together and have lovely openings that are crying out for glass. One special highlight for me was being able to select a marble base-- the Carving Studio is on the grounds of a former marble quarry-- which boosts it up and add a different textural dimension. Stay tuned for more pictures as I get the glass elements created!
What I love about doing commission-based art is that every project is different. This week, I started working on Arabic lettering for a fused glass flag for the IWDM community. I enjoy the challenge of painting-- especially when it's a language I don't know! Previously, I have created commissioned work using Hebrew and Greek (both of which I don't know either) and was careful to make sure before I fired the paint in the kiln that I got final reviews for what I had written. When I was getting ready to work on this text, I did some research into what I was painting. This phrase is the first Kalimah of Islam and it translates to, "There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah." In the finished piece, it will be painted on the pages area of an open Koran. Understanding the fundamental nature of this phrase for Muslims grounds me while I create it; I know that I am being asked to make something that is very meaningful to the people who will see it.
Each week, I blog about what's going on in the studio or in my life. But this week, the thing that I can't get out of my head is the Stanford University rape case. Since reading the victim's letter on Sunday, it's been on my mind and the more I read-- Brock Turner's own statement, his father's letter-- the more it has been festering in my brain. Early this morning, I asked my 17 year old son what he thought about it and he said he hadn't heard about it. So I sent him the links below and asked him to read and think about it so we can discuss it. There are so many issues to discuss in this tragedy-- I hope you take the time to read about it and discuss it with the young people in your lives.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-
As I was preparing for this year's Junebug, one of my clients shared with me that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. A few months prior, a client for whom I had recently finished a stained glass window commission died after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. And shortly before that, a good friend of mine had undergone surgery and radiation, also for breast cancer. At that time, I considered making a donation to the Susan G. Komen foundation. But then I decided I wanted to make some art to tie in with their fight. I created a limited run of my best selling 08840 coasters with pink confetti glass (pictured above) and will be donating the proceeds of the sales to the Komen foundation. I will have them for sale at Junebug, wrapped in pretty pink tissue and boxed for gift giving-- even if the recipient is you! I kept one of the sets that I made and each time I use them, I think of these strong, beautiful woman and many like them on this journey-- cheers to their spirit!
We are just over a week away from the start of the 9th annual Junebug Artfest! Since it began, it has always been on Friday nights but this year we have moved it to Saturday night for a number of reasons. The biggest one is our most exciting news-- for the first time, the town has agreed to close Main Street to traffic on the 3rd Saturday, June 18! We had been wanting to try this out for years and Metuchen's police, mayor and council thought this was a good time to try it. However, since closing Main Street would complicate many commuters' lives, they asked us to move that art fest to Saturday. We decided since we were moving it for that one night, we might as well move it for all the other nights. Everything else stays the same-- it's still from 6-10 pm, there are tons of artists, musicians, dancers, writers, fencers... It's going to be a month of fun! I am setting up a table for the first two nights-- June 4 & 11-- in front of Boyt Drugs, 411 Main St. I have some new jewelry and dishes as well as my biggest sellers, the 08840 coasters, in lots of fun colors. Please stop by my table and say hi and let me know what you think of our new night. Happy Summer!
I am excited to announce Steve Accardi and I will be constructing the sign for Transformations Gallery at the Old Franklin Schoolhouse (491 Middlesex Ave.) out of found steel objects. In order to make this sign truly one-of-a-kind, we are inviting the community to get involved by donating steel objects which we will transform into a sculpture. Steve and I will be at the Schoolhouse from 9 am until 3 pm each day, May 30 through June 3. If you have some steel that you are willing to donate for the project, please bring it to the Schoolhouse by May 30. Please feel free to stop by during the week and watch this public art project take shape!
At the end of last summer, I struck a deal with a friend of mine who owns her own wool dying business, Marianated Yarns. She hand-dyes the loveliest yarn and knits all sorts of beautiful things with it. I wanted a wool wrap to wear to my sister's outdoor wedding and asked her if I could make her a sheep in exchange for the wrap. Although she gave me the wrap in August, I have been busy with shows and commissions and she patiently waited for her sheep. After taking a copper fabricating course at the Carving Studio last month, I decided I wanted to make him from sheet copper. I used a torch to heat the copper so I could shape him and create the spirals on his body. The heat from the torch colored the metal a bit and I used patina to add some more dimension. He is about 12 inches high and is the perfect size to stand on her desk and oversee all aspects of her business-- we called him her "Sheepervisor." His dichroic glass eyes have a mischievous look and we laughed that he looks like he slipped out of the sheep pen last fall and went on some adventures. Maybe that's where he's been since August! In any case, I'm glad he's with her now and I hope he can help her with her booming business.
In his freshman year of high school, my son, Alex, participated in the Jazz Improvisation program at Middlesex County's Arts High School. Learning to improvise music, a very different skill than what is usually taught in high school, was really challenging. He learned to appreciate music in a new way and, though he didn't participate in the program in the following years, he continues to play in his high school's ensemble, jazz and marching bands. Music is one of his loves and he decided to focus his Eagle Scout project on helping other kids experience the joy that music has brought to his life. From his band director, he learned about Memorial High School in West New York (NJ) which is in need of instruments for kids in their music program. In our town, it's fairly common for parents to buy their child an instrument to play in 4th grade, only to shove it in the back of a closet when priorities change and they stop playing. Alex decided to ask for people to donate these unused instruments and any others that he will gather and bring to Memorial High School. He is holding a music festival on June 17 at the Old Franklin Schoolhouse where his Jazz Improv teacher, Radam Schwartz, will be one of the musicians playing in celebration of this project. If you have an instrument that you are willing to donate, please like Alex's Facebook page for this event, and stay tuned for drop off locations or come to the music festival and celebrate the love of music with us!
For me, one of the best parts of co-curating Transformations Gallery is seeing how each artist puts his own personal stamp on his show. The Old Franklin Schoolhouse has seen a lot in its 200+ years of existence and I think it still must enjoy the transformations that come with each art show too! Our current artist, Steve Beal, is a construction manager by day and a painter and musician in his free time. He had an opening for his show back in March and a bunch of musicians came and played. It was a great night with a lot of music and interesting people. Steve asked if he could host another event, this time doing a live watercolor painting demonstration and playing acoustically. It is scheduled for next Thursday, May 5 at 7 pm at the Old Franklin Schoolhouse. It promises to be an intimate night with a look inside Steve's artistic process and a chance to hear him play some music. It should be a lot of fun-- I hope you can join us!