GASnews Winter 2016

GASnews

WINTER 2016 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 4

INSIDE

3 Letter from the President 3 Letter from the Editor 4 Pressroom: Whatʼs New at GAS 8 Making the Cut: Max Erlacherʼs Journey to Master Engraver 10 Pursuing a PhD: A Recollection of Relevant

and At Times Random Research

12 Skimming the Surface: A Brief and Incomplete Survey

on Teaching Beginners How to Blow Glass

15 The Slippery Slope of Extension Deadlines 20 Student Profile: Noelle Weigand 22 School Profile: California State University,

San Bernardino

24 Moving Forward 26 Thesis Done! Su-Yeon Kim 27 GAS Resource Links Cover: Erin Dickson and Jeffrey Sarmiento, Emotional Leak, 2015 Photo: Francesco Allegretto for Fondazione Berengo, Venice,Italy

GAS news

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

Glass Art Society Board of Directors 2016-2017

Contributing Writers: Erin Dickson, Sandra Glascock, Su-yeon Kim, Emily Kuchenbecker, Suzanne Peck, Jon Rees, David Schnuckel Editor: Michael Hernandez Graphic Design: Ted Cotrotsos*

President: Cassandra Straubing Vice President: Stephen Powell Vice President: Natali Rodrigues Treasurer: Roger MacPherson Secretary: Tracy Kirchmann

Staff Pamela Figenshow Koss, Executive Director Erika Enomoto, Communications Coordinator Kassaundra Porres, Executive Assistant *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

©2016 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.

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

EDITOR’S LETTER

Dear Glass Friends,

As the year 2016 begins to wrap up, I am reminded of how thankful I am for the family and community nurtured by the Glass Art Society.

The 2017 conference co-chairs and local committees have shifted into high gear in preparation for the June 2017 conference being held in Norfolk, Virginia. Between site preparations for a substantial flameworking venue, multiple performance stages, and the best of our regular conference programming, this team is really going ALL OUT! As I reflect on everything that was accomplished since the 2012 Long Range Planning Retreat, it makes me proud to look back on what our dedicated board has made possible for our organization.

Noteworthy achievements include a complete revamp of the GAS website, the launch of GAS Film Fridays and GAS Member Monday, and the establishment of an official Green Committee. As far as growing our international community, GAS hosted many successful SPARK! and glass art-related outreach events, made an investment in future GAS conference planning, and selected Murano, Italy as the host city of our 2018 conference. That’s a lot of tasty progress!

As was mentioned before, this past year GAS partnered with Chihuly Garden and Glass on a study researching the state of glass in America.

The results of that study were unveiled and showcased in GAS’ first exhibition and panel discussion at the SOFA Chicago Expo held in early-November. The Landscape of Glass Art exhibition, which featured contemporary glass art that highlighted five major emerging trends uncovered in the study, and panel discussion were met with great enthusiasm. If you are interested in learning more about the study, please visit www.landscapeofglass.com.

Last but not least, the GAS office received over 140 submissions for the 2017 GAS Member Juried Exhibition! I am looking forward to seeing the works of our talented membership on view next summer at Glass Wheel Studio in Norfolk.

At the end of January 2017, the board will gather in Seattle, Washington to meet and develop a long-range plan to steer GAS into the future. I am excited to work together with my board to set forth a strategic plan filled with opportunity and growth for GAS and our wonderful members.

Glass Trivia: Glass takes over 1 million years to decompose.

At this time of the year, many students are occupied with making the final push to wrap up the end of the semester.

The culmination of the last few months of experimentation, practice, revelations, successes, and failures are coming into full view (no pressure students!). However, this is a time that not only students but educators are also reflecting on their work and effort.

The winter issue of GASnews is dedicated to exploring how education, teaching, research, and learning impact our community. Our contributors offer a myriad of views that shed light on issues surrounding glass art education on vast levels. Sandra Glascock from the Corning Museum of Glass’s Rakow Research Library talks with Max Erlacher about the educational path he took to become a master engraver. Suzanne Peck reaches out to educators, from workshop teachers to tenured faculty, and looks at how they approach, entice, engage, and potentially convert beginning glass students. Dr. Erin Dickson reflects on her own journey of research that led to her earning a studio-based PhD from the University of Sunderland.

Finally, David Schnuckel draws a tangential line between (and a line in the sand on) the institutional and gallery concessions made on deadline extensions and the debasing of professional accountability that is essential to the model of higher education.

Glass education is continuously evolving through the changing models of teaching. The way in which people are introduced to glassmaking inherently has a great deal to do with process and technique. Ultimately, it is the framing of the educational experience and environment that most influences the students’ relationship to the medium.

Our educators often shape the way we approach a medium. While for some it may be the voice that resonates when making a gather of molten glass. As for others, it is the enthusiasm toward experimentation and the embrace of community. Yet, we all take with us a way of looking and thinking about the world through our own personal experiences in education.

Sincerely,

Cassandra Straubing President GASNEWS

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PRESSROOM: WHATʼS NEW AT GAS

by Erika Enomoto, GAS Communications Coordinator

Glass Art Society Announces 2016 Technology Advancing Glass Grant Recipient October 4, 2016 – The Glass Art Society (GAS) announced that the 2016 Technology Advancing Glass (TAG) Grant will support “3-D Animated Glassblowing Tutorials,” an innovative project proposed by Boyd Sugiki.

Sugiki will be awarded $5,000 USD to transform his 2-dimensional glassblowing teaching diagrams into 3-dimensional animations. The animations will not only illustrate key points in shaping various forms in blown glass, but will also show indicators of heat, directional pressure, and the intensity of pressure being applied to the glass form.

In 2014, the TAG Grant was established with the purpose of providing financial support for projects that employ a technological approach to solving a problem or researching an idea related to the field

of glass art. This program follows the worldwide educational trend that combines science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with the arts (STEAM) to accelerate the development of new, expressive forms.

Through technology, Sugiki’s project will contribute greatly to advancements in the field of glass art education. “We will be able to create educational tools from which I, as well as others, can utilize for teaching and ultimately for students to learn from,” said Sugiki. “The benefit to the larger glass community lies within the transferability of knowledge exponentially.” The drawings and videos will be linked to The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass where the public can view, download, and share them.

The Glass Art Society would like to thank Ted and Melissa Lagreid for their

Boyd Sugiki at the 2016 GAS Conference.

Photo by Heather Baigelman.

support of the 2016 TAG Grant. If you would like to donate to this fund, please visit www.glassart.org/donate.html.

Joyce J. Scott and Wayne Strattman to Receive 2017 Glass Art Society Awards in Norfolk, Virginia October 18, 2016 — The Glass Art Society (GAS) announced the selection of its 2016 award recipients. These awards honor and acknowledge individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the glass arts worldwide.

The Lifetime Achievement Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contributions to the Studio Glass Field is awarded to Joyce J. Scott and the recipient of the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award for Outstanding Service to the Glass Art Society is Wayne Strattman.

Joyce J. Scott is a mixed-media sculptress who constructs sophisticated bead sculptures incorporating glass, clay, fabric swatches, and found objects that address social topics including racism, violence, and gender inequality. Scott, a lifelong Maryland native, is an active leader in Baltimore, promoting creative spaces for the local community. She holds a bachelor of fine arts from Maryland Institute College

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of Art, and master of fine arts from the Instituto Allende in Mexico. Scott has received honors from the National Endowment of the Arts, 2016 Baker Artist Awards, and most recently a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship.

Joyce J. Scott Her work has been exhibited at institutions around the world including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Applied Arts, Helsinki; and the Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo.

Wayne Strattman, a former Glass Art Society board member, initiated and endowed the Strattman Critical Dialogue Lecture series, co-funded the Technology Advancing Glass (TAG) grant program, and started and helped maintain neon exhibitions at GAS conferences since 1997.

His Boston-based company Strattman GASNEWS

Wayne Strattman

Design has been a world leader for decades in building museum displays, custom sculpture, and innovative lightning products for commerce and industry.

