44th Glass Invitational Catalogue Habatat Galleries Contemporary Glass Fine Art

4 4 th International Glass Invitational

44th International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition

Grand Opening: Saturday May 7th, 2016 at 8:00 - 11:00 pm Exhibition concludes July 22nd

Habatat Galleries emerged from the suburbs of Detroit to become one of the leading galleries focused on studio glass in the world. The 44th Glass International is the oldest and largest annual exhibition for art glass in the United States. To sustain a successful 44 year exhibition we must offer something new and interesting each year. This often increases the difficultly when choosing artists as well as events that make this show unique. The Glass International must also maintain its history of quality and remain relevant in the ever changing art glass world.

This year we chose fourteen artists who have never exhibited at Habatat Galleries before. Some have been working for over three decades while others are just a few years out of graduate school.

Whether emerged or emerging, this show is a fusion of artists who all share an exploration of expression through glass.

Eight years ago we added a jury process to the exhibit that would strengthen the participating artist’s desire to send in what they felt was their very best work. The jury has typically been made up of art historians, museum directors, noted collectors and art critics. One artist is chosen by the attendees of opening night. “The People Choice” award will be given to the artist who receives the most votes by the public during the Grand Opening. This artist’s work will be included with the other twenty-four works chosen by the invited jurors in a museum presentation at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne Indiana.

Over the years we have asked questions to the artists participating in this exhibition. This year we asked the question: “What affected you in your life or career that caused you to alter the direction of your work?” We left this question open to possibly include many ideas such as a personal discovery, a news story or a life changing event. The responses we received ranged from deep personal exploration to headlines in the newspapers. Please take a moment and read each journey that these participants have taken. This will give you an insight into the life and work of each artist.

Concurrent with Habatat Galleries Glass International we have curated a controversial display in a pop-up space across from the gallery entitled: Peace/Piece: Sculptures of Mass Destruction. In 2015 there were 53,173 recorded incidents in the United States involving guns. Most recently, six random people were killed in a mass shooting where I attended college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. As horrifying as this incident was the “Kalamazoo killing” was only 1 of 330 mass shootings in the United States over the past 13 months. This exhibition will include the work of twenty insightful artists who created work based on their interpretation of gun violence in the United States.

Nearly fifty-five years ago, artists experimented with glass to see if it was a viable material to create with. At the time these pioneers were exposed to ceramics, bronzes, oils and canvas and often times would remain anonymous by leaving their experimental glass works unsigned. They simply were unaware that studio glass would have a following that would continue for over five decades. This annual exhibition was created to promote artists who were working with glass and had no place to go.

We are very proud of what the Glass International has become and excited for the future of studio glass!

We hope you will participate in our journey and join us for the opening!

Corey Hampson Habatat Galleries

H A B ATAT G A L L E R I E S

4400 Fernlee Ave - Royal Oak Michigan

Call for VIP Invite & Auction Catalogue Grand Opening in Royal Oak, Michigan

Participating Artists Rik Allen László Lukácsi Shelley Muzylowski Allen Lucy Lyon Dean Allison Joanna Manousis Herb Babcock Robert Mickelsen Rick Beck Janis Miltenberger Michael Behrens Debora Moore Robert Bender John Moran Alex Bernstein William Morris Martin Blank Nick Mount Péter Borkovics Kathleen Mulcahy Christina Bothwell Stepan Pala 44th Annual International Glass Invitational Latchezar Boyadjiev Albert Paley Awards Exhibition 2016 Peter Bremers Zora Palova th nd Emily Brock Mark Peiser May 7 2016 — July 22 2016 Jose´ Chardiet Sibylle Peretti David Chatt Marc Petrovic Eunsuh Choi Jenny Pohlman & Sabrina Knowles Daniel Clayman Charlotte Potter Cristina Córdova Clifford Rainey Matthew Curtis David Reekie Einar & Jamex De La Torre Colin Reid Laura Donefer Kait Rhoads Matt Eskuche Richard Ritter Jan Exnar Julia & Robin Rogers Chad Fonfara Marlene Rose Katja Fritzsche Davide Salvadore Irene Frolic Jack Schmidt Susan Taylor Glasgow Harue Shimomoto Robin Grebe Raven Skyriver Wilfried Grootens Ivana Šrámková Monica Guggisberg & Philip Baldwin STANI Sean Hennessey Paul Stankard Josh Hershman Cassandra Straubing Eric Hilton Tim Tate Tomáš Hlavicˇka Michael Taylor Jacqueline Hoffmann Botquelen Winnie Teschmacher Petr Hora Margit Tóth David Huchthausen Janusz Walentynowicz Toshio Iezumi Vivian Wang Martin Janecky Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen Michael Janis Hayden Dakota Wilson Richard Jolley Leah Wingfield & Steven Clements Vladimira Klumpar Ann Wolff Evan Kolker Hiroshi Yamano Jon Kuhn Loretta Yang Shayna Leib Chang Yi Antoine Leperlier Albert Young Steve Linn Brent Kee Young Marvin Lipofsky Udo Zembok John Littleton & Kate Vogel Toots Zynsky

Insight

In Memoriam Marjorie Collens (1940 – 1976) Marjorie Collens, born Marjorie Tepper, was raised in Albany Park. After graduating from Von Steuben High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she met her future husband Lewis Collens. She was active in education, politics and the arts.

Both Marge and Lew enjoyed collecting studio glass and also participated in a few of the Habatat Galleries glass tours over the years. Her quick wit and charm will be missed by those who knew and loved her.

Harvey William Gleeksman (1937 – 2016) Graduated University of Virginia with a major in Philosophy. Served 3 years in the navy as an officer, then got an MBA from Wharton. Married to Sue for 46 years, and had 2 children. Was an avid woodworker, sheep farmer, real estate developer, and enjoyed looking at, and occasionally purchasing art.

Anne Gould Hauberg (1917 - 2016)

HABATAT GALLERIES Corey Hampson Aaron Schey Ferdinand Hampson Debbie Clason Rob Bambrough Rob Shimmell David Walstad Kathy Hampson Samantha Menzo Jurors: Kim Hardy Assistant Professor of Glass at the College for Creative Studies, Detroit, Michigan Robert and Jane Rogers Noted collectors from Michigan Charles A Shepard III President and CEO of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana Jan Smith Executive Director Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah, Wisconsin Design and Layout by John Bowman Planning by Corey Hampson and Aaron Schey Compilation and Editing by Aaron Schey ©2016 Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, Michigan All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher.

This catalogue was published to coincide with the exhibition 44rd International Glass Invitational at Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, Michigan, Saturday, May 7, 2016 to Friday, July 22, 2016.

ISBN 978-1-928572-05-3

Anne Gould Hauberg was a longtime supporter of the Tacoma Art Museum. She, along with her then husband John Hauberg and artist Dale Chihuly founded the Pilchuck Glass School in 1971. She was also a founding board member of Tacoma’s Museum of Glass which in 2013 took possession of the Hauberg collection of 159 art works of various mediums. In 2017 an exhibition will be opening at the museum featuring the highlights of her collection.

