Transformations Gallery has put out a call for artwork for our upcoming indoor exhibit, "Doors." Judy Weinberg, my co-curator, and I have been developing this concept for a while. In January, our small town was swept up in the administration's policy to deport immigrants which lead Judy and I to have a number of conversations about doors-- specifically how they let some people in and keep others out. Around that time, we started putting another idea in motion that we'd been thinking about-- creating a small sculpture garden on the grounds of the Old Franklin Schoolhouse. Things started coming together about a month ago and we put the call out for artists to submit their own visual interpretation of doors for the indoor exhibit. We are also finalizing plans for the outdoor sculpture area, including harvesting doors from a historic building in Metuchen which will be provided to a select group of artists to transform; these will comprise our inaugural sculpture exhibit. More on that as it develops! We have received a number of interesting submissions for the indoor show and are looking forward to seeing how both shows come together. The submission deadline for the indoor exhibit is August 10 so if you're interested, we'd love to see what Doors mean to you.
Just having returned from 12 days in Iceland, I still am processing the time away and trying to put the whole experience in perspective. When my husband and I planned this trip to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we had no idea that it would cap a particularly challenging stretch of time in our home. Needless to say, when we got on the plane, we were thrilled to be getting away, just the two of us. We drove the Ring Road which is a great way to see the country and offers a chance to experience the drastically different vistas that change about every 100 km. From glaciers to lava formations, from mountain to ocean views, each day was a different adventure. Some of the land is broken up by geysers that shoot out of the ground or boiling mud pits that smell of sulfur; in other spots, the volcanic lava cooled in such a way that there are tubes and caves where you can bravely venture inside. And then there is the light! As a glass artist, I am often captivated by daylight and, in Iceland in the summer, night is really only a few hours of dusky twilight. The light also changes dramatically depending on whether the sun is out or, as was the case frequently, it is raining a steady Icelandic drizzle. I took these two photos above at the same beach on different days-- the beach, appropriately called "Diamond Beach," is near a lagoon where chunks of the glacier break off and sail out to sea. I loved the contrasting textures of the ice chunks that washed up on the black sand beach but was blown away by how different the beach appeared, just a day apart, because of the weather. It reminded me of the importance of perspective: that when things appear dark, it's best to hang tight and wait to see how the world changes when the sun comes back out. For more pictures of Iceland, check out my Facebook page. Or just ask-- I'm happy to share more about it!
How are you planning to kick off Father's Day this year? Allow me to make a suggestion-- come run the Fuce 5! You will be surrounded by about 1400 runners, you will burn a bunch of calories allowing you to eat lots of delicious Father's Day treats without guilt, you will get to run the lovely streets or Metuchen, and, most importantly, you will be raising money for an incredibly generous, community-focused charity. To know the Fuccile Foundation is to love it; every year, it helps so many local families affected by tragedy. On Sunday, I will be in my usual volunteer spot at the 2 mile mark-- acting as a human timing mat, yelling out elapsed times and cheering on all the participants as they make their way along the course. Online registration is closed but you can still register the morning of the race at Metuchen High School (400 Grove Ave). I'll see you on the course. Happy Father's Day!
It's here! Barring any last minute tricks from Mother Nature, tomorrow from noon- 10 pm, downtown Metuchen will be filled with art, music and fun! The planning committee works tirelessly to create an event that has something for everyone and I am so impressed by their commitment to making it better each year. I am in charge of coordinating "Art Live" which this year includes: 3 painters, 2 potters, a paper sculptor, a bonsai artist, yarn spinners, and maybe even a surprise dance performance! Check out the website for more info and to read about the visual artists, musicians, and all the other participants that will make this an event you don't want to miss. Hope to see you downtown!
As much as I love to listen to music, I have no real training or knowledge. Fortunately, for kids attending the public schools in Metuchen, they begin studying music in 4th grade and they have a lot of opportunities to participate in a very strong music program throughout their years in the district. The Metuchen Arts Council has been bringing well-known bands to perform here for years and they had a great idea-- why not connect with the Metuchen High School music program? Anyone with kids in high school knows how busy they are. So arranging this night was no small thing. I am thrilled that the high school band director, John Messenger, figured out how to make this work-- many of the kids are marching in a parade in Wildwood (2 hours away!)-- but will march and then get right back on the bus to come back for this performance. It's a lot of tricky logistics but they are so lucky to be able to have musicians of this caliber performing on their high school stage. And we are all really lucky-- the performance is free and open to the public. Check out the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra here and come see them Saturday night at Metuchen High!