Strattman received his PhD from the University of Sunderland in glass and the neon arts, in recognition of his many years of work making sculptures, conducting research, writing, and advocating for neon and other advanced forms of lit glass sculpture.

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Results of the “Landscape of Glass Art in America” Study Announced at the 2016 SOFA Chicago Expo November 7, 2016 – The Glass Art Society and Chihuly Garden and Glass announced the findings of their national study, “Landscape of Glass Art in America: A Benchmark for the Future,” at the 2016 Sculpture Objects and Functional Art (SOFA) expo in Chicago, Illinois. The expo was held at the Navy Pier Festival Hall from November 3-6, 2016. In addition to a panel discussion, an exhibition presented artwork that exemplified industry trends found in the study.

The research project began in November 2015 and sought to measure the general public’s interest in glass art, explore activity within different regions across the country, and map current trends.

The findings will serve as a benchmark for future measurement, growth, and experimentation in the industry. To facilitate the study, the Glass Art Society and Chihuly Garden and Glass worked with GMA Research, a research firm based in Bellevue, Washington. The project was conducted in three stages: qualitative research, influencer interviews, and two quantitative surveys. With over 2,000 participants, the results of the survey depict opinions and attitudes that are generally representative of the United States population.

“We are excited to take this step in benchmarking public awareness, interest, and trends related to the business of glass,” said Michelle Bufano, executive director of Chihuly Garden and Glass.

“There is tremendous value in seeing true data around where our industry stands so we can collectively, as a community, drive education and engagement with the general public.”

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Featured artist Norwood Viviano speaking with exhibition attendees at the reception of Landscape of Glass Art in America.

View of agristocracy

by Matt Eskuche (right) and works by Shelly Muzylowski Allen (left).

Key findings of the “Landscape of Glass Art in America” study include: • More than 70 percent of the public have an interest in glass.

Of that group, 29 percent visited a • gallery in the past 24 months and 24 percent visited a museum that presents glass. Additionally, 23 percent con- nected with social media or conducted online research related to glass.

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• The individuals whose interest in glass grew the most were between 18-34 years old, which is an indicator for future growth.

• Key trends driving the industry included flameworking, use of technology in making, diversification of artist demographics, the usage of mixed-media, and performance. continued next page

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PRESSROOM: WHATʼS NEW AT GAS “We receive calls daily from people looking for just this kind of current, hard social trend data relating to the glass community,” said Pamela Koss, executive director of the Glass Art Society. “We believe this study and what it sets up for the future, greatly supports our mission of advancing education around and promoting the appreciation of art made with glass.”

While the data shows that the public perceives the popularity of glass as being stagnant and/or increasing, there is an interesting conflict in the responses of the glass art community. Only 50 percent believe the industry is growing and the group most optimistic about glass’ future are young artists with 1-5 years of experience.

Regional hubs for glass are also evolving. While the Northwest and Northeast areas are still considered the top geographical hubs for glass art, data shows that the community is diversifying.

More practicing artists, schools, hotshops, and galleries are emerging in the Midwest and Southeast regions, thus, growing and expanding glass art’s reach and impact.

Fundamental shifts in perspective were also identified. In the past, an individual may have considered themselves a “studio glass” artist. However, more artists are no longer categorizing themselves by the medium and are self-identifying as an “artist working in glass.” The medium is now taking a backseat to the artist’s idea, resulting in more mainstream acceptance of glass artwork.

by Erika Enomoto, GAS Communications Coordinator

Close-up view of Shelly Muzylowski Allen’s Cloak and Andy Paiko’s Reliquary Group.

For additional information on the “Landscape of Glass Art in America: A Benchmark for the Future” study, visit the official website: www.landscapeofglass.com.

Glass Art Society’s Executive Director Pamela Figenshow Koss (right) with Chihuly Garden and Glass’ Executive Director Michelle Bufano.

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Downtown Murano.

Photo courtesy of Stephen R. Powell

Glass Art Society Selects Murano, Italy as the Host City of the 2018 GAS Conference November 22, 2016 – The Glass Art Society (GAS) announced its selection of Murano, Italy as the host city of the 47th annual conference. From May 16-20, 2018, attendees will partake in highly anticipated GAS conference programs including glass demonstrations and lectures on inspiring glass topics, and they will also enjoy special programming unique to Murano while surrounded by the beauty of the region of Venice.

The current Italian Steering Committee is comprised of artists and community art supporters Cesare Toffolo, Lucio Bubacco, Davide Salvadore, Marina Tagliapietra, Roberto Donà, Adriano Berengo, the Consorzio Promovetro Murano, and is led by glass maestro Lino Tagliapietra. “I am excited to have GAS in my native city of Murano, as it is a symbol of union between the two places that have allowed me to become the glassblower I am today,” said Tagliapietra. “This conference will be a wonderful and historical event.”

GAS selected Murano, in part, for the prominent place the region has had in the history of glass art worldwide.

There is also a strong connection between artists in Murano and the glass community in the United States.

Additionally, Murano has been the highest response from GAS members when asked where they would most like a future GAS conference to be held.

“Every year we survey our members on their interests and they have been consistent in expressing their desire to travel to Murano and Venice for a future conference as their top destination outside of the United States,” said Pamela Koss, executive director of the Glass Art Society. “We are elated to invite our members from around the world to meet in Murano and enjoy a truly special conference in an iconic and significant place for glass art.” The 2018 GAS conference is sponsored in part by the Berengo Foundation and the artists of the Italian Steering Committee.

Murano/Venice will be the first time the Glass Art Society has taken its annual conference outside of the United States since 2005 when the conference travelled to Adelaide, Australia.

To view past press releases and announcements from the GAS office, visit www.glassart.org/pressroom.html GASNEWS

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MAKING THE CUT: MAX ERLACHER’S JOURNEY TO MASTER ENGRAVER

by Sandra Glascock complete customer orders for his personal business. On Schiller’s recommendation, J. & L. Lobmeyr hired Max as an engraver for its prestigious glass shop located in Vienna.

While employed at Lobmeyr, Max also focused his energies on becoming a master engraver. A master is the highest professional qualification in crafts and an aspiring master must first pass from apprentice to journeyman. Max’s apprenticeship consisted of his time at school and his time working with Schiller.

At Lobmeyr he was a journeyman, a skilled worker that is certified to work as an employee. After three years as a journeyman at the Lobmeyr shop, Max finally gained enough career experience to be able to pursue a master‘s certification in engraving. Requirements for the certification included taking business and legal classes as well as designing and

Max Erlacher at work in his studio, Corning, NY. October 2016. Photo: Sandra Glascock.

On a beautiful, crisp fall day I visited the studio of renowned glass engraver Roland “Max” Erlacher. In 1956, Max earned his certification as a master engraver from the Austrian government. A year later he immigrated to America to work for Steuben Glass and he remained at the company for 20 years. Since 1975, he and his wife Kitty have operated their own business, Erlacher Glass. His studio, located a few miles outside Corning, New York, is adjacent to his house; his commute to work is only 10 steps. Max greeted me warmly and led me through the showroom to his workspace.

Surrounded by tools, bookcases, and a variety of glass pieces, I settled in to learn more about education for the engraved arts and how one becomes a master engraver.

Max was born in Innsbruck, Austria.

As was customary in his country, he had to decide if he wanted to pursue higher education or learn a trade at the age of fourteen. One day while on a drive with his father, Max saw a sign advertising a new glass technical school, the Glasfachschule Kramsach. Intrigued, they stopped the car.

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Upon entering the school, Max saw a man engraving glass and instantly knew that was the craft he wanted to pursue. He took the entrance exam, which consisted mainly of drawing tests, and was accepted. The year was 1948.

Glasfachschule Kramsach offered a three-year program in a variety of glass disciplines including cutting, engraving, acid etching, and painting. The six people in Max’s first-year class were all specializing in glass engraving. Master Engraver Herman Schiller, a former employee of J. & L. Lobmeyr, taught the engraving courses and the students spent about six hours a week engraving. Other required courses included math, bookkeeping, German, and design lessons. Max still has the first cup he ever engraved, which is decorated with a snowflake pattern comprised of simple cuts and lines. The cup is inscribed “Weihnachten [Christmas] 1948.”