Marvin Lipofsky (1938 – 2016) As a member of Harvey Littleton’s initial glass program of 1962, Marvin Lipofsky earned an MS and MFA in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

He was an early proponent of glass art, developing a unique style and approach to art making, at times raw and experimental, and ultimately finding its way to the opulent colors and forms for which he became well known. Lipofsky founded the glass departments at the University of California, Berkeley (1964-1972) and the California College of Arts and Crafts (1967-1987) and was a founding member of the Glass Art Society. He was known as both an irascible character at times and yet caring and devoted, his passion for the glass arts was undying and his impact in its development around the world cannot be overstated. Traveling the globe, creating, promoting and documenting the advancement of the glass arts, he truly earned the title, “Ambassador of Glass.”

Bud Menin (1931 – 2015) Bud Menin was a passionate and knowledgeable collector of contemporary glass art. Debbie and Bud amassed a very impressive – and diverse - collection and frequently hosted tours of their Florida home. Their collection includes many works from the leading artists in the contemporary glass world as well as significant pieces of ceramic art. Moreover, Bud had a great eye for new talent; he loved to find interesting pieces from emerging artists. Debbie and Bud donated several major works to Florida museums which the public is now able to view and enjoy. Bud’s enthusiasm and appreciation for the world of contemporary glass art will be missed!

Jack Robinson (1930 – 2015) Jack Robinson was the founder of Perry Drugs, a chain of 225 stores. He and his artist wife became interested in artists creating with glass in the mid 70’s.

Together they acquired many significant early works and donated a substantial number to the Detroit Institute of Arts in the early 1990’s. A gallery in the Detroit Museum is now named after him and his wife. They were also active in the museum of Art and Design, N.Y., serving on the board and donating a unique collection of glass goblets.

Award of Excellence 2015

Charles Shepard Fort Wayne Award

Charles A. Shepard III - President and CEO of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana

Collector’s Choice 2015

Christina Bothwell

People’s Choice 2015

Brilliance

Harue Shimomoto

Judy Chicago

VIP Bruce Bachman Award

Robert Bender

Dale Chihuly

Wilfried Grootens

Steve Linn

Martin Rosol

Winnie Teschmacher

Vivian Wang

Ann Wolff

Cranbrook Art Mueum Award

Bruce Bachmann - Noted studio glass collector

Gregory Wittkopp - Director of both The Cranbrook Art Museum and The Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research

Martin Blank

Peter Bremers

Robin Grebe

David Huchthausen

Herb Babcock

Howard Ben Tré

Chad Fonfara

John Miller

Kathleen Mulcahy

Jack Schmidt

Tim Tate

Michael Taylor

William Morris

Albert Paley

Norwood Viviano

Jeff Zimmer

H a b a t a t

G a l l e r i e s

1 6 th M a s t e r W o r k s Au c t i o n www.hab atatgl ass.co m

Thursday May 5th, 2016 Auctio n

starts

7:30

pm

An auctio n o f studio glass wo rks fro m th e 1970s an d beyo n d

Martin

Available at Habatat Galleries

Nicolas Africano, Untitled, 2008. 26 x 10.5 x 9� Cast glass

Janecky

Consign your collection in our upcoming auctions Contact Habatat Galleries Today 248.554.0590 info@habatat.com

Rik Allen

Disillusioned with the idea of existing as an artist in the modern world, I decided to flee. I packed my panniers, my bicycle and bought a ticket to Frankfurt with an open return. I planned on spending the next year riding as far away from my artwork as I could. I was unraveling and anxious to be completely undone so I could see with clarity the direction in life I should take.

In a revelatory moment, at a point in my life when I felt especially adrift, I viewed each of us as both ship and passenger; a vessel containing all that supports life to withstand the surrounding environment, a skin of thin metal, with its pilot house, or command module directing its mass through the environs, easily connected to my view of both body and mind. With this, I began to see a little red chair behind the portholes of our eyes, seeing the sea and sky unfold before us, observing in anticipation. The chair itself is now a point of perspective for maker and observer, as a sort of seat of perspective, the mind and a welcome.

My travels took me through northern Europe, south to the Mediterranean and east into Turkey. I had many adventures and experi-enced events that were exhilarating, life changing and sometimes too grueling. Although this journey happened in what feels like a lifetime ago, I still remember the emotion of one particular day.

- Rik Allen, 2016

I was walking on a hillside outside of the town of Selçuk among seemingly neglected ruins of Roman pillars and stone shelters. I stopped to watch the sunset and photograph this scene and sky. I thought I was completely alone.

As I stood there, two children crawled out from under one of the ancient abodes and ran over to me. They were giggling as they grabbed my hands and asked me for chai, leading me back towards one of the huts. Through the stone doorway I could see a fire pit and a woman sitting on a wooden stool. She looked up at me with a warm smile, poured a cup of chai from a pot that was warm-ing on the fire and beckoned me in. I sat on the ground beside her and the children beside me. We were silent, smiling at each other, sipping tea and gazing at the fire. I realized that this was their home and that although they had nothing except the ground to sleep on, this fire and each other; they seemed so content and happy. I’m not sure how much time passed as I finished my tea. I thanked them and walked out into the night. My eyes welled with tears and it felt for a moment that the world was standing still. At that moment I knew I needed to stop fearing the future and just live my life simply — as an artist — the way I was meant to.

- Shelley Muzylowski Allen, 2016

Oculus Gazer Two - 2015 (left) 20 x 15.5 x 15.5” Blown and cut glass, silver, steel, copper, aluminum

Cognus Ocularium - 2015 (right)

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23.5 x 12.5 x 13” Blown and cut glass, silver, steel Photo credits: KP-Studios

Shelley Muzylowski Allen

A ship of the sea, air or space represented a vessel for travel, for exploration, transportation and the like. Beyond their inherit connection to exploration, strength, and adventure, something always drew me to these forms - to draw, build and sculpt ships of my imagination and hulls from our collective history.

Toward The East - 2016 (top) 22.5 x 24 x 16” Blown, hand sculpted glass, horsehair, onyx

Following The White Hart - 2016 (bottom) 18 x 28 x 11” Blown and free-hand sculpted glass, limestone Photo credits: Russell Johnson

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Dean Allison

Wood, stone and metal formed the foundation of my sculpture during the early years. Metal fabrication is now a major component. Metal and stone anchor the mechanics of structure while glass holds ephemeral optics.

The figure has always been an important part of my work. I started doing life-like Portraiture in glass while living in Australia and going to graduate school. I had a near death experience on a secluded beach in Congo, South Australia.

Some friends of mine got sucked out by a large rip in the ocean. After going into the water to help my friend I realized the danger that we were all in. I did a piece titled “Estate” that was about our identity when all our physical self is gone.

This led to an obsession with capturing the physical details of an individual, documenting time, and working through an understanding of humanity through portraiture.

No single event triggered this epiphany in the late 1980’s, but rather a series of events: the demise of the Soviet Union, a stressful and chaotic period at the college where I taught and the adoption of a child.

In the Pillared Series of several years ago, the work was informed by the concept of “things held in precarious balance.”

The current work continues to juxtapose glass, metal and stone and still intends it to be a metaphor for disruption, life and joy.

Life continues to prod and question this artist, and provide ever-evolving experiences from which to draw.

- Herb Babcock, 2016

Herb Babcock

People have always influenced my work. I come from a large, close family. I have been concerned with ideas of mortality, friendship, and love throughout my life. I studied painting and drawing and worked in oils for many years.

When I discovered glass blowing, I was drawn to the industrial nature of the material. My Dad is a retired electrician and I saw glassmaking as a trade, craft and art that took time to develop necessary skills to manipulate its form. I have been inspired by figurative painters like Lucien Freud, Egon Sheile, Picasso and Francis Bacon.