You know the line, "It takes a village to raise a child"? Well, for prom last night, it took a village to dress this child. My independent 17 year old daughter decided she wanted to rent a dress online and found one she felt was perfect. She ordered it and then life went on. My son came home from college, he and my husband are job hunting, I continued working to finish a big commission; long story short, we forgot to notice when the dress didn't arrive. In our town, prom is held the Thursday before Memorial Day and the dress should have been here on Monday. However, Wednesday afternoon about 5 pm, my daughter came out to the studio and asked if she should be worried that her dress hadn't arrived. We called the rental place but no one answered. Because Abby seemed pretty relaxed, I tried to suppress my own panic. In order to have a "Plan B," I told her I would reach out to a friend whose daughter had loaned us a dress about 5 years ago. In an example of the kindness of people in a small town and the good of social media, she reached out to a few other people and by noon the next day, we had a dozen "Plan B" dresses.This stunning dress my daughter selected was a perfect fit and reminded me of how often people are truly kind for no other reason but because they can be.
About five years ago, I became part of a group of women artists who meet monthly, taking turns sharing the challenges of our businesses. Each month a different member is the focus of the meeting (we call it being on "the hot seat") while the others offer feedback and support from their own unique perspective. Some months, the advice and compassion given makes the difference in one of us getting back on track. This month was my turn to be on the hot seat. I am coming to the end of construction of the James Monroe wall sculptures and, fortunately, I wasn't in a place where I needed too much advice. So it basically turned into show and tell! As artists, they carefully examined everything I have been working on, asking lots of specific questions. They understand that even the mundane things, like welding rebar in the photo above, are essential. They focused on the tiny pieces of glass that make up the owls feathers, the pattern pieces that I used to create the river, and asked about the molds that I used to slump the river sections. I have been so deeply immersed in this project that it was fun to step back and share about it with people who really want to know the details. When I am working on something I really enjoy, I can talk about it endlessly and I often see the eyes of the person I'm talking to start to glaze over (sorry, Scott!). So I really appreciate being able to share with other women artists who appreciate the minutiae! Thanks, ladies!
The other day, my photographer friend, David Glasofer of Image Up Studio, came over to take some "work in progress" photos of the commissioned steel and glass wall sculptures I am creating for James Monroe Elementary School. The forecast predicted rain in the afternoon so when he arrived at noon, I was focused. For safety reasons, I weld outside of my studio and since I wanted him to take a few photos of me cutting, grinding, and welding steel, we jumped right in. When we finished, I hauled all my equipment inside and we took a break and chatted. Then he showed me the photos. I was shocked; how had he photographed my mother??? Occasionally, since I have gotten my haircut short, I see her face in mine. But there was something more in those photos: the focus in the eyes? the set of my jaw as I concentrated? With my mom, she was more likely focused on cooking than welding but the look was the same. My mother passed away in 2012 and, in the years since, my own efforts at motherhood have gotten much more complicated as my kids have become teenagers, learned to drive, gone off to college. It's crazy how the circle goes around. This Mother's Day, if your mom is still living, I hope she's close enough to hug. If not, I hope your kids are. But if that still isn't an option, hug yourself. They are inside you too.
The steel and glass wall sculptures for James Monroe Elementary School are coming together in fits and starts. Some days I feel I've made a lot of progress and other days I just chip away slowly. This week I mainly worked on the river which will hang above the school's original sign (the only thing that didn't burn in the fire). I am creating it in 3 steel sections, each measure about 4 feet wide. Attached to the steel will be 3 undulating panels of fused glass-- every panel fires in the kiln twice, first to fuse the glass together and then to slump over a mold. Each firing takes over 24 hours. All of the steps of the process are really important but they are not very glamorous. I spent a day carving the slumping molds that go in the kiln. And I spent another day cutting and welding the steel corners which will give the glass a little extra support when it is finally epoxied onto the steel. It's progress but it doesn't look like much! Hopefully soon it will start taking shape as I put the elements together and I can share some pictures showing how it will look as it gets closer to installation.
photo credit: Judy Weinberg
On one of the cold, drizzly mornings this week, I met at Transformations Gallery with my co-curator, Judy Weinberg, and Jen Kelly, a BIL member who is helping us with a project. We were meeting with the owner and another employee of a Long Island-based company, Marshall Fine Arts, that specializes in services to the art world. Jen had found the company doing some internet research but we really didn't know what to expect. We spent over an hour talking through our project, during which time they shared with us about other projects they had done for the Met, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney, the Newark Museum, Yale University and many others! Our project seems big to us but compared to what kind of work they regularly do, it's small potatoes. Even still, they took the time to talk through all kinds of minute details with us. The wealth of knowledge they shared was incredible and, not only that, they were two of the nicest people! As we finished talking, the owner (whose age I can't be sure of but who started his business in 1972) dropped to the floor in the splits! Apparently, this is his signature move and he does it in front of many of their sculpture installations- how unexpected! I can't remember ever being in a meeting that made me smile more!
