Talking Out Your Glass Podcast

Crista Van Slyck-Matteson’s multi-media art speaks of her love for wild spaces and deep connection to the Pacific Northwest. An accomplished sculptor, she allows her finely-honed intuition to guide spontaneous sculpting of natural world observations. Matteson’s work also utilizes technical mold-making skills to create exact replicas of found botanical forms. She combines these skills to create magical-realist sculptures.  Matteson states: “My sculptures live in a magical, narrative space between memories and imagination. A space that gives equal importance to the real and the imagined stories of the natural world. My interactions with the wilderness are woven into my themes. By creating stylized glass trophies, I am attempting to both capture the magical essence of untamed creatures that share my environment and honor them. With every outdoor adventure, I bring new inspiration into my studio.”  She continues: “Forest Watcher Sees All is my latest series of kiln cast glass sculptures. These works spring from m

  In his current work, glassblower Jason McDonald tells important stories about social inequality through his intentionally made, well-crafted objects. His successful interweaving of those two trajectories continues to evolve through life-changing experiences such as his participation on the popular Netflix competition series Blown Away 2 and his recent week-long Murano, Italy, study with Maestro Davide Fuin as the recipient of the Windgate-Lamar Fellowship.  McDonald states: “My work takes two divergent paths. With one path, I craft objects that examine and critique, through a racial and economic lens, the inequalities that exist between black and white people in the United States. I cast my gaze on the disparities in the US from life expectancy, to the achievement gap, to the too frequent election of racist officials. I seek to spark a dialogue between viewers and their relationship with the ugly reality of a nation built on the backs of my ancestors, my family, and myself, while simultaneously demonizing u

In 2014, glass artist, author, and craftsman Scott Ouderkirk published The Wind in the Islands, his adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, reworked for the Thousand Island area of the St. Lawrence River where he lives. To accompany his book, Ouderkirk designed and created stained and fused glass panels, depicting relevant moments in his story.  The project was successful artistically, but also introduced a novel approach to marketing. By combining his skills as both author and artist, Ouderkirk’s The Wind in the Islands created an interdependent one-two punch of book and glass art sales. Local bookstores promoted the book, which resulted in increased glass sales. Glass panels on view at local exhibitions and at his gallery increased sales of the book. For the first time, his creations were bringing in money beyond the singular and initial sale of one object.  Ouderkirk earned his BS in Technical/Vocational Education from State University of New York, Oswego, New York; his MA in illustration

Susan Taylor Glasgow: The Way Things Never Were Susan Taylor Glasgow’s work embraces feminine ideals of sensuality in a seductive but unforgiving material, offering conflicting messages of comfort and expectation. Some of her sculpture pays tribute to the era of June Cleaver and Betty Crocker via images appropriated from the world of ‘50s and ‘60s television and advertising. The bustier forms of Chandelier Dresses and the sensuous detailed perfection of lingerie sets present fantasies, reminding us of the way things never were. Sewing, cooking and arranging glass, Glasgow attempts to reconcile the conflict over work and home, feminist ideals and the Madonna complex, duty and fulfillment.  She says: “In a way, my work is the result of homemaking skills gone awry. I have always embraced domesticity in spirit, but not in action. My life as an artist puts housekeeping last while instead I cook and sew glass. My internal domestic struggle has led me to examine the concept of domestic expectations and traditional r

Remembering Benjamin Moore: Heart of the Seattle Glassmaking Scene  Seattle glass art legend Benjamin Moore died on June 25, 2021. He was 69. His passing has been a shock to the glass community — both locally and beyond — evidenced by outpourings of sadness from such institutions as the American Craft Council, UrbanGlass, Tacoma Art Museum and Pilchuck Glass School, where Olympia-born Moore took a class in 1974 (a college graduation gift from his parents). A seminal figure in establishing Seattle as a contemporary glass center, Moore provided his studio and top-notch glassblowing team to make the work of the world’s finest artists and designers. The groundbreaking art produced on King Street at Benjamin Moore, Inc. (BMI) contributed both to the glass arts and the art world at large. But the true gift of art making within this supportive community is the camaraderie and lifelong friendships born out of such a unique creative environment. This is the lifeblood of the Seattle glass experience. Said Moore, in our