- Dean Allison, 2016

Rose Colored Reign - 2016

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23 x 13 x 14” Cast glass Photo credit: Mercedes Jelinek

Oval Stance - 2016 47 x 23 x 18” Layered color cast glass, fabricated painted steel and stone

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Rick Beck

In spring 2013 Valerie, my wife, and I visited Paris. It was a short visit that concentrated on museums.

The Louvre, Musee d’Orasay, the Centre Pompidou, Aterlier Broncusi, Musee de l’Orangerie, Musee Roulin plus many cathedrals. I went with a sense of the art that I would love. Most did not disappoint. My biggest surprise was how taken I was with the statuary at the Louvre. I know most of the work but did not expect to be as affected by the awesome presence. We returned daily to this part of the Louvre. Powerful. Intense. Active. Evocative. I sketched and photographed like a person possessed. The time was too short. On returning home, I studied the photos and sketches. I focused on Diana, Goddess of the Hunt (we counted 10+ major pieces there). I was drawn to the mixing of the human and animal worlds. Not the fight to conquer nature like Hercules or Orion, but the act of being present, in and of the world.

Since the beginning of my work, my source of inspiration is based on nature influenced by water. It gives me the strength and power to create my sculptures – first on my mind, then translated into material. This theme guided me through my work until now, but I feel a change slowly rising. The pure shape of the sculpture seems to become more important: old shapes give way, transform. I want them to represent a stronger language of shape. This focus on shape demands to think transparent when I create my models.

I often get questioned why are you doing it like you do. I am unfortunately not able to put the answer into words - I just can say I have the intuition that this is the right shape. It is like a kind of mystic of my subconscious mind.

- Michael Behrens, 2016

My problem was to synthesize these forms to present dog and human as being of the same.

- Rick Beck, 2016

Diana, Goddess of the Hunt - 2014-2015

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72 x 39.5 x 26” (including pedestal) Cast glass Photo credit: David Ramsey

Michael Behrens

Diana, Goddess of the Hunt

Seaforms 2015-175 - 2015 63 x 30.5 x 8” Kiln cast glass Photo credit: Nele Siebel

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Robert Bender

I reached a point though, that I kept waiting to have fun again. After a couple of years of frustration and searching, I realized that the answer was right under my nose. I’d been helping my wife, Christina with her work, and learning with her about glass all these years. Why couldn’t I apply this knowledge to my own sculptural creations? As I immersed myself in sculpting, the Inspiration was back, and keeping me up at night!

As a book artist, I would speak to children about things from my past that fed into that journey. After I began working in glass I have had to rethink my history. While it is true that as a kid I drew a lot, and made stories through comics, I was also fascinated with making candles. The process of lost wax brings back comforting memories of those candle making days. In addition to dipping and sculpting candles, I also loved to find commercial forms to pour wax into.

(Milk cartons, jugs, etc.) Now I have rediscovered the joy of using found objects in my art.

After the birth of my son in 2011, I became a more focused artist. Obviously, having a child resulted in having less time for myself and my work but there was more to it than that. I realized that I want to spend as much time of each day with this amazing little person. This, in turn, altered the time that I spend in my studio sessions into what I’d describe as incredibly purposeful and “action-packed.” I know when I’m there I need to make that time really count.

I think this shows in my work as well. The experience changed my perspective in what matters in life, balance, etc. It can be seen through the piece showcased in the catalog Arched Blue Crystal. The circular form references the nature of the day, the year, even life itself...

- Alex Bernstein, 2016

Alex Bernstein

For many years I thought I had met the love of my life in art. I was married to the making of children’s books. It was creative and fun and very satisfying for a long time.

I have gone through great changes with my art, yet I find myself back to where I’ve always been.

- Robert Bender, 2016

Wonder - 2015 4 x 15 x 5” Cast glass

Hi Resolution - 2016

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9 x 7 x 14” Cast glass Photo credit: Christina Bothwell

Arched Blue Crystal - 2016 26 x 26 x 4” Cast and cut glass

Spring Reach - 2016 42 x 27 x 5” Cast and cut glass

15

Martin Blank

The talent of creation resembles the movement of water.

The surface is easily disturbed by a tiniest leaf, although, in the long-term, it may slice through the hardest rocks.

I spend my childhood near a small brook, in a mountainous village, at the center of Europe. This riverbank used to be my playground. I would spend my time gazing into the water for hours and occupying my time by tossing twigs and branches to see the effect. That water then runs out to the Black Sea and to the Ocean. It then takes a few weeks to run around the Globe. This water, which had shared this personal time with me, circulates globally again and again for billions of years.

My mother, who endured the 3 hour drive every Saturday morning to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for my first sculpture class taught by Ralf Rosenthall.

Dale Chihuly, who taught me to be fearless with my ideas work work work and eat great food!

Péter Borkovics

My father who wanted to inspire a 10 year old… a bunsen burner a pyrex tube and a crushed beer bottle…

My divine inspiration takes a similar path. It is a gift that all those who created experience. Once an idea was born it travels a unique path that our teachers and ancestors experienced in a similar manner. Our personal experiences and errors make it human and our own. This makes it unique and colorful. It is then achieved through endless patience and physical-spiritual endurance.

Lino, who taught me to really blow glass and instilled in me all the nuances glasswork requires.

Pilchuck: 1995, Pino Signoretto.

Pino taught me that I can do anything in hot glass, removing all restrictions and forever altering the course of my career.

Working with glass is an extremely exciting experience while participating in prestigious exhibitions warrants responsibility. It is challenging to maintain the playfulness of my youth while meeting the deadlines required when creating my works. It is important to me that I enjoy the process of creating mixed with the experience of my youth.

-Martin Blank, 2016

I ask the almighty for strength and health and to be able to continue my work as long as possible.

- Péter Borkovics, 2016

Genesis - 2016 (top) Crystal Veil - 2016

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89 x 24 x 24” Hot sculpted glass and stainless steel Photo credit: Alec Miller

15.5 x 15.5 x 3.5” Kiln-fused glass

The Wheel of Time - 2016 (bottom) 19.5 x 19 x 2” Kiln-fused glass

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Christina Bothwell

One day when I was 23, I was in lower Manhattan, trying to find the art supply store on Canal Street. Suddenly a blizzard blew up- I was wearing the wrong shoes, I had no coat, and the snow and wind were blowing down my shirt, practically knocking me over. In addition, I was lost and disoriented.

I saw a small sign on a building that said, Gallery, and in relief I ducked inside. On the walls were simple, pure sculptures of women’s torsos (and monkeys), in red clay. They were not perfect - the clay was raw and unglazed, there were cracks and breaks with no apparent attempt at repair or disguise. They were the most alive pieces of art I had ever seen. The artist was Daisy Youngblood (whom I had never heard of) and even though the pieces were priced less than five hundred dollars, there was no way I could afford one. I was crushed... I wanted one of those sculptures so badly!

I thought about those sculptures for years... and now in looking back, I think it was that exposure to Daisy Youngblood’s work that caused me to eventually transition to sculpture. Even though I couldn’t own one of her pieces, I think I always hoped to achieve something of the feeling I had when I looked at her work, in my own work.

- Christina Bothwell, 2016

Little Dreamer - 2016

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16 x 10 x 8” Cast glass, cermaic, oil paints (A collaboration with Robert Bender)

There is not one but a few of the decisions I made in my life.