This was one of those years that it felt like Spring would never arrive. As a warm weather lover, I often wait impatiently for it and even more so this year as I was eager to get outside to weld. I had done a bunch of prep work on the steel portion of the wall sculptures I am creating for James Monroe Elementary School and finally, just yesterday, I was able to start welding some trees. Two of the wall sculptures features trees and owls-- one has younger trees and baby owls and the other has more mature versions of each. As the pieces comes together, there's a lot of tweaking that happens in order to create balance and harmony. By using steel for the form of the sculptures and trees, I am hoping to highlight the strength of school community; I also love the way it plays off the quirky details of the glass owls. Earlier in the week, I created a design for the thirteen foot long river! But that's a story for another blog post and a project for the days when I relish the heat of the kiln as it fires up to 1450 degrees. For now, I am glad to be outside.
About a year ago, one of the major art glass manufacturers, Spectrum Glass, went out of business. Their departure left a lot of glass artists scrambling, especially when it came to fusible glass. All fusible glass manufacturers put a great deal of effort into creating glass that is compatible-- meaning it reacts to temperature changes in the kiln in the same way as others in the line. A consequence of using glass that is not compatible frequently is breakage. I had a very small quantity of the glass shown above that I wanted to use for my James Monroe Elementary School project. I am making a glass river that will visually join two wall sculptures on either side of the school's sign (see my March 2 blog post for more information). I thought this glass would be perfect but, unfortunately, by the time I went to buy it, there was none to be found. There was nothing that was even close to it with the compatibility I needed. This morning, as I was wandering around the glass store, I saw this gorgeous glass and my jaw dropped. Almost immediately, one of the employees came over to me and said they weren't able to sell it because they only had 4 remaining sheets. I'm not sure what changed his mind but the next thing I knew, he was calling the office to ask if I could buy one. And wouldn't you know it, they said yes! I can't explain how happy I am to have gotten this treasure! I had been waiting to start this section of the project and not really knowing why-- now I know. I was waiting for this!
I've been involved with the Junebug Art festival in Metuchen since its beginning 11 years ago. There have been a number of changes to the event in the past few years-- we switched from Friday nights to Saturday nights and we were also able to close Main Street which allowed for a much more festive feel. This year, the name is changing and, more importantly, instead of being 4 nights, it's one full day. The committee has been working really hard to concentrate our focus to bring high end art and music to Metuchen. We hope you all come down to METFEST on Saturday, June 9 from noon to 10 pm and experience the wide range of live art and music as well as fun, food, and friends. If you are a visual artist and want to participate, applications are being accepted until May 1 through Zapp and you can find all the information here. I am personally really excited about our new and improved festival and I can't wait to see many of you there!
I am a planner! When we book a vacation, I love looking at maps, checking online for places to go, and asking friends for recommendations before we leave. It's great for me that stained glass usually requires a plan. I find it satisfying when I start a project and all the decisions have been made, the options have been sorted through and I get busy creating according to the plan. Last week, "Evil Ted" helped me begin my pattern for this lamp. But I soon realized, I wanted it to develop more organically. So I still used his idea of aluminum foil and duct tape to cover the mold but then I switched gears and started creating shapes directly on it. I divided the mold into sections and used scraps of paper to lay out a pattern, piece by piece. When I had a paper pattern piece I liked, I would cut a piece of glass to see if I still liked it. This technique is the opposite of how I usually approach a project so it feels a bit funny not to have a plan in place as I am beginning construction. But it's allowing me to move things around and make choices as I go. I have changed, discarded, and relocated many pieces already but it's starting to take shape. It's a fun, creative challenge to flip the way I usually work and hopefully the results will support the effort.
One thing I really love about my job is how different it is from day to day. My kilns have been firing non-stop, creating elements for the James Monroe wall sculptures. But I'm running out of room for all the different pieces, waiting their turn to go into the kilns, so I decided to switch gears and work on a lamp pattern. I have a commission to make 4 lamps for a client who wants them to match some stained glass windows that are original to her home. I got a mold that will create the shape of the lamp but decided to create a unique, coordinating pattern. That requires transposing the flat drawings I've made onto a curved 3-D shape and it's something I've never done before. So I turned to YouTube. Despite being a pretty low-tech person, I frequently avail myself of the wide variety of learning there is online. First I watched some videos on how to make a hoop skirt. But after consulting with a friend who is a talented seamstress, I realized glass and fabric are not similar enough for me to borrow those techniques. Then I found it: Evil Ted shares his secrets on how to make a "foam dome" which, in his video, ultimately becomes a Star Trek helmet using aluminum foil & duct tape! No doubt our final products will be very different but Evil Ted took me through step-by-step how to create the pattern. And maybe when the lamp is finished, I'll make a stained glass Star Trek hoop skirt!