Mark Peiser: The Moving Target of Perfection Since 1967 when Mark Peiser became involved with the Studio Glass Movement, he has been recognized for his uniquely individualized approaches and accomplishments in glass. Continual investigation of the expressive implications of glass properties and processes has led to his distinctive bodies of work. Recently Peiser published the book, Thirty-Eight Pieces of Glass – with Related Thoughts, pairing his glass with brief writings of resonance.  To quote from the preface: “Since I began with glass 50 years ago, I’ve received countless questions asking, basically, what’s it about? In that discussion I’ve tried to answer honestly and completely but I’ve always felt to have fallen short – short of the words and short of the voice that would say them. When I started to assemble this book, I began feeling much more truthful and satisfying answers to that question. I hope you will, too. That these selections sorted out into something of an abridged life story was a bit of a

Kim Thomas: The Escape and Beyond A prolific borosilicate flameworker producing highly recognizable works in functional and sculptural glass, Kim Thomas aka Zii is changing the face of flameworking. From detailed and realistic human teeth and severed finger pipes to her latest kinetic sculpture, the artist is redefining what is possible at the torch. From January – April, 2021, recent works The Cloud Capturing Apparatus and The Cloud Riding Contraption were exhibited in Glass in The Expanded Field at the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, New Jersey.  Thomas also participated in Hunterdon’s companion symposium, Pipe Art: Understudied Glass, which considered the glass pipe as a fluid work of art fundamental to the art history of glass. Celebrated artists Dan Coyle and Luken Sheafe, whose artist name is SALT, presented their intensely wrought, figural, and in the case of Thomas, sometimes kinetic, pipes. Joined by Susie J. Silbert, Curator at the Corning Museum of Glass, these artists further contextualized their w

Norwood Viviano: Understanding Our Place in Time Using tools of mapping and materials of industry Norwood Viviano makes installations and sculptures that consider various social and environmental factors leading to population changes in American cities. His most recent series, Re-Cast Cities, continues his exploration of the cross-sections of geography, cartography and history, merging urban landscapes with the symbols of industry that have fueled their booms, busts and builds.  Heller Gallery’s March 2021 Re-Cast Cities exhibition documented the first eight pieces made in this series focusing on Detroit, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, (OR), Toledo and White Mills, (PA). Curator and writer Sarah Darro called the project “a radical reconsideration of cartography that inflects Viviano’s ongoing analysis of the rise and fall of American manufacturing with an experimental energy geared towards the future.”   Viviano received a BFA from Alfred University and an MFA in Sculpture from the Cra

Dan Friday’s Future Artifacts Creativity was fostered in Dan Friday by his family from an early age. Growing up immersed in the rich cultural heritage of the Lummi Nation meant that making things with his hands was a regular activity. Typically working with simple themes and forms, the artist often employs subtle silhouettes when making his glass totems. His more narrative work reflects a personal expression or means of processing a life event, often with an underlying statement. His latest works will be on view at the Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, Washington, in Future Artifacts, on view July 3 – October 10, 2021. Friday says: “As the recipient of the Bill Holm Grant from the Burke Museum, with my sister I have been studying Coast Salish artifacts in their archives. It is a surreal experience to hold items of your oldest known family members, even see their handwriting on treasured belongings. With all of the information, images, and data I have already catalogued, I hope to make inspired pieces of gl

Ian Chadwick: The Aesthetic of Order Many teachings describe sacred geometry as the blueprint of creation and the origin of all form. This ancient science explores and explains the energy patterns that create and unify all things, and reveals the precise way that the energy of creation organizes itself. It is said that every natural pattern of growth or movement comes back to one or more geometric shapes. Ian Chadwick expresses his homage to sacred geometry by kilnforming colored glass strips that are deconstructed and reconstructed into symmetrical patterns similar to those seen in the rose windows of cathedrals and mandalas. Chadwick says: “The inspiration behind my glass work comes from a love of optical art, traditional pattern-forming and an interest in sacred geometry – in particular the meditation symbols known as mandalas. Mandalas contain many of the principles important in the esoteric practice of geometry, utilized by craftsmen for centuries in the design of cathedrals and stained glass windows. In