The first one was deciding to become an exchange student from the Academy of art in Sofia, Bulgaria studying ceramics to the academy of Applied arts in Prague, Czechoslovakia studying glass with Prof. Stanislav Libensky. It was a life changing experience studying with him for 5 years.

The second most important decision was defecting to the USA in 1986, a year after graduation. Despite all the difficulties and going through a refugee camp in Italy for a few months I was happy to come here and be free. With a lot of effort and hard work I started my cold working studio in 1988 in Oakland, California working predominantly with optical glass and constructed sculptures with color and clear glass.

The third life changing decision was when I went back to the Czech Republic in 1997 and deciding to start casting some of my sculptures there. This collaboration with the studio there is still going until today.

The fourth and most recent decision was to start my casting studio in California in 2009. Started with a small pieces and ended up casting up to six foot relief panels.

I am excited to see what next will life throw at me and the direction my life and my work will take.

Latchezar Boyadjiev

I went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where I studied painting. Since I was very small, I planned on being a realistic, figurative painter. Sculpture never interested me at all.

The best is yet to come!

- Latchezar Boyadjiev, 2016

Torso XII - 2015 36 x 23 x 5” Cast glass Photo credit: Lumina Studio

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Peter Bremers

Who do we believe? Who do we choose to listen to? What do we read? All choices determine our sense of reality. By agreement we accept certain elements of reality to be objective, but nevertheless others will have different objectives.

Reality is looking through a multi-faceted lens, what seems real one moment changes through movement, whether it is the viewer or the viewed. The only reality is change itself, ongoing and irreversible.

- Peter Bremers, 2016

In retrospect it is difficult to choose an event or discovery that changed the direction of my work. The combination of the negative and positive, experiences involved in simply living, have made me who I am and made my work what it is.

However, if pressed to choose I would have to say that moving back to New Mexico from California in 1977 was a life changing event. Upon moving to the Southwest there seemed to be a constellation of occurrences that formed a path to my involvement with glass. Included in these experiences were an introduction to the material, meeting other artists working with glass at that time, and gaining some knowledge about kilns.

Just living in New Mexico exposed me to architecture and landscapes that were inspiring. I can’t say when or why I was initially drawn to the characteristics of Route 66 Art Deco influences surrounding me. I could have just as easily regarded them as outdated. But, the more I examined their detail and pigments I began to venture into other areas of detailed architecture real and imagined. These expressive details proved to be to be a perfect companion to the colored sheets of fusible glass that thickened and formed components with rounded corners when exposed to heat in the kiln. I learned to use my observations in the studio.

Emily Brock

The greatest INSIGHT of all may be that REALITY is an ILLUSION. As for each of us, our reality is based upon our individual perception. This perception is formed by our believe system; a result of our upbringing, education, place of birth, culture, gender, race, religion, our spiritual conviction and so on.

At an early outdoor exhibit in New Mexico on a very hot day I was standing beside one of my sculptures, a small blue bar with Art Deco details and “ice” in minuscule glasses on the tables. Remarking on the temperature while looking at the bar a viewer proclaimed” I wish I was in there”. I think of that viewer every time I complete an environment.

- Emily Brock, 2016

ILLUSION I - 2015

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33 x 37 x 7.6” Kiln cast glass Photo credit: Nele Siebel

Tree House - 2016 18 x 12.25 x 13.25” Kilnworked glass Photo credit: Norman Johnson

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Jose´ Chardiet

- José Chardiet, 2016

My father, Orville Chatt, was an artist and educator in a small community north of Seattle where I grew up. He and many others encouraged my young creative life.

I spent my childhood experimenting with a variety of materials but even with such strong role models, I did not consider art as a vocation until my early twenties. I have always been a maker but had not yet focused on any particular medium or vision. There was one object that changed everything. I had it in mind to embellish the back of a jacket I found in Vancouver BC’s international district, and collected tiny glass beads for that purpose. As I worked, I learned it was harder than I thought. To accommodate my lack of skill I began sewing beads on top of beads until the jacket became thick with the weight of the glass and too heavy to wear but the process of figuring out a way around my shortcomings and my delight in the thick layers of glass on top of glass interested me. I had found my own way and it was exciting. Spurred on by a sense of discovery, I kept working and invented ways to make structure, form and eventually to tell stories with these tiny bits of glass. Perhaps this affinity was inspired by the Native American beadwork I grew up with, or from the hours I spent as a child playing with Legos but somehow my mathematical inclinations, love of story telling, and attraction to this laborious meditative process led me to this place.

David Chatt

In the early 1980’s, I saw an exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts entitled “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art. This exhibit, which juxtaposed the work of 20th century artists with African, Oceanic, American Indian and Eskimo art, had a profound effect on my work. I remember walking around the exhibit which was very dramatically lit and being blown away by the beauty and spiritual power of the work. It was a new starting point for me.

It was during this time I went to see a show that Northwest artist and bead historian Ramona Solberg mounted at the Bellevue Arts Museum. The Ubiquitous Bead collected beads and beadwork from around the globe and from various periods in history. Beads have existed nearly as long as humans and have been used by every anthropological group. I am fascinated by this history, and also fascinated that even in this well explored territory there is so much opportunity to discover. The one thing that was underrepresented in this show was contemporary beadwork that was not inspired by a particular ethnic tradition. This sparked my curiosity and illuminated an opportunity.

Thus began an obsession. I set out to discover as much as I could and to make art that reflects my time and my experience in the peculiar world I inhabit. This has become my life’s work.

The pieces I have chosen for this show, 1982 and If She Knew You Were Coming… are, the most significant of my career to date. They are evidence of an obsessive desire to learn, discover, preserver and to share my journey. They represent latest incarnation of the fascination I felt some thirty-plus years ago when struggling to sew beads onto the back of an old jacket.

- David Chatt, 2016

1982 - 2015 45 x 30 x 12” (table measurements) Sewn glass beads over found objects. Table included

Drum Dancers - 2015

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43 x 12 x 12” Hot sculpted and sand cast glass

If She Knew You Were Coming - 2015 42 x 36 x 17” Sewn glass beads over found objects. Table included Photo credit: Mercedes Jelinek

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Eunsuh Choi

There is an undeniable connection in that we all as human beings desire something better for ourselves. This impulse is the impetus within my sculptural work, work that visually communicates the spiritual essence of human ambition.

One of the characteristics that make the human experience such a unique one is that we all share a longing for personal enrichment. The search for individual fulfillment is a deep-seated pursuit within all of us.

From the age of seven, my career dreams were to work in theater design and technical production. In 1980 I was working at the Long Wharf Theater Company in New Haven, CT as a lighting design assistant/electrician. Because I had my days free, I took a glass blowing class at the local university, just for fun.

Two years later, I abandoned my theater pursuits, ending up in art school at the Rhode Island School of Design. My time in art school turned my head upside down, opened me up to a curiosity that had always been simmering, now it came to a full boil. Upon graduation in 1986, I established my studio and have never looked back.

- Daniel Clayman, 2016

- Eunsuh Choi, 2016

Daniel Clayman

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, I relocated to the United States in 2004 and had a new perspective about myself within a foreign country. I tended to question myself in terms of my direction as an artist and an individual. From those questions, I found out what my goals are and why I live in foreign country without family members. THE DREAMS… I am here for my dreams and trying hard to bring theses dreams come true.

