GASnews Summer 2017

GASnews

SUMMER 2017 VOLUME 28 ISSUE 2

INSIDE

3 Letter from the President 3 Letter from the Editor 4 The Glass Arts and Scientific Exploration:

Centuries of Innovation

7 Interview: Nanda Soderberg 10 Panel Conjecture: "Performance Anxiety:

A Critical Lens on Glass Performance Art"

13 Museum of Neon Art: The Art of Plasma

and First Plasma Artist Symposium

16 Student Profile: Lok Kwan Tse 18 Wayne Strattman: Glass, Light, & Technology 20 Book Review: Paul Stankard's Studio Craft as Career:

A Guide to Achieving Excellence in Art-Making

21 GAS Resource Links Cover: Eric Franklin, Memory Arborization, flame-worked glass filled with neon and mercury.

Photo: Gary van der Steur

GAS news

GASnews is published four times per year as a benefit to members.

Glass Art Society Board of Directors 2016-2017

Contributing Writers: Marvin Bolt, Jim Galbraith, Karen Woodward Garcia, Michael Hernandez, Jon Rees, Ian Messenger Schmidt, David Schnuckel Editor: Michael Hernandez Graphic Design: Ted Cotrotsos*

President: Cassandra Straubing Vice President: Stephen Powell Vice President: Natali Rodrigues Treasurer: John Kiley Secretary: Tracy Kirchmann

Staff Pamela Figenshow Koss, Executive Director Kassaundra Porres, Executive Assistant Pamela Jaynes, Office & Volunteer Coordinator Shih Yu Liu (Gina), Communications Intern *part time/contract

Alex Bernstein Kelly Conway Matt Durran Michael Hernandez Jessica Julius Ed Kirshner Jeff Lindsay

Marc Petrovic Charlotte Potter Lynn Read Masahiro Nick Sasaki Jan Smith David Willis

Student Rep: Ian Messenger Schmidt

6512 23rd Avenue NW, Suite 329, Seattle, WA 98117 USA Phone: 206.382.1305 Fax: 206.382.2630 E-mail: info@glassart.org

Web: www.glassart.org

Š2017 The Glass Art Society, a non-profit organization. All rights reserved. Publication of articles in this newsletter prohibited without permission from the Glass Art Society Inc. The Glass Art Society reserves the right to deny applications for Tech Display, advertising participation, GAS membership or conference participation to anyone for any reason.

2

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

PRESIDENT’S LETTER Dear Glass Family, “We have a duty to other human beings to take all our 5 senses, take our experiences with those senses, and create something to share with the world.”

– Andy Paiko Our mission states that we exist to promote the appreciation and development of the glass arts. Our vision is centered on encouraging excellence, advancing education, and supporting the worldwide community of artists who work with glass. We are not rich people.

We don’t get paid enough for what we do. Some of us have 75 bucks in our bank account at the end of the month.

What we are rich with is community and opportunity. We are a community of intelligent students and faculty. We are a community of glass artists who reunite each year, as a family might gather in union.

We are a community of Co-Chairs and Board of Directors from all over the world who make this organization excel. There is opportunity here to connect with peers and artists alike; opportunity to visit a different hosting site every year, throughout the world; and there is opportunity to learn and be inspired.

Wherever there is community, there is opportunity. And wherever there is opportunity, there is community.

We do this for all of the glass students around the world. We do this for the community – to create something big, powerful, and inspiring.

We do this for artists, to keep learning and to stay inspired. We do this to educate the world about how freaking awesome our material is!

Have an amazing conference in Norfolk! Learn lots! Be inspired!

And don’t forget to tell your friends, “Hey! You’re doing an awesome job!

You are nothing short of AMAZING!” Sincerely,

Glass is a difficult material to define.

Its properties allow for incredibly diverse physical, visual, and optical results to be achieved. Since ancient times, those who manipulate glass have accessed these qualities for arcane scientific and artistic outcomes.

Setting the stage for Dr. John C. Mather’s lecture, Seeing Our History and Our Future with Glass: Four Centuries of Mysteries, Jim Galbraith and Marvin Bolt, from the Corning Museum of Glass, describe a brief history of scientific and artistic explorations that paved the way for our knowledge of systems, both micro and macro. Jon Rees presents this year’s GAS Lifetime Membership Awardee and pioneer of neon and plasma technology, Wayne Strattman, whose artworks are a mesmerizing crossover between art and science. David Schnuckel’s piece, Panel Conjecture: “Performance Anxiety: A Critical Lens on Glass Performance Art” speculates on the dialogue of the Performance Panel.

This article makes the case that we are overdue for a critical discussion of this movement embracing the spectacle and awe-inspiring physicality both inherent to and contrived from the glassblowing process.

Articles throughout this issue anticipate some of the exciting individuals, movements, and ideas to be presented at this year’s GAS Conference. Looking forward to our gathering in Norfolk, Virginia, I imagine the diverse range of topics, processes, and performances that will represent the current perceptions and methodologies in glass. Well, that and all the good times and great people!