By his third year in the program, Max’s engraving time increased to 24 hours a week. He stayed on for a fourth year at the school in order to help Master Schiller GASNEWS

Tattoo Vase (2008). Kiki Smith, designer. Roland “Max” Erlacher, engraver. Steuben Glass, Inc., manufacturer.

Blown, engraved, ground and polished. Corning Museum of Glass Collection (2008.4.79). Gift of the artist and Steuben Glass.

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Chinese Pavilion (1975). Donald Pollard and Alexander Seidel, designers. Alexander Seidel, designer. Roland “Max” Erlacher, engraver. Steuben Glass, Inc., manufacturer.

Cast, cut, polished, engraved, and Corning Museum of Glass Collection (87.4.69). Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. Atelier de guillochage at the Cristalleries du Val-Saint-Lambert Seraing, Belgium (About 1890-1910). The guillochage, or guilloche, is an engraving technique, with the aid of a machine, of creating lines. Val Saint Lambert Collection.

Rakow Research Library (CMGL 136548)

executing a masterpiece to present to a panel of masters from different disciplines.

He was provided with a blank piece of glass that he had to cut, polish, and engrave.

Most journeymen typically engraved animals or ornamentation rather than figural works, therefore, Max decided to engrave the figure of Diana the Huntress.

Within a year, he completed the business courses and created his masterpiece, earning a master engraverʼs certificate on April 23, 1956.

I asked Max if there was a different path he could have followed to become a master engraver. The alternative to technical schools, and the more common path for engravers in the industry was to seek out a shop with a master willing to train an apprentice. However, he would have only been taught the specific engraving techniques used at the shop.

School enabled Max to study the full range of engraving techniques like intaglio, GASNEWS

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diamond point stippling, and Hochschnitt, which is a rare type of high-relief engraving.

Max used the latter technique on the Crusader’s Bowl, the Steuben piece presented as a wedding gift to Princess Diana by the Reagans.

Max passes on his extensive knowledge to students at The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass, where he teaches a week-long course in engraving. He enhances his own skills in his studio and through working with contemporary glass artists that are interested in engraving.

Max hopes that engraving will continue to be a vital art form in the United States.

Sandra Glascock is the Assistant Archivist at The Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass.

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PURSUING A PhD: A RECOLLECTION OF RELEVANT AND AT TIMES RANDOM RESEARCH

by Erin Dickson Dr. Erin Dickson’s PhD Thesis 2015

In Summer 2015, I walked out of my PhD viva officially a Doctor of Philosophy, having successfully defended, to the exam committee, my artwork and supporting thesis exploring the intimacy of the home.

Comprising four years of both practical and theoretical research, a PhD proves that you have contributed new knowledge to your chosen academic field. While the creation of a new idea, process, or theory is the focus of the award, the outcome is that the awardee is confirmed to be trained in research. The topic, to a certain extent, is irrelevant. What matters is that the individual has spent an extended period researching a specific subject, and can now competently use this skill elsewhere.

This is particularly apparent when one delves into the back catalog of existing PhDs in creative practice, many

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of which were completed at the University of Sunderland, UK. In 2013, Dr. Jeffrey Sarmiento wrote an article for GASnews which stated, “I am not convinced research will lead everyone to making better artwork… Good research doesn’t always translate into good artwork, and vice versa.” I am reminded in particular of a research document found on one of my stints in the university library, in which a photography researcher had written 40,000 words and made a body of work on the subject of using Photoshop to embed dogs into grandiose landscapes. I loved the artwork, albeit for the wrong reasons.

Research like this does make one question the validity of practice-based PhDs. The point is this research had been deliberated by a team of examiners who are experts in the field. This is performed through a GASNEWS

viva voce, an oral examination, and they deemed the research good enough to be granted a doctorate. The quality of the artwork is generally not the deciding factor.

Demands for the PhD student are constantly evolving. All theses should include a chapter exploring methodology.

Not to be confused with methods such as glasscasting or digital manufacturing, the methodology documents the philosophical underpinning of the research. Early creative practice-based PhDs borrowed models from already well-established scientific research. Since then artists have created a plethora of their own, more bespoke, methodologies. One such approach is the bricoleur – a pick-andmix of methodologies that can develop over the course of the research. By the time I began writing my methodology in

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2013, arts-based PhDs were established enough that there was no longer a need to write extensively on the intricacies of the application of scientific research methodologies.

The role of a PhD student within the learning community also varies. While one student may spend every day in the studio developing their practice, another may not be seen until the exam, communicating with their PhD supervisory team through Skype and emailed edits. As in all cases it is beneficial to “be seen” within a department, developing relationships that may have future career benefits, or for support and learning opportunities.

However, those undertaking a practicebased PhD are often already established within their chosen fields, and are therefore juggling their research with major exhibitions, publications, and careers. PhD study does not lend itself to social activity for the most part as you are no longer part of a BA/MA year group or cohort.

More so, writing tends to be an intense and all-consuming solo activity. While it is necessary to share war stories with other PhD students in order to stay sane, the write-up period can be incredibly solitary.

Many PhD researchers develop unusual coping mechanisms to deal with the isolation and frustration of the write-up period, which often lasts more than a year.

The first advice I received from Dr. Kathryn Wightman was to combat the dreaded blank page. Her ritual of drinking a glass of wine to loosen up while writing may have worked for her, however a bottle later, completely sloshed and still with a blank screen, I decided that it possibly wasn’t for me. I have also heard of excessive candy eating, running, and most recently a friend, who shall remain anonymous, admitted to a sneaky vodka and orange juice in the early afternoon. My own coping method involved a six-month calendar with daily goals, awarded with gold stars, which I now GASNEWS

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realize is rather tame in comparison.

The fact I have mentioned coping mechanisms in relation to the writing is telling; completing a PhD is by no means an easy ride. There are many downsides, even after the PhD is complete. I have found it incredibly difficult to begin reading for pleasure post-PhD, and also tend to over analyze artistic ideas. However the rewards are many and varied, and some are quite unexpected. Practically and predictably a PhD should teach you how to research, analyze, and write proficiently.

Other skills include being able to read quickly and expansively, skipping to pertinent information rather than having to read whole documents for little reward. As mentioned, one learns to develop coping mechanisms for large, seemingly endless tasks. I still use a reward-based calendar today. One of the most important and unexpected lessons was learning when to give in to procrastination and when to power through. When something just isn’t happening on a given day, taking a break is the best remedy, and then learning to deal with the inevitable guilt. And for those in the midst of or considering a PhD, the biggest reward is the purely self-indulgent nature of research. For a minimum of three years you are able to wallow in the subjects that intrigue you the most, make artwork about it, read about it, write about it, and in the end, get the permission to call yourself a Doctor.

Dr. Erin Dickson completed her PhD in 2015 at the University of Sunderland, UK. She is a Design and Manufacturing Technician at the university’s FabLab, and continues to exhibit internationally.

Erindickson.co.uk

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SKIMMING THE SURFACE: A BRIEF AND INCOMPLETE SURVEY ON TEACHING BEGINNERS HOW TO BLOW GLASS

by Suzanne Peck For this issue of GASnews, I wanted to distill different approaches to glass pedagogy in the hotshop. This is, of course, a large topic and there is now a conference held every few years dedicated to this very subject. I chose to survey a group of educators working across various types of institutions and solicit their thoughts about those very beginning moments in a student’s glassy experience. As it goes with so many of these broad stroke topics, this conversation is an invitation to our community to go deeper and continue the discussion. To launch these ideas, I will present the questions I posed with a selection of received responses.

Alex Rosenberg working with students, 2016.

Photo: Paola Correa

What do you hope to deliver to your beginning glass students and what are the desired outcomes of that delivery?