The Convergence of Barrier V - 2016 13 x 16 x 13” Flameworked, borosilicate glass

Dreams III - 2016

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10 x 33 x 10” Flameworked, borosilicate glass

North 41.47 West 71.70 Gold - 2015 34 x 32 x 35” Glass, gold Leaf, cast glass elements (264 parts), beveled and constructed Photo credit: Mark Johnston

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Cristina Córdova

Throughout my practice consistent themes and forms emerge; I am repeatedly drawn to the complexity and beauty of the microscopic architecture of living organisms. This desire has been re-ignited and fostered by the experience of sharing an interest in the natural world with my children. It is these moments of rediscovery and wonder that feeds my creativity.

My intention is that these glass structures invite the viewer to contemplate an illusory experience of discovery, a moment of wonder at the complexity of the natural world.

- Matthew Curtis, 2016

Matthew Curtis

Having children has changed my life in almost every way.

Aqua, Neodymium and Uranium Section - 2016 (left) 8.25 x 13.75 x 4.5” Tinted, blown, fused and carved glass

Commission - 2015

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26 x 15 x 12” Glass and ceramic

Aqua and Uranium Section - 2016 (right) 18.25 x 21 x 11” Tinted, blown, fused and carved glass Photo credit: Rob Little

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Einar & Jamex De La Torre

Having had to face her personal demons more than once, it came as a complete surprise to her when she felt such an acute sense of emptiness and loss when her daughter went off to university. While she was thrilled that her daughter was living her own life, the house and her heart were suddenly so empty that it led Donefer to make “Beyond the Pale: A Tale of Loss, Longing and Love.” “Pale,” meaning boundary, the term “beyond the pale” suggests any are beyond the bounds of civilized rule. For Donefer, the term refers to the place where her emotions live—a place that is wild and limitless but must be contained and masked from the world. In this work, she interprets what emotions might look like when triggered by the loss and longing caused by the deaths of loved ones, humans lost in wars, the environment and other pain inducing events. The 13 blown glass vessels, containing the artist’s collection of various bric-a-brac, are mostly misshapen and riddled with holes that resemble orifices. With their fleshy colours of corporeal interiours, the forms resemble organs; some so seemingly anguished as to suggest atrophy. The vessels are adorned with wires providing the narrative of their contents—some evoking a sort of ‘crown of thrones’ while others more blatantly reference suffering by using barbed wire. Only one of the vessels—in the center—is clear. Empty and without colour, this singular vessel suggests purity, serenity and hope. Each sculpture in the installation represents a different emotion associated with love, from the depths of despair and angst, to playful joy, to the peace that comes with loving unconditionally.

Laura Donefer

Few artists create work that evokes the human psyche and the human experience with such poignancy and visceral vulnerability as does Laura Donefer. Over the years she has created several installations on loss, mourning and memory—articulating the anguish of personal and global pain with such concerns as assault, bereavement, joy and madness. By simultaneously exploiting and transcending the seductive materiality of glass in ways that push the boundaries of traditional glassmaking, she has influenced countless others to explore the sculptural possibilities of the medium. Whether working in (or combining) blown, cast or flame-worked glass, her works are always sculptural or installation based, full of riotous colour and incorporating such diverse materials as bone, shells, fibres and found objects in what she calls, “human sheddings, urban remnants and natural bric-a-brac.”

- By Christian Bernard Singer from the Catalogue “The Human Condition Through Glass”

Darwin’s Secret - 2012 (top) 72 x 60 x 11” Blown glass, mix media

Death of Craft - 2010 (bottom)

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28 x 13 x 13” Blown glass, mix media

Beyond the Pale: A Tale of Loss, Longing and Love - 2014 36 x 120 x 24” Blown and hot sculpted glass Photo credit: Stephen Wild

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Matt Eskuche

By creating these objects of mass production by hand, using time-honored craft and art traditions, I enjoy the futility of the end product, and relish causing the viewer to wonder: “Why would someone spend all that time making the same trash that you could just pick up in the street?”

Another of my intentions has to do with taking a realistic look at the products we consume and how that affects economies, environments, land & humanitarian rights, and human health. Yet another factor has to do with confronting planned obsolescence, ultra- convenience, and the ineffectual ways we generate and dispose of capitalism’s vast wastefulness.

Through this body of work my awareness of my own impact on the environment has grown by huge margins. It has also opened up a wealth of respect for the difficult, and the often hypocritical, situation we are in trying to balance our want for a developed world with the realities of the impact that this has on our ecosystems and their inhabitants.

- Matt Eskuche

The answer to the question, what has influenced me most at my work, is simple.

It was the moment when I understood what glass is. Professor Stanislav Libensky at Prague Academy of Applied Arts led his students so that they could answer that question themselves. But the journey to that knowledge is not easy, it takes a long time and is not finished through studying at Academy. That often lasts a lifetime.

Fasten your eyes into the substance of the glass sculpture and many secrets will definitely be unveiled to you.

The glass itself is a model of the universe. The inner structure of the glass, its veils, its bubbles are formed and clustered according to the same laws as the galaxy. The seemingly unchangeable universe is in constant motion, is liquid. Glass is liquid under normal conditions although it appears as a solid mass. It does not have its crystallised lattice.

Jan Exnar

The Trashglass Series of work I’ve been exploring for the past few years is driven by many different interests of mine.

Despite the obvious Trompe L’oeil effect of these objects, my aim is not to fool the viewer into believing they are actual, in fact, that effect continually interferes with how the viewer interacts with the work…

The glass itself can be cracked and maybe even the universe may be as wellAt this exhibition let me introduce my glass sculpture called FLUCTUS – SURF. The surf water of the mighty ocean matter is spilling across the smooth sandy beach.

Both works feature two sides. On of chaos: the boiling point of matter and space on one side.

The other harmony: a clean thin line of order and calm.

The movement of light, energy, sadness and joy all have the same principle to me.

- Jan Exnar, 2016

FLUCTUS - VITA 2016-3 (green) - 2016 Agristocracy - 2010

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18 x 96 x 26” (100 elements) Oil painted glass Photo credit: Lumina Studio

21 x 22.5 x 6” Molten and cut glass

SURF-ORBIS TEMPORUM 2015-22 (grey) - 2015 13.75 x 13.75 x 4.5” Photo credit: Betty Exnar

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Chad Fonfara

When I moved from the Northwest to the Southwest three years ago. I found myself in polar opposite aesthetics. The trees and moody light of the Northwest was important factors in my previous work, I had to find new ways of seeing in my new surroundings. This experience of changing aesthetics and way of life altered my work. I found the desert speaks in a remarkable way, the same aesthetic language as many of the Asian water color and brush paintings: the emphasis on singular shapes, the beauty and perfection of one bird or branch, the art of loving abstraction. The starkness and simplicity form a common language, which is deeply touching.

In 2008, with little to no formal knowledge or understanding I began my hand at hot-glass sculptural work, disregarding all the expectations that I placed on vessel forms. By the summer of ’09 I was resolutely creating the Cases and Remains body of work. For me the sculptural approach allows me more play, less rules than I had experienced in vessel work. This spoke to my original compulsion towards organic forms and my background in fine art sculpture where I was versed in clay, plaster, wood, bronze and iron mediums.

Since then I have worked to put myself in positions to learn from some of the best, Randy Walker, Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen & Jasen Johnsen. I hope to continue this pursuit with many of the other great teachers and artist working today in sculptural glass.