Michael Hernandez

Cassandra Straubing President

G A S N EE W W SS

EDITOR’S LETTER

SWUIM NM T EE R 2 0 1 74

VVOOLLUUMMEE 2 285, , I SI SS SUUE E2 4

3

THE GLASS ARTS AND SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION: CENTURIES OF INNOVATION

by Marvin Bolt and Jim Galbraith

A replica of Pasteur’s swan-necked flask on display along with a carbolic acid spray developed by Joseph Lister used to disinfect operating rooms in hospitals.

From Revealing the Invisible: the History of Glass and the Microscope. The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.

This year’s Labino Lecturer at the Annual Conference in Norfolk, Virginia, will be Dr. John C. Mather, Senior Astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Mather, in his presentation Seeing Our History and Our Future with Glass: Four Centuries of Mysteries will illustrate the remarkable story linking glass with discovery and imagine what future possibilities might exist with new equipment like the James Webb Space Telescope. His lecture highlights the integral connection between glass arts and science, which for centuries have shared a process of invention and discovery.

Not long after the technique of blowing glass emerged, the Roman writer and philosopher Seneca noted that looking through a “glass globe filled with water” made small letters appear larger. Over the centuries, others observed the same effect, but there was little thought of

4

seeing something new. Only after the appearance of the telescope in 1608 did glass lenses become linked to the possibility of discovery – in a military context, no less. Benefits to astronomy were a mere afterthought, although that quickly changed. The microscope soon followed, as did other influential glassbased devices, such as the thermometer and the barometer. With these tools, our understanding of the universe and our place in it, changed dramatically, and repeatedly, with glass and the arts of glassworking playing fundamental roles in scientific exploration ever since.

Telescopes soon appeared throughout Europe, not due to improvements to glass or glass grinding and polishing, but rather to the recognition that reducing the aperture of a lens could produce an image with increased resolution. Galileo’s discovery of lunar mountains and craters, of the phases of Venus, and of Jupiter’s GASNEWS

moons overthrew the earth-centered Ptolemaic system and, eventually, the Aristotelian physics supporting it.

From the 1650s, improvements to glass, glass casting, molds, and lens grinding and polishing techniques, as well as the invention of more complex lens systems, led to longer and larger telescopes that revealed details of the planets. They also fueled the growing realization that planets are physical worlds not dissimilar to Earth. Over the following centuries, observations of planets, stars, and galaxies unveiled a universe of an unimaginably enormous size with an almost incomprehensible ancient history, filled with exotic objects with strange properties and stunning beauty.

Meanwhile, the microscope opened our imagination to the tiny worlds all around us and inside us. The earliest known examples served more as magnifiers than as tools to explore otherwise invisible objects.

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

George Otis Gleason taking measurements of diameter of 200" disk, 1935. Photograph by Robert Yarnall Richie.

George V. McCauley Archive, Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass. CMGL 116521.

Used with permission of Archives, Corning Incorporated.

That changed with the work of the most significant early microscopist, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, who first observed microscopic life in 1676. Still recognized for his scientific achievements, his work was possible only because of his great skill as a glass worker. Van Leeuwenhoek made tiny lenses (about 1/10 inch in diameter!) for over 500 homemade microscopes, achieving magnifications from about 40x to 250x.

Van Leeuwenhoek was notoriously secretive about his procedures; his correspondence, as well as, travel diaries written by visitors to his home, provide the few details we know of those GASNEWS

SWUI M NM T EERR 22001147

methods. Examination of his surviving microscopes, complemented by archival studies, suggests that he used variations of three different techniques: flameworking glass rods, grinding and polishing tiny pieces of glass, and blowing glass tubes.

Explorations of those techniques at The Corning Museum of Glass in March 2017 have reproduced most of those methods with reasonable success, but also cast considerable doubts about the feasibility of blowing tiny lenses with high magnification. Ongoing investigation, we hope, will reveal more of van Leeuwenhoek’s still secret techniques for producing his most powerful microscopes.

V O L U M E 2 58 , I S S U E 4 2

5

The oldest telescope in the United States.

Made in Italy, before 1645. Image Courtesy of Adler Planetarium, Chicago (M-421).

Glassblowing certainly played a key role in other areas of scientific investigations of the microscopic world. For example, in the 1850s, Louis Pasteur famously employed a glass swan-necked flask in experiments with bacteria. By controlling the movement of air (and dust-bearing bacteria) into and out of a flask, Pasteur refuted the theory of spontaneous generation.

Meanwhile, the failure to overcome the optical limitations of microscopes led Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe, and Otto Schott to develop new glasses in a systematic way, yielding a range of scientific glasses with specific optical properties. The full power of that approach was informed by the insights of Dmitri Mendeleev, whose periodic table of chemical elements readily suggested patterns of behaviors and properties of elements, transforming the study and development of new glasses.

The pouring of a 200-inch diameter borosilicate glass disk completed the transition from refracting to reflecting telescopes as astronomy’s cutting edge research tool. After an experimental casting of such a disk, now on display at The Corning Museum of Glass, a second disk

6

GASNEWS

was ground, polished, and coated with a layer of bright aluminum, and has served as the primary mirror of the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar near San Diego since 1948.

Since then, all major optical telescopes have featured a primary mirror consisting of glass as a substrate coated with a reflective surface.