Alex Rosenberg University of the Arts, Philadelphia Assistant Professor of Craft + Material Studies, Glass Department Coordinator This year I have been introducing freshmen to hot glass in their first semester at art school. This experience reminds me how magical a first encounter with the material can be. At the first meeting, I show the group a collection of naturally occurring glass: obsidian (volcanic glass), fulgurite (glass formed by lightning hitting the earth), tektite (extraterrestrial glass), and a sea sponge that grows glass tendrils out of its body.

I think it is an important counterpoint when teaching a material that is inextricably associated with virtuosity to remind students that glass can be made entirely absent of the human hand. After looking at these specimens, I walk the group through a series of demonstrations of material properties: elasticity, ductility, fragility, stress, transparency, etc. These are quick demonstrations, emphasizing material exploration over skill, encouraging

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fearless experimentation, and suggesting that the material can be used immediately to produce exciting work as the student practices to acquire skills over time.

As students face technical challenges, become fixated on a particular process or technique, or become frustrated and begin to express a lack of inspiration, we can always refer back to that first encounter and remind them that the material comes with everything needed for a fruitful studio practice. Its naturally occurring forms have poetic implications fruitful enough to fuel a mature artistic practice indefinitely. The innate properties of glass allow it to make fascinating and visually dazzling work that does not require technical skill.

Are there are any specific tools, tricks, or language that you use to communicate the necessary choreography of blowing glass?

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Gayle Forman Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio Program Assistant and Staff Instructor I often talk about trying to use their bodies in a seemingly effortless way. For example, I have everyone hold punties in the “correct” stance, which is legs shoulder distance apart, arms relaxed, rod parallel to the ground, turning with the whole hand, and forearm muscles engaged. Then, I ask them to hold the punty at the very back end with both hands and have them try the same motions. It’s much harder, obviously. This hopefully provides them with an example of using their bodies in a more “effortless” way, or at least not more “effort-full.” When I show the students the choreography with all the tools, I demonstrate and have them mimic my movements. Then I correct by

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Can you summarize the end goals and aims of your department, school, or institution in regards to your beginning glass students?

Esteban Salazar UrbanGlass, Brooklyn Glass (and beyond) Freelance Glassblower and Educator

My ideal student is just someone who signs up for another class. The end goal is to inspire students to become glassmakers.

Keep glassing!

1. Be safe 2. Have fun and learn

Alex Rosenberg and Helen Lee working with students, 2012

explaining, “see how this feels.” I like to try to tease out of them what felt different or if they noticed any change.

Can you give a specific example of an exercise or device that you use? For example, what are the words or exercises that you use to explain how to XYZ...?

Esteban Salazar UrbanGlass, Brooklyn Glass (and beyond) Freelance Glassblower and Educator

I mostly teach non “art student” types, hobbyists, and weekend “experiences.”

The first three hours are the make it or break it time and I have a higher success rate of return if the students aren’t afraid during this time. My goal is to minimize trauma, especially in regard to exposure to the furnace. The objective is to teach them how to approach the furnace and how to avoid the scald of the heat on hands while gathering. I teach my students to gather using a very specific 15-step choreography. I will teach these steps for 30-40 minutes in a bucket of water before we even approach the furnace. This way the students have got the movements down, in their hands and arms, before they are exposed to the heat. There is a method to this madness. Being a good glassblower doesn’t necessarily make you a good

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teacher. You must “play empathy.” How else do you deliver a stream of negative feedback, constantly remind and correct, while still inspiring the student to want to achieve?

Alex Rosenberg University of the Arts, Philadelphia Assistant Professor of Craft + Material Studies, Glass Department Coordinator I now show Gus Van Sant's short film adaptation of the short story “The Discipline of DE,” written by William S. Burroughs. It is about moving through space and interacting with objects with care as a discipline. I tell my class that working with hot glass is a literal recording of a series of movements. If we practice movement with care and precision, the objects we produce will reflect that.

I've learned some tricks from my colleague Helen Lee about handedness.

We do an exercise to determine each student's dominant eye so that they position themselves to see the material with their better eye. The mantras, “keep turning,” and “get the glass hotter,” are easy to deliver as a group to the single student practicing. To describe consistent and slow turning, I remind students to turn the pipe “like a rotisserie, not the hands of a clock.”

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I want to get someone hooked. That happens every 50 students or so and it means the world to me. The real diamond is a pre-college or early-college aged student.

He or she hasn’t really figured themselves out yet. They see in glass something that inspires him or her to grow and it makes their world both bigger and smaller at the same time.

Gayle Forman Chrysler Museum of Art Glass Studio Program Assistant and Staff Instructor In terms of larger aims of the institution, we are a public facility with visitors. We ideally want to build up a large base of returning visitors and establish an environment of openness and respect. This is so everyone feels comfortable and at ease while learning this incredibly challenging new skill and adjusting to the harsh environment.

It’s a dual, maybe even three-pronged goal: 1. Students return to contribute to the community of makers and artists that the glass studio is fostering.

2. Students gain appreciation for the process and feel educated about glassmaking through both the classes and access to the collection.

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3. Students get mesmerized with both the end object, as well as the entire process of glass and start to expand their scope of potential for the material.

We have different tiers of classes with levels of involvement. I think one of the main goals for the students that enroll in the most process-based glass classes is really to give them a basic sense of understanding and ownership of the techniques, so they feel empowered to grow in interest and skill level.

Kathy Gray California State University, San Bernardino Associate Professor, Graduate Coordinator

Here is our department’s mission statement: The Department of Art at California State University, San Bernardino strives to inspire creativity and innovation through artistic and intellectual inquiry. We educate both majors and non-majors to develop future artists, designers, scholars, patrons and educators into innovative thinkers, creative problem solvers, compassionate human beings and life-long learners.

So, I guess I/we are promoting artistic inquiry. In the beginning glass classes, everyone is learning something new at the same time and being humbled and growing from there. It’s a kind of boot camp. You get broken down and then built back up, but with much more positive feedback. Those first days are all about diving in, taking risks, making mistakes, and learning to be resourceful both within yourself and beyond yourself.

Are there any other topics or ideas you care to share in regards to this conversation?

Kathy Gray California State University, San Bernardino Associate Professor, Graduate Coordinator

I used to wonder about the students who seemed like they were into it but not that into it that they foresaw a future

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for themselves working in glass. Like a painting major, for instance, but one who keeps taking glass classes. I wondered what they were getting out of it. There’s the challenge of mastering the material, there’s the camaraderie of the glass studio, and there’s the great stories that you can tell people at parties. Maybe it makes people more attuned to the material culture that surrounds us and maybe issues of transparency and fragility filter into their other work. I’ve always wondered if the aggregate of those things was enough.

It is one studio area where as a matter of course, people have to work with other people, and negotiate those situations face-to-face in real time. That is a skill that is disappearing. Do we need glassblowing studios to ameliorate larger social problems?

In conclusion, it should be noted that each of these people surveyed are seasoned glass artists and commended educators. What strikes me most from this survey is how similar each educator’s responses were. Yet, I thought there might be more of a distinction between the types of institutions and their approaches and goals to early introduction to glass. There seems to be equal and distinct threads of material solicitation, a desire to expand their students’ knowledge and opinion of glass while creating a safe and inspiring working environment. While this is a narrow sliver of educators in our field, I find it heartening to discover united passion, innovation, and humor from those introducing new students to this complex and compelling material.

Suzanne Peck is an artist and educator living in Brooklyn, NY

Alex Rosenberg University of the Arts, Philadelphia Assistant Professor of Craft + Material Studies, Glass Department Coordinator I believe deeply in teaching glass as an entry point to art in general. It demands virtuosity, discipline, and rigor in a way that no other material I know does. The acquisition of mastery teaches students how to self-educate and acquire skill; the breath of contemporary applications opens a wide range of research areas. I believe in teaching through specialization. Expertise in a single area for me is the entry point to a truly interdisciplinary conversation.

There is no “interdisciplinary” without the discipline. I’m not sure why glass isn’t taught like this in more places where people seem to get bogged down in the technical as an end or place Craft somewhere in the realm of “making without concept.” To me this distinction is unnatural. There is no such thing as art without concept. There are simply those practitioners that don’t acknowledge it.