The summer after I graduated high school, my family took an amazing trip to Greece. I was incredibly lucky not only to be able to go but to have my older sister, Gretchen, as my traveling companion. We left my parents in Athens and traveled together through the Greek Islands- Mykanos, Santorini, Tinos, and Crete. Pre-internet, we drifted around in search of fun, food and adventure. Fast-forward about 25 years and my sister traveled to Greece again for her honeymoon. Since then, she has become a yoga teacher and, just now, has put together an amazing opportunity-- she is taking a group to Greece in September! She will be teaching yoga twice a day, although participation is not mandatory. Gretchen is a fine art major and has a unique eye for the beauty and history in Crete as well as a deep sense of fun! She has partnered with Stone Arch Travel and this looks to be the trip of a lifetime. Click here for more information about the trip.
I'm really excited to be starting on a new, big project! I have been commissioned by James Monroe elementary school in Edison, NJ to create three glass and steel wall sculptures for their beautiful, brand new school. In 2014, the original school was destroyed by a fire which resulted in the staff and students spending the next three years temporarily using space in other area schools in an effort to carry on. Their school has been completely rebuilt and the new building is huge, modern, and full of light. When I first met with them, I was impressed by the resilience of the staff who, despite their difficult years, expressed a deep sense of gratitude for all the people and institutions who supported them along their journey back to Sharp Road. The only remaining piece of the old school is a name plaque that was rebuilt into their new lobby. On either side of it, as well as throughout most of the building, the walls are white and without any adornment. We discussed how that would be a perfect focal point to add some artwork, both to honor the old as well as celebrate the new. A theme in my art is transformation and I suggested I could create wall sculptures to place on either side of the name plaque that depict the growth that they have experienced as a school community as they returned to their former location. To make it timeless, I also wanted to highlight the students and honor the changes they go through during their years in elementary school. With an adorable mascot to work with-- the owl-- I began to envision it. These two baby owls are the first elements to come out of my kiln but there is so much more to come. Stay tuned! I can't wait to share it with you.
Allow me to confess, I am not a professional photographer! I created this transom for a family in Metuchen who was remodeling their kitchen. They had chosen very clean fixtures and appliances and asked me to create a transom to be installed in the kitchen above their basement stairs with a light behind it. They wanted the transom to bring some color and vibrancy to the space and we talked through a bunch of options-- different flowers, colors, and designs. Ultimately, they came back to the idea they had suggested originally of roses. They were thoughtful about all aspects of the design and I was fairly certain they would love the finished product. So when I sent this photo to them, they replied quickly that they were pleased but it wasn't until I brought the transom to their house that they really got excited about it. They commented that from the photo, it's impossible to see the texture of the glass and solder, the variation in the color of the petals and leaves, and the luminous quality of the glass overall. So I laughed when I suggested that since the picture doesn't tell the full story, I will bring all my potential clients to their kitchen to see it in person. It's nice to work with people who appreciate what I do and also have a good sense of humor!
Lunar Gala is a student run fashion show at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh that is held each year around the Chinese New Year. It's a creative feast with students involved in every aspect of the show- producing, modeling, designing and dancing. It brings together students from different majors who incorporate technology and unusual materials into their collections. My son, a freshman at CMU, was selected as a model and walked in three different lines. In the photo above, he is sporting a pink mesh top with shag shorts, created with what reminded me of those hook rugs I liked to make in 1978. The designer described this collection as "irreverent in a playful way" which pretty much sums up Alex. In another line called Stack, the designer utilized foam board and plastic to make sculptural clothing that looked sort of like those balsa wood animals that come in a kit at hobby stores-- except that it was clothing! If Alex hadn't been involved in this, I'm fairly certain we never would have gone to Lunar Gala. But what a fun opportunity for all these creative students and their proud family and friends.
For such a small town, Metuchen, NJ has a really vibrant arts scene. In less than 3 square miles, there are multiple painters, photographers, ceramic artists, fiber artists, and even me! When invitations went out to participate in this latest show, Return to Love, at the Pearl Street Art Gallery, I was happy to submit one of my sculptures because I knew how much fun it would be to see all of these talented people at the reception. There are two components of this show-- an on-going sale of small locally made products (hours are weekedays from 2-5 pm & weekends from 10 am -5 pm) and the artists' reception in the gallery on Saturday, February 10 from 5-9 pm. While the artwork can be seen during other hours, Saturday evening is the best time to visit since many of the artists will be in attendance and the gallery will be buzzing with all the energy of this lively group. Hope to see you there!