In short, whether you are blowing, flameworking, or casting glass, or perhaps developing a new batch for your latest work, you can rightly take pride in being part of a long tradition. You are using the same processes that created powerful scientific tools, enabling knowledge about the universe at large, and the worlds within.

Who knows what your innovations might lead to?

Marvin Bolt is the Curator of Science & Technology, The Corning Museum of Glass. Jim Galbraith is Chief Librarian, Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass.

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

INTERVIEW: NANDA SODERBERG Bowl made from two juice glasses, hot manipulated found glass, 6” x 10”, photo: Nanda Soderberg

GASnews: Describe your current body of work and how you arrived at this approach.

Nanda Soderberg: I started working with “found” glass in 2005 while I was in graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University. Initially, I was curious to see if through altering a found object either by a cold or hot glass process, I could change the viewer’s perception of the object. The first experiment that I did was to battuto the surface of an unopened Old English 800 bottle. The battuto surface instantly gave value to the bottle, which is typically a single use bottle that is commonly seen discarded in the urban environment.

Because the bottle was carved and beautified, the assumption was that the liquid inside was of value as well.

The discovery that a relatively simple alteration to the bottle could elevate it and even allow it to transcend its material value was the start of a whole way of working for me. From there, I started purchasing glass from thrift stores and altering it in the hotshop. I would buy punch bowls and spin them into plates. These plates would then get cut up and collaged back together. Conceptually, these “collages” became more than just about elevating the objects they were made from. All of the GASNEWS

SWUI M NM T EERR 22001147

V O L U M E 2 58 , I S S U E 4 2

glass that made up the collages had been previously owned, used, and ultimately discarded (or donated). They had a history and held significance to previous owners.

The collages became something new, while retaining a history and recognizable elements.

Eventually, I began making vessels in the hotshop out of found glass. Sometimes I would join sets of shot glasses together to make larger objects. Other times, I would change the shape of a wine or beer bottle into a classic vessel. I began melting down glass on a punty to make bits to add to similar glass. This method of working and discovering that it was possible to take a found glass object and turn it into just about anything else is something that inspires me to this day.

GAS: What motivates you to elevate the found object, and how has your experience as a maker influenced your approach to the vessel?

NS: I have always been interested in how a mundane object can elicit a feeling or memory and can hold significance based on a past association of that object. An object that holds zero monetary value can be priceless because of the memories

5 7

associated with it. A common object can mark a time in history, an event, a meeting, etc.

When I was young, my favorite place to shop was the Salvation Army. I would always wonder about where all the stuff came from and create narratives in my head about who had previously owned the Pendleton I found or socket set that I purchased. Sometimes, I would have a sensation of sadness when browsing the thrift store thinking about how everything there had been used and loved (perhaps) and then discarded.

Since the first minute that I saw someone blowing glass, I was totally fixated on the process and how one could take this molten material and shape it into virtually anything. While attending graduate school, it occurred to me that I possessed the ability to alter a found glass object and make it into something else. I began looking at mass produced glass objects in a whole new light.

In my mind, I was never going to create anything new out of molten glass that captured the feeling I had when looking at something that had been around for a while. The story wasn’t there, my connection to the new blown glass object was superficial and weak. I realized that I actually love the process of blowing glass more than whatever it was that I was making. Using found glass objects that were infused with their own history, (didn’t matter if I knew it or not) to create new objects, became a way for me to elevate the discarded and mass produced. It gave meaning to the objects I was making. I found fulfillment in turning something discarded into something that you wouldn’t want to throw away.

GAS: Your work brings beauty and elegance to the discarded, single-use containers that we interact with on a daily basis. What messages are you interested in translating to your audience?

Transformation of the mundane, hot manipulated and mirrored found punch bowl, 2007, 18” diameter.

Photo: Nanda Soderberg

8

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

Wine bottle Veronese, hot manipulated wine bottle, 2015, 9” x 5”. Photo: Nanda Soderberg

NS: On the most basic level, it’s about finding beauty where you least expect it.

I have been blowing glass for 22 years. I can make just about anything. My favorite glass to drink out of at home used to be a salsa jar.

GAS: Your process seems to be a lot about transformation and even alchemy. There is a change of both value and material. What does altering the state of the raw materials or commodities mean to you?

NS: It means that I can walk through a thrift store and not feel sad anymore. (ha ha!) I can use my knowledge of glass and how to manipulate it to transform a liquor bottle that I find on the street into an object that can find it’s way into a gallery or somebody’s home – an object with esteem.

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

GAS: What can we expect in seeing your demo at the Norfolk GAS Conference?

NS: There are a few different ways that I transform found objects in the hot shop.

I would like to demonstrate a range of techniques and processes. Starting with the simplest first, I will be picking up a bottle on a punty and altering it using the jacks and sophie only. Next, I will be making a footed vessel out of a wine bottle. It will be made without adding or subtracting glass from the bottle. After that, I will demonstrate how to add bits to a beer bottle by melting down another bottle on a punty. Lastly, I will join similar glasses together to create something on a larger scale. It sounds like trickery but it’s really just glassblowing.

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

9

PANEL CONJECTURE: “PERFORMANCE ANXIETY: A CRITICAL LENS ON GLASS PERFORMANCE ART”

by David Schnuckel Erica Rosenfeld of The Burnt Asphalt Family preparing fried chicken in the hot shop during 2009 performance Cocktail Party at UrbanGlass.