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THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF EXTENSION DEADLINES: AN EDUCATOR’S CONCERN OF A TREND WITHIN PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE THAT COMPROMISES THE NOTION OF PROFESSIONALISM

by David Schnuckel CHAPTER 1:

Spinning Plates As a full-time educator in a degreeearning institution, my job obligates me to wear many hats to facilitate a range of responsibilities.

Some of those duties address “education” and my “educational objectives” indirectly by way of administrative action and strategy; duties that take place behind closed doors, within my office, in a conference room, and most often behind a laptop. Yet, some of my responsibilities are more obvious, ones that take place in the classroom or in the studio. Although teaching is certainly the best part of the job, a full-time educator is more than a teacher.

So what does “teaching” fully include?

To be responsible for influencing, guiding, and nourishing the hands and minds of young people is as fulfilling as it is personally informative. It’s hacky to say out loud, but it’s true; my students have as much to offer me as much as I do them.

Yet, when it comes to “teaching” within a glass-based program, my interaction with these young people extends far beyond material and making. Teaching how to engage and competently work with glass is the most obvious educational offering that I’m meant to provide but as essential as it may seem, lessons involving “glass” are only a sliver of the kind of learning that is facilitated in the studio.

Mentoring young people as they develop their voice and vision is important.

Designing unique learning opportunities that allow students to realize something new about how they see and operate is important. Fostering a student’s sense of curiosity is important. Helping students establish a sense of how their ideas and their making stand within the context of both historical and contemporary art is important. All of the above (and many other educational objectives) are in the GASNEWS

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The work behind the work – prepping materials for calls for entry. Courtesy of David Schnuckel

service of having my students understand themselves as makers, thinkers, and workers.

Essentially, those are all good things, foundational things that help develop a student’s artistic identity, creative impetus, and relationship with a chosen material. However, it’s still not all that “teaching” encompasses. In fact, a student who enters the real world with the most sophisticated handle on all of the things mentioned above but without a sense of professionalism is ultimately pursuing a doomed career.

CHAPTER 2:

Off-the-Books Teaching One of the most important parts of my job as an educator isn’t necessarily to “teach” how to do any specific thing, but to cultivate a sense of soundness in how they go about doing their thing, not only when enrolled in our program but especially once they move on. Just as it is with learning proper glassworking procedure, matters VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4

of professionalism demand us educators to put our students through equally rigorous training that builds a competent understanding of what it means to navigate their field under respectable codes of conduct: how to establish and adhere to a personal sense of excellence, how to appropriately engage their community, how to establish a sense of reliability unto themselves and others, and how to perform as a respectable practitioner within their field is a tremendous responsibility.

As full-time educators can attest, our goal isn’t only to produce and release provocative artists into the world, we’re also working to cultivate highly decent, conscientious people; people who are not only encouraged to change the game with what they do as artists but people who adhere to the highest standards of professionalism while doing so.

Within a course catalog, there are no classes designed specifically to teach things like discipline, decency, dependability, etiquette, ethical conduct, following

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Students at work in the RIT Glass Studio. Courtesy of David Schnuckel

directions, or time management. However, these are things that are most certainly “taught” along the way both directly and indirectly in day-to-day engagement. These teachable moments occur quite regularly as we talk to students about the importance of meeting expectations, about accountability to others, to correct thoughtlessness within the working culture of our studios, point out missed opportunities in their performance, and hold deadlines.

Deadlines are perhaps the single most important tool we have as educators to enforce a highly relevant and practical application of sound workmanship upon our students. Deadlines force students to think about time and timing in relation to their goals and objectives. Deadlines teach them about prioritizing their activity.

Deadlines challenge students to perform beyond what they already know they’re capable of accomplishing. Deadlines hold them accountable to themselves and their community. Deadlines encourage students to take risks. In short, deadlines accelerate personal transformation.

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Deadlines are a sacred thing to me, not only as a full-time educator, but as a full-time artist. In fact, the degree which I hold my students accountable in following directions and meeting deadlines is so high that I, in turn, am obligated to adhere to them within my own studio practice even more so. So naturally it bothers me when my goal of facilitating a group of young people who I’ve mentored and conditioned to become sensitive towards issues of professionalism is undermined when professional calls for application from respectable organizations within the field announce deadline extensions.

CHAPTER 3:

Ripple Effects and Tremors For the past five years, I’ve observed a trend of professional glass-based opportunities that announce an open call for applications with stated deadlines, but eventually end up extending their submission deadlines. This is happening more and more frequently within the contemporary field of glass. In an issue of GASNEWS

GASnews devoted to exploring the thematic intersection of glass and education, you might be wondering what this topic has to do with what the issue strives to accomplish. This topic is of particular concern to me as an educator with goals of facilitating students who are capable of performing every aspect of their practice to the highest degree of excellence, especially after graduation.

It troubles me as a full-time artist and applicant who adheres to these same rigorous standards that I hold my students accountable to. I know I’m not alone in this; there are many of my colleagues within the contemporary field of glass that find this tendency for professionally-based opportunities to move their closing dates of application irksome. To think a little more broadly along the theme of education, what are these professional organizations “teaching” us about approaching our discipline as disciplined practitioners?

Why bother doing anything on time when we can expect to catch it on the flip-side of an extension?

I find deadline extensions problematic on two fronts. It’s not only disappointing when the deadline is extended while the original deadline is still upcoming, but incredibly questionable when a deadline is extended after the deadline has come and gone (by the way, both of these cases have occurred during 2016). Not only are these circumstances undermining several ethical principles of competitive opportunity for the applicant, it sets a bad precedent to our community on how we understand and conduct contemporary notions of professional practice within our field.

In turn, the trend in deadline extensions discredits every ethical urge the dutiful members of our community hold to a higher standard of quality, conscientiousness, dedication, discipline, and punctuality to name a few.

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On the other hand, deadline extensions personally piss me off. As one who practices what he preaches, they compromise my professional impulses; they dismiss the standards I set for my colleagues and my fellow competitors, and quite frankly they unnecessarily f#@% up my odds in being short-listed (as it does with all the other punctual applicants out there).

Following directions is a significant part of competition. Contests determine winners not only by the capability of its contenders, but also their capability measured against each other according to a set of rules. If I show up to play by way of applying on time and my opponents do not, they should lose immediately by not following the most important rule of the game. At the very least, punctuality should be used to an applicant’s advantage. To use phrasing from the world of athleticism, I see deadline extensions as unsportsmanlike. But in the context of ethical conduct I see deadline extensions as unfair and inconsiderate to the dutiful; I see deadline extensions as discriminatory towards the punctual. I see granting deadline extensions altogether a dishonorable thing.

So what’s this deadline extension thing all about? Where does it come from? Why does it seem to be occurring so much more often these days?

CHAPTER 4:

Under a Lens It’s clear that I have strong opinions about the issue of deadline extension but in order to seek some objective understanding on the matter, I identified and approached 20 internationally-recognized organizations who regularly held glassbased opportunities over the past several years. Some I knew have extended deadlines in the past, some I knew never had, and some I didn’t really know.

I reached out to foundations, educaGASNEWS

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tional entities, museums, galleries, venues of residency and internship, and organizations granting annual and biannual prizes.

I was very humbled by the level of response and equally surprised by the varied answers to my questions.

This article isn’t about calling specific people or places out or using the information that had been gathered for quotation.

Instead it’s about calling attention to the issue, to understand why it happens, to see if it truly needs to, and what we can all do to heighten our sense of professionalism within our professional practice.

I ask for your understanding with how generalized and anonymous the information is down below. Out of respect for what was promised to my respondents, I am unable to substantiate the information below by properly citing and providing reference to those who have contributed.

Those who were willing to participate were asked up to four questions: Have you ever formally announced the extension of a deadline to a call for applications? Why or why not? If “yes”, what percentage of applicants who applied within the original deadline were selected for the opportunity? In turn, what percentage of applicants who applied between the day after the original deadline and the deadline’s extension were selected for the opportunity?