Daniel S. Coyle: When Functional Becomes Sentimental Menacing monkeys. Peeled bananas. Bad-tempered bears. Uniquely original Munnies. Daniel S. Coyle’s whimsical, toy-inspired aesthetic in concert with mind-blowing skills on the torch have earned the artist a hefty 116K following on Instagram. The artist recently celebrated 10 years of being a full-time pipe maker with an exhibition at Ziggy’s in Huntington Beach, California. Decade Arcadia featured new work, collabs and early pieces from Coyle’s personal collection. He says: “Often my work is playful in nature and can remind you of toys. I guess I like to bring the viewer (or user) back to their childhood and also remind them to not take life so seriously. Why pipes? Making an object into a pipe will allow someone to bond with that object. They will have experiences with it, develop a relationship with it, and in time it will become more than a piece in their collection—it will become sentimental.”  Coyle began blowing glass in 2003 while taking a workshop w

Tim Carey and Justin Monroe: From Holy Frit to Vitreonics The marriage of Tim Carey’s art and glass making skills with Justin Monroe’s unique approach to presenting both on film has resulted in rewards, accolades and attention in both the filmmaking and glass worlds. Following the release of Monroe’s award-winning documentary, Holy Frit, the artist and filmmaker have teamed up again to start a new company called Vitreonics, dedicated to education through content creation around the medium of glass. Their goal is to reach and teach the newer generations of artists about the wonders of glass with a fresh new approach to presenting online education in an entertaining and fun format. Their first classes were released last week through Bullseye Glass Co.  Find out more at https://classes.bullseyeglass.com/classes-events.html?instructor=1908 Holy Frit shared the wild and winsome journey of Carey and Judson Studios as they realize a church’s vision to create the world’s largest window of its kind. With plenty of hum

Cat Burns: Not Your Grandma’s Glass Whether creating her signature Nesting Bowls, a dazzling murrine sculpture Windows of Truth, or an unforgettable glass fashion statement Forbidden Twizzlers, Cat Burns captured viewers’ hearts and minds as a contestant on Blown Away 2 – Netflix’s glassblowing competition show produced by marblemedia with the support of The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG). As runner-up of the competition, she scrambles to keep up with the overwhelming interest of the general public in supporting her art through acquisition. A defiant artist who uses flamboyant, sarcastic humor to illustrate her internal narrative, Burns touched the Blown Away 2 audience with her honesty and vulnerability. She cultivates her work very slowly and uses it as a visual diary, creating audacious imagery as a way of communicating and synthesizing the often perplexing, manic experience of living with depression. The work explores the delicate strength of glass as a final object, as well as its use as a personally the

Keke Cribbs: Frozen Moments in the Emotional Adventure of Life Through her art, KeKe Cribbs searches for a peaceful place. Growing up, this self-taught artist moved 24 times in 24 years, and she now prefers to travel in her mind, telling stories of far-away places and exotic characters in a mosaic glass technique she has adapted to her unique style. From her studio on Whidbey Island off the coast of Seattle come boats, Moon Queens, and collage with painted glass, inspiring wonder and delight in all who view them. Her latest works will be on view August 6 – 29, 2021 at the Bainbridge Arts and Crafts Gallery, Bainbridge, Washington.  Like her work, Cribbs’ life has a fairytale-quality with dark undertones. At age 15, she was one of five children transplanted to Ireland for her mother’s graduate studies in Yeats. For the next decade she traveled from place to place in Europe before returning to the United States as a single mother and a stranger to native customs. While working in a Native American art gallery i