Courtesy of Erica Rosenfeld.

Photo: Charles Eckert

The fact that the 46th Annual GAS conference is hosted in Norfolk, Virginia, is due in no small part to the rising role the Chrysler Museum of Art’s glass studio has played as a venue supporting glassbased performance activity. Since late 2011, Charlotte Potter (Artist, Glass Studio Manager & Programming Director at the Chrysler Museum Glass Center, and Conference Co-Chair) has established the Chrysler studio to become an internationally recognized entity housing performance art with a glass context. In turn, for the first time in history, the GAS Conference will not only feature its usual program of lectures, demonstrations, and panels, but also feature an officially sanctioned category of performancebased events as part of the Conference’s scheduled festivities.

Performance Anxiety: A Critical Lens on Glass Performance Art is a panel discussion moderated by Ben Wright, Artist and Director of Education at Urban Glass, and includes a handful of participants

10

with varying relationships to glass-based performance. Each panelist was selected to illuminate and expound upon the recent uprising of this movement within our field.

At the time of writing this article, those originally listed in the GAS pre-conference brochure as participating panelists have changed to some degree. The updated panel involves Erica Rosenfeld, Artist, Educator, and founding member of The Burnt Asphalt Family, Thor Bueno, Artist and member of the B Team, John Roach, Performance and Installation Artist, and Charlotte Potter, whose credentials are listed above, as well as, founding member of Cirque de Verre.

I can only assume that it’s due to playful witticism, but the panel discussion title certainly suggests a sense of unease, tension, and trepidation when thinking analytically about the current stance of “performance art” within the contemporary field of glass. In fact, I can’t help but recall the observation of Rebecca Park back in 2009 when assessing 3 up-and-coming GASNEWS

performance troupes at the time in her article “Flame On,” observing the field’s positive response to a new generation and brand of glass theatricality, but also a noticeable “…wariness from the glass community about the idea of performance art.” 1 Although perhaps unintentional, the notion of performance anxiety as referenced in the panel’s title is certainly a phobia worth examining metaphorically from the perspective of the glass performer and the glass non-performer alike. How many angles for analysis and assessment are there? What issues related to uncertainty or concern could be addressed from the perspective of those of us who have stood on stage? What about from those of us who have viewed this movement predominately off stage?

This panel will certainly help us communally collect our thoughts. “One thing that all glass performance has in common is that there is a craft and a labor being performed,” notes panelist Erica Rosenfeld. “So much of what I know about

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

the genre is due to the storytelling of many friends and glass family. I think this panel will add to an already existing oral history of performance in glass.”

Glass-based performance has been described in the opening remarks of the GAS pre-conference brochure as “a leading trend” in contemporary glass practice.

Although true in some respects, the terminology used in this particular case grabs one’s attention. “It is indeed a trend, but leading?” asks panel moderator Ben Wright. “I don’t think it is leading, because where is it going? I don’t think it really knows. There is not enough critical activity digging into it, writing about it, researching it, or putting it into context.”

Wright continues by saying, “I see it as an aspect of the glass world in the same way that performance is an aspect of the larger art world. If there is a leading trend, it is towards diversity of practice rather than devotion to a single material. In this context, I see performance as one toy in a large toolbox that artists and students are expressing themselves with.”

This is where the function of this particu-

lar panel in this particular Conference has some real value. Amidst all performance activity slated in the 2017 GAS Conference, this panel discussion is the only scheduled talk within the GAS Conference program that speaks directly about it. This alone makes “Performance Anxiety” not only interesting, but also important. It’s the first step (perhaps even a long-awaited first step) in holding conversation about glass performance publically by a variety of panelist perspectives and there is so much to talk about.

Without knowing what the panelists will bring to the table, I can’t help but speculate upon topical areas worthy of approach: our awareness of the history of performance art and what’s being gained/lost in that legacy when glass is interjected; the dominant role of the hotshop and hot glass presently used as the primary vehicle for performance activity in our field; the metrics used to assess value or authenticity in this current work and method of working; whether or not anybody truly is a “glass performance artist” and how we differentiate between performance practitioners from occasional Justin Ginsberg performing The Pursuit of Happiness in a 2016 Third Thursday event at the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio. Courtesy of the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio. Photo: Echard Wheeler

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

11

dabblers; and so much more.

Although this panel discussion is the first opportunity at a GAS Conference to publically examine the intersection of performance and glass, I certainly hope it’s not the last. In all of its recent rising popularity and amidst it’s yet to be fully recognized past – there is much to contextualize. As it stands, glass-based performance is one part tool, one part trend; predominately fixed in spectacle, but lending way to occasional moments of something truly challenging and exceptional.

I don’t think it’s our job as a community to know exactly what this movement in our field is all about, but it is most certainly our job to seek further understanding of it, for no other reason than to see what new territory these experiences can open us up to. Based on who’s taking part, I foresee “Performance Anxiety” setting us on our way to doing just that.