When it comes to deadline extensions happening, here are some of the cases that were expressed: From an administrative point of view, there are systemic circumstances that warrant a deadline extension. Now, with the opportunity to submit materials digitally, there are times when the online forms or process are compromised by technical issues, glitches lending way to applicant materials being lost or road blocked by an unforeseen bug in the system. In these cases, the deadline is extended to allow VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4

applicants to be able to submit for the opportunity after the deadline to make up for the inconvenience caused by the malfunction.

Deadlines were said to be extended in response to circumstances happening in house; administrative shuffling and rescheduling based on unforeseen timing or financial conflicts involving the receipt, processing, or jurying of applications. At times, extensions occurred due to conflict with other internal and unforeseen snags unrelated to the call for application.

Some organizations extend deadlines when no materials are submitted or when there are several vacancies that are needed to be filled and the number of submissions fall below the quota required to allow the opportunity to happen at all.

There have been many shared cases for some organizations where administrators attest to the difficulty in providing strict adherence to deadlines to their calls due to the location of their opportunities, the organization’s financial standing, their dependency on outside funding, or the limitations of only being available to a glass-based field of applicants. In fact, some mentioned that the glass world is, although growing, a much smaller community in comparison to larger professional fields of material specificity – not to mention generally larger fields of creative activity within the context of contemporary art and/or design.

In turn, some of these respondents have mentioned that flexibility is essential to maintain a functioning, vibrant, and productive art/glass organization; ones that revealed that, whether they personally also had issue with deadline extensions or not, felt that the occasional circumstance to extend a deadline was justified by their rigorous programming and the frequency in which they provide many opportunities throughout a given year.

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Speaking from the perspective of a full-time educator who has to strategize administratively to organize and facilitate learning opportunities within my own program, I can sympathize with these reasons. But one that I cannot was put forward more frequently…

Chapter 5:

What Quality Fully Entails A significantly common response held that some organizations felt that the number of submissions for an opportunity was lacking; that the limited number of applicants compromised an organization’s opportunity to assess a full sense of the current landscape of our field. By extending a deadline, these organizations claim that widening the scope of a search in this way enables them to select individuals within a larger sample, a truer survey of where the contemporary glass field currently stands and a larger net with which to honor and award applicants of greater ability.

Although it’s not difficult to understand the desire for organizations to pursue the “best” candidate(s) for any provided opportunity, what exactly do cases for extension as what is provided above imply?

Suspicions run wild.

Wouldn’t the “best” candidate(s) be the ones who followed the directions as they were stated? Did the perceived quality of the punctual applicants not meet the expectation of the organizer?

If so, who’s really at fault? Was the type of applicant they wanted not clearly defined? Did they not market their call to the correct audience? If application fees are involved, is a deadline extension an opportunity to raise more money? Or did they have someone specifically in mind for the opportunity? Someone they are looking and waiting for? Is pre-determined selection something a community of punctual applicants should be suspicious of? Why

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Teaching in the RIT Glass Studio. Courtesy of David Schnuckel

not simply work with those who respected the deadline enough to respond promptly?

Although warranted, cynicism might not be the best approach. I do think it’s fair to vocalize the collective knee-jerk reactions to this issue from the point-of-view of all who believe deadlines should be held to.

To provide some additional insight, some organizations bring forth really strong cases why a deadline extension is something that other organizations should consider curbing.

Some organizations feel that artists who apply on time and meet the parameters of the call for application should not be placed at a disadvantage for their timely response and that it is unfair to post deadlines that some of our community can follow and then re-post those deadlines because others could not.

Other organizations expressed concern that extending deadlines fosters a culture within our field that enables mediocrity and conditions the application pool to perceive acceptable notions of professionalism with a highly diluted perspective, not only waiting until the very last minute of a deadline but eventually coming to anticipate the first GASNEWS

deadline as a ruse. That the new deadline will soon be announced.

Deadline extensions are seen to indirectly teach young – and even established – practitioners that punctuality is optional. In fact, some organizations have indicated that they feel so strongly about application punctuality that they would go so far as to not accept applications that come in even a little bit over the deadline; applications submitted a day and even an hour past the posted due date and time would immediately disqualify the applicant. Some organizations demand such high standards of professionalism that they have revealed the inability to follow directions as being a significant factor in their lack of review of submitted application materials. Of course, honoring the due date being perhaps the most sacred of directions to follow.

Adhering to deadlines, according to some organizations, helps set a precedent for the future and develops a sense of fairness. At times, even having to make the difficult decision to stick with their principles and turn away highly qualified applicants due to their inability to follow

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application directions or honoring its posted deadline.

The rush of producing and accumulating materials for a deadline that eventually becomes extended doesn’t only compromise the applicant’s sense of balance and time management but at times there are others that are impacted. When references or letters of recommendation are asked to be provided, professional figures who want to support an applicant are obligated to give their two cents in a timely manner, too (and usually on top of an already busy schedule of their own). Aside from the applicant, deadline extensions equally undermine the time and sacrifice these individuals give when meeting the original deadline.

The bottom line is that deadline extensions stink; even when I can sympathize with an organization’s rationale to extend a deadline under peculiar circumstances, it still warrants a sense of disappointment.

It affects more people than just us hungry applicants. It affects our students when we teach them about proper professional procedures and demeanor. It affects members of the professional field that we reach out to speak on our behalf as our references. It affects our perception of the staff of an organization and their credibility. It also affects our perception of a candidate’s integrity and reputation as a distinguished recipient should we ever find out that their materials were submitted after the original deadline.

Chapter 6:

A Two-Way Street

So what do we do now?

If I had my druthers, I would call for a unanimous stance to cease deadline extensions. I’d ask for organizations to hold to their deadlines regardless of whether or not their projected number of submissions are met or not. Perhaps this is part of the conversation where we all look inward GASNEWS

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to consider what we as a community of applicants are doing (or rather not doing) that might be perpetuating this issue of deadline extension within our field.

As a community of creative individuals, we have a general tendency to put things off, especially things involving paperwork, formality, or any other subconscious repellant associated with composing, gathering, organizing, and submitting application materials. But here’s something to chew over for a second.

I did have an organization reveal that they’ve noticed a pattern; roughly 90% of their applicants usually submit to an opportunity within one hour of the final cut off point. That’s pretty close. Close enough to make an organization with an itchy trigger finger feel like an extension is needed. When we have an opinion on political matters, we vote and voting has a specific timeframe with which we can cast our ballot. We already demand decency and ethical conduct from corporate businesses, we consume certain goods while avoiding others to take a stand, and we are conscious of what distributors we give our money to and those we don’t.

What if we applied that same sense of action to how we approach deadlines of professional opportunity?

If there are others out there like me who find deadline extensions to be problematic, I humbly ask you to look within yourself as you approach future matters of professional practice. What should we as applicants be holding ourselves accountable to?

What about holding our students or our colleagues accountable as well? What could we change in our response time to deadlines to indicate that we collectively value promptness in a juried situation?

What can we do to collectively hedge our way to preparedness for each deadline?

If you ask me, the “best” candidate for any opportunity isn’t necessarily the one VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4

who has the most impressive materials, but the one who has those things in conjunction with an impressive ability to follow protocol as it has been requested.

In the meantime, applicants, I urge you to enhance your standards of excellence in every way in which you engage professional opportunity. Organizations offering juried competitions of professional opportunity, I urge you to facilitate a higher standard of excellence by holding to what you originally asked us to adhere to. Let’s all do better in how we perform as, seek for, and crown “the best.”

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

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STUDENT PROFILE: NOELLE WEIGAND

by Emily Kuchenbecher

36.614391°N, 114.344513°W

Noelle Weigand is a student at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She recently completed a BFA in metalsmithing and is currently working toward a BA with a focus in art history and a BFA in glass. She also works as a registrar’s assistant and assistant preparatory at the David Owsley Museum of Art. Ball State University is a haven for Weigand’s creativity. Through attending visiting artist lectures and workshops and taking trips to conferences, she has found a strong sense of community with her peers outside of the studio’s walls. This past year, she traveled with her university’s glass department to Poland and the Czech Republic.

