Found in Translation

UND IN TRA

SLATION

found in translation

FOUND IN TRANSLATION northwest painters and printmakers transition to kiln-glass

published in conjunction with the FOUND IN TRANSLATION exhibition FEBRUARY 5 - MARCH 20, 2004

FOUND IN TRANSLATION When a group of painters and printmakers convened to begin an exploration in kilnformed glass at the Bullseye Glass Co. Research and Education Department in November 2003, none of us, perhaps especially the artists, were certain of what to expect.

The project put the materials of colored glass sheet, powders, frits and threads into the hands of the artists who reworked them in kilns at temperatures between 1250° - 1500°F. Judy Cooke’s use of the sheet glass scraps so often discarded by the classically-trained glassworker harkened back to her 1970’s paintings involving old tarps and salvaged industrial objects.

With this as her primary material, she was able to focus on the formal concerns of her usual work, those of shape, line, edge, and color to create works that appear almost as schematics for stacking found objects.

Martha Pfanschmidt, who admitted to “loving the line” in the making of her print work, reinterpreted the element using thin glass threads called stringers. She put an emphasis on depth and transparency in her highly-patterned colorful half-inch-thick glass panels. The visual texture of the works hints at the patterning often found in her mezzotints.

Eric Stotik, a highly-facile draftsman whose small paintings often reflect a Renaissance-style mastery of detail, manipulated

fields and lines that he composed of glass powder to create small, haunting panels reminiscent of woodcuts. The resulting works have a luminosity that underscores the medieval-to-modern iconography.

Mark Zirpel, an accomplished printmaker and occasional head of the Pilchuck Glass School print shop, took the least glossy approach to the material. His studies on formative phenomena and the relationship of time to light take advantage of relatively low-temperature firings to create dusty lunar surfaces on muted white panels.

A search for the less obvious - and less “pretty” - qualities of glass partly underlies my own work. Using glass to depict the formal, emotional, and sensual qualities of an aging industrial landscape calls into question not only the material identity of the work itself, but also how the material is normally used in artistic expression.

In the end what was found in this project was another voice not only for these artists but also for glass itself. The artists were able to explore transparency, light, and physical depth in ways not possible in their normal media, and glass proved that it can participate in the larger conversation of Art. Ted Sawyer FOUND IN TRANSLATION Project Technical Director DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH & EDUCATION Bullseye Glass Co.

ted sawyer

Portal 1, Portal 2, Portal 3, 2003 kilnformed glass, each 10 x 6 x .25 inches

BORN Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1970 CURRENTLY Director of Research and Education, Bullseye Glass Co., Portland, Oregon BACKGROUND BA in Ceramics, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon STATEMENT In these works in kilnformed glass I am trying to communicate the feeling of being in a state that is full of both calm and awe. It is an open, contemplative, yet excited state. The imagery is derived from things that typically go unnoticed or are peripheral to the speed of living: forms from aging or abandoned industrial landscapes and machinery, the beauty of their stained and rusted surfaces, and their silenced futures.

judy cooke

Ladle, 1996 oil, alkyd, wood, 8 x 41 x 2 inches courtesy of Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, Oregon

BORN CURRENTLY

Bay City, Michigan, 1940 Associate Professor at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon

BACKGROUND My printmaking background has had a major impact on how I paint with oils. My painting method involves scraping and removing paint, and is primarily a reductive process. Fourteenth and fifteenth century Italian painting, the Catalan painter Antoni TĂ pies, and Egyptian wall relief and sculpture have all influenced my work.

Egypt / #618, 2003 kilnformed glass, 8 x 7 x .5 inches

STATEMENT

Egyptian wall relief and painting have served as a source for stacking forms in my work. A visit to Egypt in 2001 revived my long-time interest in the wall relief, and the perfect sense of scale and color that Egyptian work presents. This present body of work in glass continues to explore the Egyptian influence on my work.

martha pfanschmidt

Ghost Tree, 2003 monoprint, 29.75 x 22.5 inches

BORN CURRENTLY

Elmhurst, Illinois, 1954 Artist and Professor at Marylhurst University, Portland, Oregon

BACKGROUND I work in a variety of media, including drawing, printmaking, painting, and sculpture. I love materials, and find that the weight of a tool in my hand or the quality of a surface can be the starting point for an exciting exploration.

Five Poems About Love, 2003 kilnformed glass, 24.5 x 12.25 x .5 inches

STATEMENT

The pieces in this exhibition were done in the autumn when the landscape I walked through to get to the studio was filled with vibrant color and a profusion of natural forms. These works, like all my work, are a direct result of an emotional response to the world around me.

eric stotik

Untitled, 2001 acrylic on tinted photograph, 7 x 5 inches courtesy of PDX Gallery, Portland, Oregon

BORN CURRENTLY

Papua, New Guinea, 1963 Artist, Portland, Oregon

BACKGROUND “...[Stotik’s] paintings are as deliberately constructed as the stage sets they resemble. Every image, every color and every detail contributes to the atmosphere of a creepy but fascinating tableau. Space may be skewed, perspective altered, figures distorted, yet all is rendered with absolute clarity. We know what we’re looking at, we just don’t know what it means...and Stotik offers no titles, no statements, no clues.”

– Lois Allan, Artweek

Untitled 20, 2003 kilnformed glass, 5 x 5 x .25 inches

STATEMENT

Untitled 21, 2003 kilnformed glass, 6 x 6 x .25 inches

Glass is a really vexing medium for me...but I find all media vexing.

mark zirpel

Orb relief print, 29.75 x 35 inches

BORN CURRENTLY

Portland, Oregon, 1956 Artist and Founder/CEO Acme Arts, Seattle, Washington

BACKGROUND Focusing on cyclic phenomena in nature such as the diurnal, tidal, celestial and botanical cycles, my desire has been to establish a tangible link between terrestrial and celestial events. Consideration of these repetitive cycles on an earthly scale links the concept and experience of time to events on a universal scale.

Lunar Disc II, 2003 kilnformed glass, 18 x 18 x .25 inches

STATEMENT

In this work the terrestrial/celestial link is understood as a relationship between the moon and the behavior of water. Using powdered glass to stand for the moon, a collision between these two forms of matter describes the method employed in the creation of these cartographic lunar images.

© 2004 Bullseye Glass Co. PUBLISHED BY

Bullseye Glass Co. 3722 SE 21st Avenue Portland, OR 97202 For inquiries about the artists or works shown, please contact: The Bullseye Connection Gallery 300 NW 13th Avenue Portland, OR 97209 T 503-227-0222 F 503-227-0008

E gallery@ bullseye-glass.com

DESIGN

Nicole Leaper PHOTO CREDITS

photo page 10 Mark Zirpel

all remaining photography Bill Bachhuber

title page

detail of Mark Zirpel's Lunar Disc II, 2003 kilnformed glass, 18 x 18 x .25 inches

this page

detail of Martha Pfanschmidt's Five Poems About Love, 2003 kilnformed glass, 24.5 x 12.25 x .5 inches

SLATION

UND IN TRANS