Hot glass ladled from Evan Snyderman (above) onto a steel umbrella positioned by Thor Bueno (below) in the B Team’s 1996 performance of Spontaneous Combustion I at UrbanGlass. Courtesy of the B Team Archives. Photo: Eva Heyd

1. Rebecca Park, “Flame On.” Glass Quarterly, Issue 114, (Spring 2009), pg. 32.

David Schnuckel is an artist and educator, currently serving as Lecturer in the Glass Program of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

12

The B Team opening the 1997 performance of Spontaneous Combustion II at UrbanGlass with a large shadow projection of the ensemble conducting glass-based activity. Courtesy of the B Team Archives. Photo: Eva Heyd

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

MUSEUM OF NEON ART: THE ART OF PLASMA AND FIRST PLASMA ARTIST SYMPOSIUM

by Karen Woodward Garcia

The Art of Plasma Exhibition. Photo: Larry Lytle

Upon entering the main gallery of the Museum of Neon Art (MONA), viewers are immediately taken by an awe-inspiring spectacle of colorful, dazzling light. The Art of Plasma: A Group Exhibition (25 artists) and Designing the Improbable: New Works

by Wayne Strattman, shown concurrently at MONA, represent the most extensive and comprehensive collection of plasma art and artists ever presented to the public.

On February 25, 2017, artists and glass art enthusiasts converged at the MONA in Glendale, CA to attend the opening of these two exhibits. This group exhibit curated by GAS Board member Ed Kirshner and MONA Director Kim Koga, is the first exhibit since 1999 to survey the recent achievements of artists working with plasma.

Unlike standard neon sculpture, which is made primarily from linear components GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

of glass tubing, the works in this exhibit are blown, sculpted, and formed into a variety of volumetric shapes. These vessel-like forms are then filled with conductive gases, sealed, connected to a power supply, and illuminated. Gases used by artists include nitrogen, oxygen, argon, neon, helium, krypton, and xenon. Other vapors and gasses used are mercury, iodine, and sulfur hexafluoride. The pieces represented in this exhibit range in scale from intimate to architectural and include installation, narrative, and conceptual sculpture.

When provided with enough external energy, electrically conductive gaseous molecules lose their cohesion and are forced into a fourth state of matter, which we call plasma. Korey Kline describes, “Plasma is the fourth state of matter.

Solids, liquids, gases, and plasma make VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

up most of the known matter in the universe. Plasma is defined as: a collection of charged particles containing about an equal number of positive ions and electrons and exhibiting some properties of a gas but differing from a gas in being a good conductor of electricity and being affected by a magnetic field.� In this excited state, plasma often gives of its characteristic mesmerizing kinetic glow.

On a global scale, solar winds of radiation energize high atmospheric gases giving us the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, also known as the Northern and Southern Lights. Plasma lighting has been a mainstay of commercial advertising. It is an essential part of your every day experience, as ordinary fluorescent, mercury, and sodium vapor bulbs utilize plasma to light our homes and streets

13

GLASHAUS The International Magazine of Studio Glass

German/ English, 4 issues p.a. 49 Euros Dr. Wolfgang Schmölders Glashaus-Verlag, Stadtgarten 4 D-47798 Krefeld (Germany) Email: glashaus-verlag @ t-online.de Web: http://studioglas.jimdo.com

In an effort to expand the representation of the plasma arts, the curators of the exhibition searched for artists working with glass and plasma that were not generally known to the public. During their search, a few themes emerged which were incorporated into exhibition. These themes include multi-media Steam Punk, skeletal forms, flameworked pipes, and unique, sculptural approaches by artists just beginning to work in the medium. The exhibition displays the wide possibilities that plasma art has for broad conceptual content and sensory experiences.

The plasma art sculptor requires artistic expertise to create glass forms, as well as, the technical knowledge to illuminate their work. MONA Director Kim Koga comments, “The world of plasma physics offers a technologically challenging but potentially

stunning medium – a tweaking of physics to create sometimes surreal compositions of dancing light, color, and form. Artists choose from a variety of plasma gases, encased in glass vessels, which are themselves an intensely creative sculpture requiring supreme craftsmanship in working with the often unforgiving medium of glass.” Each of the exhibiting plasma artists comes from a unique creative background and all share outstanding technical and scientific aptitude.

The artists in this exhibit have a unique set of technical and artistic skills. David Svenson, MONA President and participating artist enthusiastically adds, “As an artist who attempts to emphasize the ‘Art’ in neon, this exhibit is very refreshing. Just wonderful to see the diverse expressions from skilled glass

Bernd Weinmayer and Gerhard Hochmuth, Pangea Plasma Planet. Photo: Gary Van Der Steur

14

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

The Art of Plasma Exhibition. Photo: Larry Lytle

Mundy Hepburn, Hummingbird, blown glass with phosphors filled with neon, argon, krypton, helium, and xenon gases. Photo: Gary Van Der Steur

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

artists intrigued with the noble gases pulsating with experimental pressures and spark. The effects are living sculpture from another dimension. Aside from this phenomenon of gas and electricity, the artistic creations of mixed media and statements within are maturing rapidly! This is an exciting time with a brilliant future!�

Following the opening of the exhibition, MONA hosted the first ever Plasma Artist’s Symposium. Artists gathered to discuss common interests including technology, exhibitions, education, safety, glass resources, and much more. Symposium participants decided to form the Plasma Art Alliance to address a number of these issues and to provide mutual benefit for artists working with plasma. The Executive Committee of the Plasma Art Alliance currently includes Ed Kirshner, Kim Koga, and Wayne Strattman, PhD. The Art of Plasma and Designing the Improbable will be on view at the Museum of Neon Art (MONA) until July 30, 2017.