The faculty at Ball State University promotes interdisciplinary studies allowing her work to develop across various media.

This pedagogical approach led her to discover a love for glass. Her interest in glass stems from her being inspired by the contrasts between metal and glass, the media that she works with. Weigand found metal to be cold, hard, and rigid, while glass is hot, soft, and fluid. The stark differences between the materials greatly inform her artistic practice. With the technical knowledge that glass is fluid and moves unlike any other medium, Weigand enjoys letting the material organically become what it wants.

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In the hotshop, Weigand explores the material attributes of glass by varying the thicknesses in the walls of her bubble, experimenting with various temperatures and the use of molds, and sometimes sucking air out of the bubble to create, what she refers to as “baubles.” As she has always been fascinated with gems, the optical and reflective qualities of glass became a major interest of hers.

Weigand’s work is inspired by D.H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature, “Chapter 1: The Spirit of Place.”

As a lover of travel, the connection between individual and place is a primary focus for

her body of work called “Baubles.” Weigand visited many earthwork sites as sources of inspiration for her wearable series. Some of these sites include, “Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, Michael Heizer’s Double Negative, and Walter De Maria’s Lightning Field.

In her wearable elements, the baubles operate somewhat like trinkets, which are used to reminisce a certain time or place in one’s life. The wearer of Weigand’s jewelry is in constant interaction with the object.

As a result, the body becomes the vessel in which these objects are contained. When a bauble is worn, the wearer of the work is confronted with the “spirit of place,” and thus, engages them within the context of their surroundings. The goal of these encased natural elements is to create an awareness between object and viewer in which the viewer is invited to acknowledge and appreciate their surroundings.

In order to complete this body of work, Weigand conducted a series of material experiments. As much of us know, glass is a medium that is not compatible with many other organic materials due to its coefficient of expansion. Therefore, Weigand treated the glass in two unconventional ways, blowing the bubble too thin then piecing

40.7787°N, 113.8532°W

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Baubles on the Body

it back together and by sucking air out of the bubble through the blowpipe. After taking the glass out of the annealer, she coldworks the backside and creates a metal framework that is adhered to the back of the glass. Her process is intuitive as she rarely sketches but rather directly responds to the material. This process allows for successes and often solutions that do not get resolved but serve as research of her discoveries.

After constructing the form of her baubles, Weigand decides how and where these objects will be positioned on the body. In the past, she has created broaches, rings, necklaces, and pendants.

These objects are then combined with pins, chains, and ring bands that add a focal point to each bauble. Noelle commonly works on her baubles in quantities of ten.

Weigand’s wall bauble titled 36.614391°N, 114.344513°W was inspired by her experience visiting Double Negative, an Earthwork by Michael Heizer.

In this piece, she installed a motion censored sound element. When a viewer approaches the piece and peers over the vitrine, a sound recording is played of the artist climbing Double Negative.

Through the auditory elements, she GASNEWS

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creates a sensory experience that calls on the viewer’s relationship to the sound.

Through her work, Weigand directs the viewer to create their own unique, personal interpretations based on their own memories and experiences.

In her piece titled 40.7787°N, 113.8352°W, Noelle references another personal experience. This work is inspired by her experience walking through Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. Weigand recalls the jetty covered in salt crystals and being taken aback by the beauty of the crystals during sunrise and sunset. To achieve the aesthetic of crystals, she slumped a piece of glass over silica cast rocks that were found on the jetty. The metal in this work is representative of a topographical map that gives reference to place.

Noelle’s “Baubles” series creates a positive effect on the wearer and viewer through the intimate bodily interaction with the pieces. By wearing a natural element on their bodies, one feels in touch with the spirit of place and is reminded to slow down, look, listen, and appreciate their surroundings.

Emily Kuchenbecker is a senior in the 3D-BFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

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SCHOOL PROFILE: CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN BERNARDINO

by Emily Kuchenbecher At the California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), students in the glass program are encouraged to explore a range of conceptual and technical artistic practices. The glass program was established by William Warehall, CSUSB professor emeritus, as part of the ceramics program and separated into its own in the mid-90s. Associate Professor Katherine Gray is the current head of the glass program and also serves as the graduate coordinator at CSUSB. In 2002, Gray began her journey with the institution as a part-time teacher and has taught at CSUSB full-time since 2007. Supported by part-time faculty and staff who contribute to the community at CSUCB, Gray runs the glass program as its sole professor. Her courses introduce various glassmaking processes and material. Her teaching incorporates her extensive knowledge of hotshop, coldworking, and kilncasting techniques.

Assisting Gray are graduate students, who share their research and discoveries with undergraduate students.

There are many studio-based degrees available to students on both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Undergraduate students pursuing Bachelor’s degrees at CSUSB are classified as Plan II majors in studio art with an emphasis in threedimensional spatial arts. Graduate students are able to pursue an MFA or MA in studio art.

Students will select their major then choose a specific area of focus, allowing them to approach their practice from an interdisciplinary perspective while also providing paths for those preferring to stick to one area. Those who choose to focus on glass supplement their education with coursework in general education, art history and theory, studio electives, and capstone courses. Capstone courses include a seminar, critique class, and a professional practices course. These

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Mariah Connor mirroring a glass object.

Photo: Rinoi Imada

John Shield breaking off a piece from the punty.

Photo: Rinoi Imada

Stephen Mangione and Eric Servin at work in the hotshop.

Photo: Rinoi Imada

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John Shield watches as student break off a piece from the punty. Photo: Rinoi Imada

programs are designed to instruct students technically while also providing professional development.

The Plan II option with an emphasis in three-dimensional spatial arts is designed for undergraduates who wish to pursue art as a profession. Studio courses are offered in beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels so that students are able to work among others with a range of technical abilities. Creative problem solving and a conceptual approach to artmaking is highly encouraged. In the three-dimensional spatial arts program, courses are offered in glass, ceramics, furniture design, woodworking, installation, new genres, and three-dimensional modeling and printing.

Undergraduates share studio spaces with other students focusing on ceramics or sculpture.

The MA/MFA program is non-media specific and is a full-time, three-year program. In addition to developing their studio practice, graduate students take courses in artistic expression and critical art theory seminars. Students meet visiting artists and critics, attend field trips, and have the opportunity to exhibit their work. Graduate students are given studio spaces in a separate building apart from the shared spaces reserved for undergraduates.

The university’s glass program hosts GASNEWS

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up to three visiting artists throughout the academic year. Artists Tom Moore, Nancy Callan, Nadege Desgenetez, and Mel Douglas have all given lectures and demonstrations in the last few years. Most recently, the campus was visited by Einar and Jamex de la Torre and Ethan Stern.

The Glass Student Club at CSUSB assists in organizing these artist visits and also provides funding opportunities for students to attend glass art-related events including the Glass Art Society conferences.

The universityʼs hotworking area is equipped with garage, a 500 lbs. furnace that contains clear glass. There are two glory holes, pickup oven, annealers, and two glassblowing benches with hot torches.

In the winter, the studio’s colored glass furnace is up and running. To operate the colored glass furnace, recycled clear glass is used as a base and the pot cycles through about four to six colors. Students help to maintain the color furnace and are taught how by their instructors.

The coldworking studio is equipped with diamond lapping wheels, a sandblaster with a four-foot cabinet, a lathe with various grinding wheels, belt sanders, a cerium wheel, a band saw, tile saw, 14-inch sliding bed saw, and hand tools including a Foredom Electric Co. flex shaft and a four-inch water fed handheld grinder.

Recently, the glass program acquired VOLUME 27, ISSUE 4

flameworking equipment including a Carlisle CC torch and a dedicated annealing oven. Additionally, there are multiple kilns used for warm processes, like kilnforming, and designated areas for wax and moldmaking.

The glass program at California State University, San Bernardino offers an atmosphere for students to explore a range of approaches to glassmaking. With wellequipped studios and a knowledgeable faculty, the glass program at CSUSB supports the creative and professional development of its students while providing vast opportunities for them to grow and thrive as artists.