It is important in my practice that glass is a material with its own soul. Glass especially has a variety of physical dimensions that I find attractive. I am drawn to the rawness of cast glass, the translucency of the solid form, and the transformation it takes from wax to glass.

The process of making is as important to me as are the visual aspects that compose my work. The development of making art is like opening the door to a set of possibilities, which I don’t have when I merely envision art. This active approach is a transformation into a physical, visual, and spiritual form from an internal place within. I liken it to finding the music between the notes of technique and form.

Katja Fritzsche

I came to glass in 2006 when I was hired to lead a university sculpture studio that was equipped with a small furnace glass studio mostly utilized for openface sand casting. Prior to this my only experience in glass amounted to a onesemester course I’d taken 10 years before. I spent the first two years working/ learning off-hand techniques and vessel forms to better understand and execute fundamentals to teach to the students. In my third year of teaching I saw a video of Martin Janecky sculpting one of his fantastic large-scale horse heads. For me, it was transformative at many levels to see what Martin was able to do with form and hot glass. Before this moment I did not know it was possible to work glass this way.

My artwork begins from the frame, which references frames as art but also a structural and architectural place to build from. The frame is the foundation. From there it takes on organic extensions of nature, patterns, and objects.

The sculpture starts as fragments: birds, branches, leaves, flowers, and decorative forms that pull together as a story of complementary contexts. By confining these elements within the structure and form of the frame, it allows a natural story to flow.

- Katja Fritzsche, 2016

- Chad Fonfara, 2016

Cases & Remains – Funnels - 2012 (top) 27 x 13 x 10” Hot sculpted glass, sinew

Cases & Remains – Pupariums - 2012 (bottom)

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15 x 16 x 6” Hot sculpted glass, sinew Photo credits: Chad Fonfara

Morning Scent - 2015 (left) 28 x 13 x 2” Cast glass

Fuchsia - 2015 (right) 37 x 18.5 x 1.5” Cast glass

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Irene Frolic

And the Evening And the Morning Were the Sixth Day Genesis I: 31 - Irene Frolic, 2016

I’m so lucky. My Mom wasn’t an artist herself, but she knew how to raise one. She passed on an independent spirit and a “Do it right or don’t do it at all.” philosophy. As a result, here I am: A self-taught glass artist running with the Big Dogs. Who would have thought? After owning a sewing shop for 12 years I applied to Pilchuck’s emerging artist’s residency (Eair) in 2002, before I knew what Pilchuck was, and was accepted. It was a pivotal point in my evolution as an artist. I met Billy Morris, Shelley Muzylowski, Rik Allen, and Ross Richmond, and saw how true professionals structured their day. I was exposed to graduate students in glass, who taught me to talk the talk. I examined how a real glass studio was outfitted. I attended the Pilchuck annual auction and was introduced to collectors for the first time. All baby steps for those who had been in the glass scene for even a minute, but mild boggling experience for an early career artist. I can say with conviction that in 2002 I arrived at Pilchuck a novice and left an artist.

- Susan Taylor Glasgow, 2016

Susan Taylor Glasgow

In 1960 my husband and I were married. In celebration of 55 years of adventuresome and creative life together - Our morning and our evening – I have made these works.

The Evening of the Sixth Day - 2016

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9” x 8” x 22.5” Cast glass, lost wax technique, oil paint.

Base: resin and marble dust Photo credit: Peter Shepherd

Silver Grey Chandaelier Dress - 2016 40 x 22 x 22” Glass and mixed media

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Robin Grebe

- Robin Grebe, 2016

In the years 1980 to 1995 I lived a very varied life. I wrote music, worked with my favorite material glass, travelled the world and participated in my friends’ projects. These widely spread interests required my total attention and my creative potential. These activities brought in a very modest income so that, when a window of opportunity presented itself for me to develop personal projects, I often needed to stop in order to ensure I had enough income to make ends meet.

To work continuously on a concept or an idea over a longer period of time was hardly possible. The works created during this period were often crude and I stopped focusing when I probably should have developed them further. Changes of material and technique often allowed me to look back on well intentioned, but ultimately unsatisfactory work.

Mid to late 1990s I saw the absolute necessity of developing a new working principle for myself. Essentially, it consisted of my deciding how to meaningfully channel and concentrate my potential.

I recognized the importance of defining phases in developing an idea in order to avoid dissipation and distraction. To postpone the interesting and thrilling topic of music and to put the time that I invested in studio work and preparing for concerts into my work with glass. To restrict to set periods other unrelated paid work.

Turn down work.

Wilfried Grootens

When I moved with my family from Boston to Cape Cod, I was expecting my work to evolve because of the big change in the environment, but that evolution didn’t really seem to occur. However, about 7 years later I started incorporating the night sky and constellations into my work. Unlike in Boston, where the night sky just looked lightly clouded, on Cape Cod every time I got out of my car at night I was astonished at the clarity of the constellations and the ridiculous vastness of our corner of our galaxy. The evolution in my work did happen, just at a slower pace than I expected.

All this, coupled with a recollection of my time as a glass and porcelain painter (my roots), the fascination with three dimensionality, coupled with transparency in my work, led me to a new interpretation of glass painting.

- Wilfried Grootens, 2016

Small Cosmic Efflorescence 1 H13 - 2016 (top) 12 x 19.75 x 12” Painted, glued, polished glass

Found and Made - 2016

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18 x 14 x 5” Cast glass, leaf, resin, stone base Photo credit: Michael Newby

w.t.s.b.b. H12 - 2016 (bottom) 8.25 x 8.75 x 8.25” Painted, glued, polished glass Photo credits: Norbert Heyl

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Monica Guggisberg & Philip Baldwin

On the eve of Nicolas Sarkozy’s election in France in May 2007 there was a lot of vandalism in Paris, and especially in the neighborhood of our studio (12th arrondissement). A molotov cocktail of some sort was thrown through our window and nearly destroyed our studio. It took nine months of repairs, while we hibernated in the basement. As soon as we got up and properly running again, the recession hit, and as many people - especially artists - will recall in terms of livelihood, it was as if someone had turned off the spigot.

- Sean Hennessey, 2016

We decided to treat the whole thing as an opportunity. We stopped our regular work (big vases, guardians, large sphere assemblages), and began experimenting with small forms, little amphora-like pieces in various shapes, sizes and motifs.

There were masses of them, and they spoke to us both of our own circumstances at the time, and what seemed to us the natural, endlessly repeating circumstances of most everyone on the planet. Gradually they took shape in our boat series, and the mobiles and frame pieces that have followed. These are studies in archaic and representative forms, symbolizing history, journey, and the nomadic impulse that drives us all, for better or for worse.

- Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin, 2016

A Meditation on Form (left) 47.25 x 35.5 x 5.25” Blown and cut glass, metal armature

Amphoric Equation (right)

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Most of my works from the past few years have been reflections on love, marriage, and divorce. And the hope of finding love again. I think as artists, when we’re honest with ourselves and our creations, we make transitions in our work as we make transitions in our hearts and minds. My pieces in the exhibit are part of works that are investigations on my own personal transitions through relationships.

Sean Hennessey

Our work has been steadily evolving over the years. It would be difficult to delineate it with a single event. However, that said, there was a sequence of events in 2007 and 2008 that provoked an interesting departure, and sent us on a trajectory that informs a great deal of our work since then.