For information contact info@neonmona.org Karen Woodward Garcia is an artist and educator living and working in Austin, TX. VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

15

STUDENT PROFILE: LOK KWAN TSE

by Ian Messenger Schmidt

Form, Deform, Reform-3, printed decal on hot sculpted face.

Photo: Hong Kong Baptist University 2015

Lok Kwan Tse is an artist from Hong Kong, China currently pursuing her MFA at The Research Unit VICARTE – Vidro e Cerâmica para as Artes (Glass and Ceramic for the Arts) in Lisbon, Portugal.

She is the student liaison for the Glass Arts Society for VICARTE. Lok Kwan is in her first year working on a project titled, The Manufacture of Luminescent Glass, where she is investigating ways of using various metals to create glass that glows under Ultraviolet light. Students in the VICARTE program pursue a project that reflects that of a scientific experiment rather than that of a contemporary area of art.

VICARTE is an environment of diverse backgrounds in which students encounter a space of cultural exchange. Coming from Hong Kong, Lok Kwan has been an active participant in the Umbrella Movement, a political group that arose in 2014. Her political activism and drive to experience a space of more democratic freedom brought her to study at VICARTE. She holds an undergraduate from Hong Kong Baptist University, Academy of Fine Arts. Established in 2003, this is one of the first university

16

Form, Deform, Reform-2, printed decal on hot sculpted face.

Photo: Hong Kong Baptist University 2015

level glass hotshops in greater China.

In an email exchange, Lok Kwan and I discussed her studies at VICARTE and how her practice has developed.

Please give a short biography of how you entered into the glass field, and your studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, and what led you to studying at VICARTE. Out of all the media options that I could take as part of my visual arts degree at Hong Kong Baptist University, glassmaking was the only one that was so specialized that it was only possible in the university setting. This made it very interesting to me. At that time, I was also taking ceramics, printmaking, and jewelry, among other disciplines. These were the ones that I thought could mesh well together as creative materials and that is the main reason why I focused my studies around them. During that period, I had the opportunity to work and develop my techniques with some amazing people, namely my fellow schoolmates and technicians in studio practice. I also worked as an assistant GASNEWS

for my glass professor Dr. Wang Ling Jean. It was then that I stumbled upon my current master degree (interestingly enough through GAS’s website). The hybrid teaching of art and science instantly attracted me. The fusion of both disciplines, art as an exploration of the inner self, and science as the exploration of the outer world, seemed to offer a more complete arena in which to improve myself, as opposed to just improving my craft. Furthermore, I had always wanted to experience living in a true democracy, a feeling that had been recently exacerbated by my deep involvement in the umbrella movement in Hong Kong (and subsequent disillusionment, after the mainland forces prevailed over our uprising). Portugal, with its great weather, friendly people and lack of any real political right wing seemed like a great option. The focus of my master’s work is in the material science of glass and development of new creative substrates.

This was the ultimate factor that finally convinced me to take the leap and start a new chapter 6,839 miles away from my home.

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

Describe your current project, Luminescent and colored glasses: Diffusion of noble metal clusters/nanoparticles in glass.

The purpose of my current project is to manufacture luminescent glass (glass that glows under Ultraviolet light) through metal nanoparticle deposition and controlling of the formation of clusters in the material.

Currently, I’m more than halfway through my expected total workload. Right now, I am conducting experiments to study the luminescence of several different glass samples with varying concentration of the metal, under the guidance and supervision of my mentor, who is a chemist. She gives me the freedom to participate in the scientific process, which is very rewarding and is making me enjoy my contact with science greatly. I never expected to be involved in the development of a new creative material through “real” science since I chose to pursue studies in art. It has been a great experience to participate in this project.

“Portuguese time”, since any appointment time seems to have an in built 30 minutes’ tolerance period to either side) has led me to live a much less stressful life. In truth, I hadn’t really realized how stressed I was back in Hong Kong. Adapting to this new environment has improved my happiness and my health.

I have always been curious about science and technology, but the math part always pushed me away from it. Now, after experiencing scientific work first-hand, and being surrounded by people who work or study in science (since this is, after all, a science university in which VICARTE is a small, but great department.) I have come to realize that math has been demonized in our society and through this experience I have grown to enjoy its challenges.

How has VICARTE changed your practice as an artist?

The Manufacture of Luminescent Glass, Lok Kwan Tse, VICARTE 2016, Images samples of Luminescent Glass tests.

as a barrier to my tendency of just waiting to get things done. That can lead to an “early birth” of the artwork. In this sense, the quality and scope of my art has been greatly amplified thanks to this master degree program.

It seems that experience of traveling to a new country, culture, and institution would play a role in developing new concepts of your work. Would you say this is true and can you speak to the idea of both moving from an art background into a scientific study as well as from China to Portugal?

What is that experience like?