Katherine Gray: Reconciling Polarities Drawing on the rich traditions of glass blowing, fearless experimentation, and a fascination with glass as both a visual and experiential encounter, Katherine Gray creates work that ranges from blown glass sculptures to assembled installations of found glass. A visitor favorite at The Corning Museum of Glass is her Forest Glass, a large-scale installation comprised of found glass arranged to create the illusion of trees. Whether celebrating a prosaic material through installations or her Iridescent Entities, stylized hearths and campfires, or clouds and orbs, Gray forces us to appreciate glass anew.  She says: “I use a material that we don’t generally see. It is often flawlessly clear and colorless, hence invisible in that regard, but it can also be so ubiquitous and banal that it does not register in our psyches either. It is a material that allows us unparalleled connectivity (via smart phones and fibre optics) yet also serves to separate us. To my mind, these two pola

Ruth Shelley: Through the Eye of Color Patience, love of color and an observing mind are the key ingredients of Ruth Shelley’s successful kilnformed glass art. For over 25 years, she has been exploring the flow of glass when heated and the reflection and refraction of light as it hits her glass objects. Dropped vessels create an interplay of light, form and color evocative of the natural-world characteristics experienced on the West Coast of Wales.  Camping in her van in Aberystwyth on Cardigan Bay, Shelley watched an impending storm develop. Its transitioning colors inspired the artist’s Stormy Seas collection. Cardigan Bay, an endless inspiration with its craggy cliffs, wide estuaries silted up with spits and bars, and the occasional island also impacted the artist’s Into the Deep series, which reflects the changing weather patterns and light experienced there on the coastal profile of Wales. A series was born from and named after a connection to Mwnt Beach, where the artist feels most at home and inextrica

Percy Echols II and Ben Orozco are two artists utilizing the marriage of art, science, and craft in the mesmerizing art forms of plasma and neon sculpture. The two artists are redefining the roles of glass and light in contemporary artworks that defy description.

Daniel Maher: Challenging the Stained Glass Status Quo Daniel Maher’s work serves as a testament to both his diverse aesthetic interests and his firm roots in the traditions of the stained glass craft. A former employee of Boston-based Connick Studio, in 1989 the artist established Daniel Maher Stained Glass in Somerville, Massachusetts, to further explore a variety of design styles. With the goal of accelerating his evolution as an artist and extinguishing the notion of stained glass as an exclusively traditional art form, Maher made it his mission to explore the textural movement inherent in glass.  In 2007, a reduction in the number of restoration jobs coincided with the exodus of a few of Maher’s key employees, and thus he began to wind down his studio’s restoration commissions. Currently, residential commissions comprise 75 percent of his studio’s new work with the remaining 25 percent commercial or corporate projects.  Driven by a goal to introduce prismatic effects into stained glass windows, Maher cre

Elliot Walker: Winner of Blown Away 2 Sculpting and blowing molten glass, Elliot Walker creates still life sculpture inspired by the paintings of Dutch masters. Though exquisite to look at, it was the combination of refined glassblowing skill with the humor and satire of his work that resulted in Walker winning the Netflix series, Blown Away 2. For the moment, prized residencies at both the Corning Museum of Glass and the Pittsburgh Glass Center are on hold due to Covid. But the artist works feverishly on new commissioned works, facilitates a number of creations for several noted designers and artists, and carries out his new duties as champion of marblemedia’s glassblowing competition show. For Walker, getting to know his fellow contestants on Blown Away 2 and watching them work made his participation on the show worthwhile. “It showed me how welcoming and inspiring the global fraternity of furnace glass workers is.”  Messums, London, hosted Walker’s inaugural solo show from January 28 through February13, 20

Ross Richmond: Figurative Elements and Symbolic Objects In sculpting realistic figures of humans and horses adorned with color and pattern, Ross Richmond demonstrates how an artist can push his medium beyond its normal boundaries. The artist creates beautiful and expressionistic sculpture using gesture to convey narrative. Communication has always been the main source of Richmond’s inspiration, whether it be with oneself or between others.   Richmond discovered glass in 1991 during his time at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he received a BFA in glass, with a minor in metals. He is considered one of the top glass sculptors in the field today and has worked with (and for) some of the greatest glass and non-glass artists including William Morris, Jane Rosen, Preston Singletary, KeKe Cribbs, and Dale Chihuly. Richmond studied and taught at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG), Penland School of Craft and the Pilchuck Glass School. The artist was awarded residencies at the Tacoma Museum of Glass