47.25 x 35.5 x 5.25” Blown and cut glass, metal armature Photo credits: Alex Ramsay

A Pattern of Uncertainty - 2016 (top) 36 x 24” Glass, paint, digital print, LED

A Pattern of Stability - 2016 (bottom) 36 x 24” Glass, paint, digital print, LED

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Josh Hershman

The world is a whispering gallery of information waiting to be interpreted. Over the years I have attempted to plumb its depths for inspiration. Recently, I have been working in collaboration with James Allen, a digital effects artist. I have often wanted to explore the possibilities of merging the static and the transient into a visual synthesis of relationships.

Meeting James, with incredible technical and creative abilities, this became possible.

By fusing significant works by masters such as Ptolemy, Alhazen, and Isaac Newtown within the inner layers of the objects, the immeasurable insight they offered concerning how we understand and perceive light is permanently captured within the work. Documenting how the results of their discoveries manifested in technologies that are constantly transforming the way we understand the physical world and continue to influence art, culture, and our everyday lives.

We decided to explore a collaborative series of work which is evident in “Ephemeral Light” and “The Dance of Cells”.

They are a never ending visual orchestration of abstract imagery, moving within the framework of sculptured glass.

Light from within gyrates into a multitude of colored systems. They appear at times like colors of the rainbow, then gleaming silvery like stars blazing with fire. The static and the transient are juxtaposed with time and space, erasing boundaries, creating patterns of energy to pulse across the visual field. There is a constant process of regeneration and rebirth never returning to the beginning.

- Joshua Hershman, 2016

Eric Hilton

By using transparent cast glass to emphasize the beauty of the camera as a sculptural object, attention is brought to the original designs and photographic processes that inspire my work. These sculptures examine the undeniable importance that photography has as a tool for artistic communication within contemporary society and demonstrates the limitless potential that it has to both shape and distort our global visual culture.

- Eric Hilton, 2016

Newton’s Mamiya (Mamiya RB-67) - 2015 9.5 x 9.5 x 25” Glass, decal, antique Kodak tripod. Lost was casting, 1,000 incased words taken from Isaac Newton’s “optiks” are melted between several layers, polished

35mm Memory (Nikon F4) - 2015

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9 x 9 x 23” Glass, paint, antique Kodak tripod. Lost was casting, acid etched, painted, polished Photo credits: Sean Griffiths

Ephermeral Light - 2015 (a collaboration with James Allen) 36 x 36 x 7” Sagged, sandblasted glass, video Photo credit: James Allen

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Tomáš Hlavicˇka

“What affected me in my life or career that caused alterations in my work” After reflecting about the question asked, 3 pivots points came in my mind: History, Medium, Emotion.

As a boy, I liked to paint and draw. I knew how to paint nearly all churches by heart. So shall I be a painter or an architect? Well an architect. And student love for the daughter of glass artist Pavel Hlava. While studying architecture I learned from him how to grind, mold and melt glass. Yet, I still worked as a planner for 15 years. I was already 40 when I finally decided to say good-bye to architecture and started to work with glass. I was an assistant of Pavel Hlava for 10 years until his death in 2003. At age 45, I first exhibited my own works. I would like to thank God and my wife. I know I made a right decision.

- Tomas Hlavicka, 2016

-History After secondary school, I moved to Paris to study at the School of Louvres, with the objective to be an Egyptologist or a museum curator.

But, blown by the wind of freedom, the “air du temps” captured me…

Wandering my life but coming back later to do what I was made to be, an artist.

-Medium Since 1990, one of the main medium with which I was doing my artwork was clay.

In 1997, I was working with a technique call raku, and started to look for other mediums to put in juxtaposition with it, like paper, rusted metal, fabric, searching for contrasts, like light and opacity.

The same year, I visited an art fair in Strasburg (France) and there discovered the artwork from the French artist Edmee Delsol who was presenting her “raku-glass” sculptures.

Glass!

That was THE revelation, and in the same year I attended my first glass workshop in Sars Poterie, France.

It was the beginning of my love story with this medium….

-Emotion

Jacqueline Hoffmann Botquelen

Cherchez la femme Love to one young lady is to blame for everything

3 years ago, reflecting about my series “Tribal Spirit”, desirous to create a tribute to all Africans taken as slaves, in the form of a huge vessel made from “ethnic” little heads.

The radio was on and all of a sudden I heard the terrible news that thousands of refugees found death in the ocean during their efforts to reach the island of Lampedusa in Italy.

I knew then, that this artwork I was in the process of creating was finding its final meaning.

A tribute to every human being forced to leave his own country as a slave or of his own will, simply to survive.

Extending the meaning of “Tribal” beyond ethnicity, I thought yes, We are one tribe.

Our dramas are stories, which repeat and repeat themselves from the beginning of times.

It became clear to me that the time was ripe to explore the human psyche.

BUCKET - 2015

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6.5 x 9.5 x 9.5” Cut, polished, laminated glass, gold leaf

-Jacqueline Hoffman-Botquelen, 2016

The White Fox Fairy Tales, Eve and Eva 1 - 2015 33.5 x 21.75 x 10” Pate de verre - transferred images Photo credit: Frank Schwarzbach

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Petr Hora

After the first week I spent at the glass furnace, I could not imagine that this craft - working glass – would become my entire life. The magic power of molten mass would consume me. I learned to blow drinking glass and goblets; and I desired to control this hot matter even more. That opportunity delevoped at the High School of Applied Arts for Glassmaking with professor Pavel Jezek. Here, I switched from the “cups” into hand shaped glass directly at the furnace.

It was Pavel Jezek who advised me to start at a small glassfactory in Škrdlovice. The first person I met there was Frantisek Vizner. During the first handshake, I had no idea how crucial this fateful moment would be for my career.

Frantisek has became my friend, mentor, teacher and life pattern. Next to him, I learned how to model glass by cutting, grinding and polishing.

One of the advantages of having worked as artist for 46 years is that you can look back at your older work free of the emotional intensity that enveloped it at the time. Some pieces that seemed important when they were made become less significant when viewed as part of an historical continuum. Others that may have seemed less important then, turn out to have been pivotal in the evolution of the work.

There were several transitional periods in my life where the work made a drastic change. I suffered severe whiplash in a car accident in New York City in 1979 and couldn’t work for there months, in the middle of that my father died.

When I returned to the studio I scrapped all of the pieces I had been working on and started over. The new work evolved into the “Leitungs Scherben”, one of my most widely documented series of sculptures. Examples were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the High Museum in Atlanta, the Museum of Art in Düsseldorf and many other museums. Sometimes you just can’t be afraid to start over.

- David Huchthausen, 2016

After leaving the glassworks in Škrdlovice I built my own glass studio. This change opened up some additional possibilities for my career – my own cast and cut glass sculptures.

My previous life and career is not about substantial and fundamental changes. I am grateful to my dad for his early decision about my life and my future focus. For more than 50 years I have been humbly devoted to working with glass and the recent developments I considered as normal, logical and natural.

David Huchthausen

When I was 15 years old, my father decided that I become a glassmaker. At that time I did not know what to expect. I knew nothing about glass. I perceived glass only as a window panel or as a bottle of lemonade.

- Petr Hora, 2016

Rossa - 2016

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20 x 20 x 20” Cast glass

Memory Chamber - 2015 16 x 12 x 9” Cut and polished glass Photo credit: Lloyd Shugart

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Toshio Iezumi

My works have double structures of form and illusive depth, which make different visions continuously from changing environmental light. I’d like you to be interested in the amusing relation between the lights and the depth. That’s my concept.