After a few months in VICARTE, my practice as an artist had already started its metamorphosis, which, I feel, is still ongoing. Instead of following through to the end of each specific art project that I start, I have been accumulating “work in progress,” which at first may seem bad, but has actually been great. Switching from one project to the other as I learn more from each one of them has helped me to condense my vision and has worked

It is indeed true! I was taught a creative process of thinking of an idea and then expressing it through my artwork, something that is deeply ingrained into me.

Ever since I came to Portugal, I have come to realize that I was still following “rules” and that it was poisoning my inspiration.

Thanks to a lot of good advice given by the professors in VICARTE, I have been slowly progressing in the work, ridding myself of those bad habits and helping me improve as an artist. Analogously, moving from Hong Kong to Portugal, with its more relaxed demeanor and “flexible” timetables (which I have jokingly come to call

Twisted Chinese, printed decal on hot blown vessel. Photo: Hong Kong Baptist University 2015

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

Ian Messenger Schmidt is a graduate student at Tyler School of Art, who holds a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology.

He has been involved in the glass arts community since he was 16.

17

WAYNE STRATTMAN: GLASS, LIGHT, & TECHNOLOGY

by Jon Rees lauded programming combines science, technology, engineering, art, and math classes, yet focuses on the crossover between areas of study. This has permeated into college art programs with the spread of 3D printers and other digital technology as it becomes more affordable. Strattman’s design firm, Strattman Design, is responsible for a considerable number of the world’s plasma museum displays.

The firm also specializes in architectural installations and lighting consultation for noteworthy entities such as Corning’s Advanced Lighting Products Division.

His commercial research and production affords him the opportunity to make sculpture about what he’s interested in

Not while I have my blaster!, 2011, flameworked glass and electronics, 6” x 15” x 14”. Photo: Stewart Clement

In early glass history, the material was used within architecture to let light into our dwellings. This marked the beginning of a strong historical relationship between glass, light, and humanity. As we begin to move away from the veneration of technique that defined Studio Glass, it is possible that we are readdressing our relationship with glass and light. The increasing popularity of lampworking and its ability to facilitate work with neon and plasma have made a path for many glass artists to begin to utilize light within their work. The options for combining glass with light continue to grow through the evolution of technology. Solid state LEDs, Arduino processors, and electroluminescent wire are opening new doors for the inclusion of light in glass-based sculpture.

Wayne Strattman, PhD, a pioneer of glass and light, is the recipient of this year’s Lifetime Membership Award for Outstanding Service to the Glass Art Society. His outstanding career has made significant contributions and developments to the field. Strattman has served on the

18

Glass Art Society Board of Directors and is a founder of the Technology Advancing Glass (TAG) grant. He initiated and endowed the Strattman Critical Dialogue Lecture series, which is intended to bring individuals into the glass world from other disciplines to encourage new ideas relating to glass art and collaboration.

Strattman believes that an interdisciplinary approach is extremely important to the evolution of glass as an artistic medium. With a background in engineering, Strattman initially began to experiment with gas lasers, which he describes as, “a neon tube with mirrors at each end.”

These early experiments led to teaching himself to work with glass and neon as materials, as well as, building his own equipment to facilitate the work. Strattman’s research has led to developments in nearly every form of light making.

Strattman’s work spans the disciplines of science, art, technology, and industrial design. This multi-disciplinary approach that embraces technology, echoes the STEAM trend in education. This highly

GASNEWS

Rogers here, I read you 5 x 5, 2011, flameworked glass and electronics, 6” dia. x 20” height.

Photo: Stewart Clement

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

without concerns of whether or not it will sell. This has led to Strattman’s commercial and sculptural explorations informing each other in a cyclical way, with information gleaned from one eventually translating into the other.

Overall, his sculptural work has a very scientific or technological aesthetic, at times with a science fiction reference.

Several of Strattman’s sculptures include elements such as ray guns, rockets, and robots. Other works showcase the electricity’s interaction with the gas inside the glass. All but a few incorporate light in one way or anther. Modern technology facilitates the creation of this work and is essential to its content. A good example of this is Strattman’s piece Personality Mood Visualizer. This sculpture consists of multiple plasma tubes mounted vertically on wire mesh, connected to a control panel with indicator gauges for each tube.

In the sculpture Nixie Rex, Strattman salutes the glow discharge numeric display technology developed in the 1950s. The scale of the sculpture is many times larger than the original Nixie Tubes, which were used as numeric displays in early digital technical equipment such as military time displays. The circuitry for this particular sculpture was developed by MIT PhD candidate Walker Chan and includes an

Nixie Rex, 2014-15, flameworked glass, metal and electronics, 72” x 24” x 66”

Arduino processor in addition to the clock timer and power section.

At the 2017 GAS Conference in Norfolk, Virginia, Strattman will be giving a lecture/ demonstration, titled Beyond Neon: Lit Glass Sculpture, where he will discuss the differences between neon and plasma. The talk will also delve into the basic principles

of working with plasma. Additionally, Strattman will be teaching a 2-week course at the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass this summer, titled Glass and Lighting Techniques. This course will focus on lampworking in addition to methods for including light within the glass such as neon and plasma.

Jon Rees is an artist/educator living in Salisbury, Maryland.