Emily Kuchenbecker is a senior in the 3D-BFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

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

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MOVING FORWARD

by Jon Rees

Installation, 2016, Glass, light. Photo: Catie Newell

“The Studio Glass Movement is dead.”

These are the words that were spoken to me by a friend and mentor after he returned from the education symposium at Urban Glass several years ago. It has taken time to really understand what these words meant with respect to the future of education in glass.

In recent years, there has been a shift in glass education away from craft and towards contemporary art practice.

Artists, students, and educators are creating and promoting work that speaks to contemporary topics, which often includes a multi-disciplinary approach to materials and processes. Some of the popular topics include the narrative, social practice, material-based explorations, and new directions in formal, design-based work.

Technology has been a key component for many of these topics.

A great example of these new trends in glass education is a class taught this past summer by Kim Harty and Catie Newell called “Glass, Light, Site” at Ox-Bow School of Art in Saugatuck, Michigan. The basis of the class was a material exploration of the properties of glass as a substrate for light and how light can be used in conjunction

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Discussion at the picnic tables, 2016, Photo: Catie Newell

with glass to define, demarcate, and inform a site. Harty and Newell fused their respective areas of expertise to develop a class dedicated to collective research into the realms of material, effect, and site.

Their use of glass as a substrate or modifier of light breaks with the traditional, more craft based use of glass. It implies a deeper search into the material nature of glass itself and questions its interaction with other materials, in this case, light.

Three projects formed the didactic framework for the class. Throughout the series of projects, all of the information garnered by each student was shared with one another through critiques and discussions. This sharing of research created a synergistic environment and pushed the work forward with a speed that would have been impossible otherwise.

The implementation of the collective research environment was one of the goals that Harty and Newell had during the development of this class. Newell says, “The collaborative exchange provides insights into new ways of talking about something, different methods and tricks, and different resultants. These things are all talking about how it nourishes each

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member of the collaboration.”

Students began with the assignment “Throw,” a rigorous set of experiments pairing learned glass techniques with intentional light effects and a focus on natural light. The use of natural and artificial light then laid the groundwork for conversations related to issues of site and installation.

The second project of the class illustrated the use of digital imagery and video. “Capture” introduced students to the idea of documentation and engagement of potential project sites through digital photography and video. By selecting sites that interested them and by documenting the changing natural light situations throughout the day, the students were able to further develop an understanding of and sensitivity to natural light. As a second part of the project, they utilized artificial lighting techniques taught by Harty and Newell to change aspects of the chosen site under initial investigation. Site attributes such as line, space, form, mood, and movement were altered according to the students’ preferences after experimentation. Digital images and video were utilized as “the work” for the critique of this project. This is

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Critique, 2016. Photo: Catie Newell

a great example of how modern technology is becoming increasingly popular in art education as it becomes more accessible.

DSLR cameras allow for the creation, documentation, and sharing of work in an expedient way through digital images.

The final project, “Radiate,” was a site-specific installation on the grounds of Ox-Bow that was designed to utilize all of the material and light research from the previous projects and experimentation.

The students demonstrated their newly found sensitivity to light and site through their installations around campus. Projects ranged from experiential to narrative and used a variety of lighting methodologies including projection, candle light, static LEDs, and blinking LEDs controlled by an Arduino processor.

“Glass, Light, Site” is just one example of the current trend in glass to move away from the persistent objects of the Studio Glass Movement and towards a wider framework of inquiry and exploration with the material. In this class, light and technology were the media paired with glass, exemplifying the trend of expanding glassmaking practices as a process-based education.

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Educators across our field are facilitating this movement forward towards contemporary art practice. We can encourage students to diversify their practice by exploring materials, techniques, and technology that are not traditionally associated with glass, but that may support the content of their work. Summer art programs held at places like Ox-Bow, Haystack, and Penland afford students the opportunity to experiment with other materials and processes that may not be available at their own university. The variety of their other material-based studios, many of these places are moving away from purely technical classes towards more content driven courses such as “Glass, Light, Site”.

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

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THESIS DONE!

by Su-yeon Kim

Archives: Romanticized Routine, installation view, 2016

Archives: Romanticized Routine is a body of work on collected memories of the self.

The exhibition space was transformed into an imaginative archive containing drawings that implied experience and feelings from everyday life.

During graduate school, I tried to not limit myself with any certain or singular technique to create work. I explored different ideas and was involved in experimenting with and practicing a wide range of glass techniques. This experience developed the way that I go about making work. When planning out my work, I usually think about an idea of what I want to create and then determine the method for how to create it. For this reason, I created work using a range of glassforming techniques.

Although I pushed myself to express different ideas through my artwork, I found that I was essentially implicating one idea in the end. I was constantly responding to my daily life by creating art.

I realized that most of my artwork is about my perspective on daily life and glass serves as my medium to visualize a tangible record of these experiences. Through my graduate school experience, I became

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deeply involved with finding my own visual voice and creating work that defines my own identity as an artist. I am often perplexed by the fast-paced, information overloaded society but from these circumstances, I understand my memories as vague, changeable scenes or snapshots.

Through this examination of memory, I have developed an obsession with collecting

and creating tangible traces of images that convey the everyday moments.

Drawing is one of the methods I use to record memory as it represents a record of the process of self-examination.

Investigating myself through drawing is important as it is one of the methods I used to cope with the circumstances around me. Drawings are used as narratives to capture perspective on my surroundings, a means to glorify my ordinary routine. I started planning out my thesis work based on my daily drawings. I believe that these drawings are my record of past memories.

Showing these collections of drawings would invite the viewer into my imaginative, archival space filled with my everyday moments.

To finalize my ideas for the exhibition, I received immense support from fellow grad students and my graduate thesis committee. My thesis committee members were from different areas: glass, painting, and cinema & photography. This diverse committee was really helpful in encouraging me to think about the work in different perspectives and how to present the work in the exhibition space. To me, controlling the space was important because I wanted

Archives: Romanticized Routine, detail view, 2016

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CLASSES EXHIBITIONS AND WORKSHOPS Archives: Romanticized Routine, installation view, 2016

to create an environment where the main pieces would be in harmony with other components and drawings. My most vital goals were to develop a certain narrative within the space where the viewer is able to communicate with the work.

Glass has always been an inspirational material because the viewer can look at it and look through it. The glass objects in the installation create a distorted view due to the uneven texture of the glass and how it creates unique shadows. Using clear glass allowed for the creation of double-sided drawings. The viewer is able to see the pieces from either direction and the work presents different imagery depending on the position of the glass and the lighting of the piece.

I believe that the colorless, clear, transparent quality of glass represents the ambiguous state of memory. Memory can be recreated and edited at our discretion.

My daily drawings were transferred onto clear glass surface with fine engraved lines that are subtly visible to the observer who pays close attention in examining the work. These sketchpad images were translated onto inflated glass objects.

The black lines from the drawings became white engraved lines on the surface of blown glass. Personal memories are inscribed on the inflated glass (paper) reproduced in a method of drawing. These fictionalized drawings provide a notion of

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personal experience based on personal memory. The images exist as a glimpse since it is impossible to reproduce exact, realistic scenes from the past. For me, the color of memory is white, lacking color. Metaphorically, this represents the amorphous nature of memory, which is somewhat intangible and difficult to reproduce. The clear, inflated glass form holds significance as a vehicle conveying the concept of the memory.

My imagery in drawings represents a hint of my everyday life. The space is orchestrated as a catalog of visualizations.

This captures the daily drawing practice that reflects my thought process. Archives: Romanticized Routine is a body of work that represents my point-of-view of the delightful and valuable moments that are hidden in everyday routine. The drawings are not only the collection of memories from daily life, but also a record of selfreflective thoughts of the environment where I exist.

Su-yeon Kim was born in Seoul, Korea.

She received her undergraduate degree in Ceramics and Glass from Hongik University and MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in May 2016. Kim’s work was recently shown in the finalist exhibition of Emerge 2016, the ninth in Bullseye Glass Company’s biennial series of exhibitions.

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