Detail of plasma globes, 2014 flameworked glass and electronics, size varies. Photo: Greg Maslin

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

19

BOOK REVIEW: PAUL STANKARD’S STUDIO CRAFT AS CAREER: A GUIDE TO ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN ART-MAKING

by Michael Hernandez The path for developing a successful, selfsustaining career as an artist is seen by many students and aspiring practitioners as a fabled pursuit, where prosperity is held by a select few. A strong vision and a dedicated practice are necessary to develop and balance the quality of the work with the business of making money from your craft. No one will tell you that making a life out of your passion for making will be easy, but we can learn greatly from the advice of veteran professionals.

In his recent book, Studio Craft as Career: A Guide to Achieving Excellence in Art-Making, Paul Stankard gives an intimate record of his journey as an artist. Most people with a knowledge of the “glass world” are familiar with Stankard’s mesmerizing tromp l’oeil paperweights depicting pastoral dioramas. However, many are not familiar with the artist’s journey. With no formal art education, Stankard left a career in the scientific glass industry to pursue a passion

Paul J. Stankard, Veiled Tap Root with Third Perspective Human Form, 2003. Photo: Douglas Schaible.

20

Judith Schaechter, Sister Finished, 2012.

Photo: Dom Episcopo

that had much less security. He carved out a path and a lifestyle that has provided him a successful career and an optimistic outlook on the potential for others to follow their dreams in the craft field.

The first half of this book is the story of Stankard’s personal journey as an artist who broke away from the trappings of a secure career to follow his bliss as a curious maker. Stankard uses his own experiences as a means for proposing a professional approach to developing both life and career as an artist. Through explanations, at times derived from unlikely facets of his life, the author describes his professional growth.

Stankard swiftly moves through subjects, from developing his artistic vision to creating and maintaining commercial viability.

GASNEWS

There is a professorial tone to Stankard’s storytelling throughout the book. This is not a text based on providing answers. In fact, “guide,” as used in the book’s title, may not be the right word. This is a book of wisdom from an artist and educator with experience. Stankard’s accounts are humble and meaningful, illustrating the points of inspiration, life, and practice that have provided him success. The deeply personal tone will not resonate with all audiences. Although it speaks to life’s many teachable moments, younger readers may feel disconnected from some of Stankard’s stories, as they are specific to his life experience.

Steeped in nostalgia, Stankard’s perspectives are reveries of his life’s path.

SUMMER 2017

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

These recollections range from childhood memories to meeting iconic figures of the Studio Glass Movement. Each story, in almost biblical fashion, has a lesson that is embedded in the retelling. Intimately described, Stankard recalls both the challenging and rewarding moments that led to his personal and artistic maturity.

While Stankard speaks to the spiritual and airy parts of life as an artist, this is a language to express the inspirations that have driven his creative pursuits. His poetic waxings on the embrace of beauty, the power of inspiration, and spirituality are devices for giving matter-of-fact lessons on maintaining a strong vision. Stankard addresses the power of influence in the words of naturalist theoreticians such as James Joyce and Walt Whitman that provoked and inspired romanticism in his portrayals of plant life.

The second half of Studio Craft as Career features a range of contemporary craft artists, spanning practices in glass (which accounts for approximately half), ceramics, wood, metals, and so on. The visually enticing images are sampling of work from each of these high-caliber artists, many in the prime of their career.

Along with their images, Stankard places the artist, their work, and their career in perspective with a synopsis of their approach and impact on the field of craft.

GASNEWS

SUMMER 2017

Each artist comments in a section titled, “Advice to Artists.” While many of these tidbits are clichéd inspirational quotes, there are some valuable words you will want to put in your pocket or tack on your studio wall. A succinct example of the latter comes from Michael Schunke, “Practice detachment. Detach from how you think something should look, how skilled you think you should be, how much money you think you should make. Remember that everything is exactly the way it’s supposed to be. Stay focused, keep moving, and accept what comes your way.”

The “Artist Profiles” is a sampling of snapshots both in terms of the artists’ work and the breadth of craft practice.

The overarching demographic of these contributors are capital “C” craft artists, with practices steeped in formal, materialbased approaches. A few artists, such as Lauren Kalman and the de la Torre Brothers, whose approaches push the boundaries of a mainstream craft practice, augment the group. Stankard’s selections skim the surface of the wider and more contemporary voice of the craft world, including predominantly white American artists.

Studio Craft as Career is an autobiographic work of prose where the author’s experiences serve as a model to composing a life and living as an artist. Stankard’s perspective on the development of a career in studio craft is humble, encouraging the next generation of artists to take a conscientious approach to making and living. His account describes a path to success developed out of vision and good old-fashioned hard work. An obvious tone in the pages of this book is that success comes from a dedicated practice and a realistic strategy. Through the story of his career and the accounts of many successful craft artists, Stankard illustrates that a successful career is kept by those who keep working with tenacity, curiosity, and a positive outlook.

Michael Hernandez is an artist and Associate Professor at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA.

VOLUME 28, ISSUE 2

GAS RESOURCE LINKS To access the Glass Art Society’s up-to-date resources, just click on the links below.

CLASSES EXHIBITIONS AND WORKSHOPS CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

FOR SALE

CALLS TO ARTISTS

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

21