- Martin Janecky, 2016

- Toshio Iezumi, 2016

M.150701 - 2015

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My work is influenced by my life, where I live, the people I meet, my state of mind, and it changes as I progress as an artist and as a person.

Martin Janecky

My works are made of laminated sheets of heat reflecting glass with reflection coatings inside. These reflection coatings refract and reflect incoming lights repeatedly inside the body so that some complex depth emerges in its form.

Portrait # 2 - 2015 (left)

27.5 x 6 x 2.75” Float plate glass. Laminating, polishing

36 x 13.5 x 14” Blown and hot sculpted glass

M.140402 - 2014

Portrait # 1 - 2015 (right)

78.75 x 6.5 x 4.75” Float plate glass. Laminating, polishing

37 x 14 x 12.5” Blown and hot sculpted glass

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Michael Janis

Research, travel and observations are a few of the important tools used to expand and enhance one’s continuing interest in developing a visual vocabulary. The impact of these things are often subtle and in the distance and yet sometimes you are fortunate to have them be immediate, profound and awe inspiring.

Both my wife and I chose to see the terrible events as a spiritual message to change the direction of our lives. We left our jobs and home in Australia and moved to Washington, DC to refocus on our passions.

A trip to the Dordogne in 1993 to view the cave paintings provided such an experience for me and led to a fuller comprehension of the lasting power and importance of art. The caves’ house art work that is 17,000 to 30,000 years old and it is a true record of history told within the narrative of the human experience. It speaks to the unshakable power of art and the innate drive we have to create and give expression to our thoughts, dreams and a different level of consciousness.

Arriving in the United States the prospect of changing from architect to glass artist required the discipline of learning all aspects of glass art. I became a teacher at the Washington Glass School, and in 2005 became a Co-Director.

I sought to feel connected to others by channeling my thoughts into meaningful creative work. My artwork began a shift from technique-oriented towards a more narrative-driven direction.

One of my narrative works, “The Tower”, based on the traditional imagery of Tarot Cards, was selected to be in Corning Museum of Glass’ New Glass Review – a selection 100 important works in glass. Tina Oldknow, then the Curator of Modern Glass at The Corning Museum of Glass wrote about my work: …“a truly big and dangerous event is depicted in Janis’s “The Tower” Tarot Card. Anyone familiar with the tarot knows the tower, the 16th card of the major arcana, does not bring glad tidings. I was impressed by Janis’s powerful, sad and appropriate interpretation of this card as a literal reflection of the tragic events of September 11, 2001.”…

Richard Jolley

The terrorist attacks on 9/11 affected more than the lives of those in the targeted cities. Like a rock thrown in a pond, its impact rippled out until all the water was roiled. Up until that point I had been living a comfortable life as an architect - for 10 years in Chicago, Illinois and 10 years in Brisbane, Australia. I once dreamed of being an artist but I settled for the safer routine.

Art is our history and the history is told using art, our sense of touch, of leaving a mark, and that has a transformative power to communicate our universal commonality and it pre-dates written history. Art was sacrosanct and necessary. The work was complex and utilized concepts like concave, convex and perspective and the figurative and the abstract were placed side by side and given equal relevance and importance. Wow! The reaffirming realization of the lasting impact of the figure and the importance of documenting the human experience using whatever creative tool available increased my commitment to my artistic vision. In 2012 when I was searching for a visual solution to the Universe/Sky section in the Cycle of Life installation it seemed quite natural to have the abstract and the figurative coexist and compliment in regards to the overarching theme and execution of the installation.

Following my dream allowed me to find a new perspective; to be more accepting of the present moment and be engaged and positive for the future.

- Michael Janis, 2016

- Richard Jolley, 2016

Kindred Spirits - 2016 (left) 23 x 36 x 5” Cast and Fused glass, glass powder imagery, steel

Taking Flight - 2016 (right)

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23 x 36 x 5” Cast and Fused glass, glass powder imagery, steel Photo credits: Anything Photographic

Head as Egg Iridescent Amber with Cosmic Crown - 2016 (top) 25 x 13 x 15.5” Blown and hot sculpted glass

Antiquity of Nature - 2016 (bottom) 12.5 x 15.5 x 12.5” Blown and hot sculpted glass

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Vladimira Klumpar

I have had a lifelong fascination with the biodiversity which exists on this planet, from the most basic microbes to the great beasts of land and sea. This started with early childhood memories of flipping over loose stones and logs in the woods to discover bustling cities of insects, spiders, snakes and salamanders. A miniature metropolis of oddly different forms of life from our own, yet familiar and terrestri-al.

Earlier periods include a series of layered, stepped cast works inspired by Mayan temples, transitioning to organic shapes that spoke to the forms found in my Massachusetts garden. More recently, the geometries and patterns of the urban fabric were a theme while living and working in Prague.

A few years ago, heading home from Bodega Bay to San Francisco I stopped at a local greenhouse in Sebastopol, known for being the premier cultivator of carnivo-rous plant species on the west coast. Having used Dionaea Muscipula (Venus Fly-trap) as metaphor in previous politically motivated work, I was eager to witness the variety of this specialized group of organisms in person. After spending hours pok-ing and craning through their amazing collection of plant species, drenched in hu-midity and beaded with warm dew in the controlled tropical environment, Nepen-thes Bicalcarata (Asian pitcher plant) revealed itself to me in a moment of awe. Bathed in the diffused sunlight trickling through the shimmering glass of the hot-house I stood in complete wonder, as I knew I had found my muse.

The “Ribbon Series” marks a return to the countryside; my studio is now located in a bucolic Bohemian village.

Drawing on the natural phenomena of wind and unfolding growth, the forms have a fluid, organic quality which reflects the natural beauty that I now live in.

- Vladimira Klumpar, 2016

Evan Kolker

The biggest influence on my work has been a sense of place and surroundings. My life has been semi nomadic, moving between city and country life. It has taken me from the Czech Republic to the United States, later to Mexico and most recently, back to the Czech Republic. Each move has coincided with shifts in the themes of the work, reflecting the places in which it was created.

There exists in us all a rich narrative, an ever flowing story about our sense of place in Mother Nature and the greater universe. We project meaning and character on the shapes of the cosmos and into the crevices of the earth. We anthropomor-phize and identify with the creatures we encounter and devour. There is ancient primal wisdom inherent to the diversity and beauty of forms in nature, the more you peel the petals back the more intricacy you discover.

- Evan Kolker, 2016

Dancer - 2016 (left) 30 x 10.75 x 9” Cast glass

Balancing - 2016 (right)

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31.5 x 12.25 x 8.25” Cast glass

N. Bicalcarata et M. Nepenthicola in Concordiam - 2015 16 x 14 x 20” Hot sculpted glass, forged and fabricated steel, cast silver, flocking Photo credit: Justin Mongroo

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Jon Kuhn

I am a very lucky guy.

- Jon Kuhn, 2016

Clementine - 2015

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13 x 9 x 9” Cut and polished glass Photo credit: Lumina Studio

When I was in graduate school I was a bit lost and spent my time creating an assortment of glass sculptures along with many other types of work. I visited Wes Hunting’s hot shop one day and he offloaded a box of dusty cane bits that had been sitting in his shop since the dawn of time. I took the box back to my studio and began sorting through it and cleaning the bits. There were thousands of pieces. One day I stood a bunch of blue cane pieces on end and noticed that they all bent the same way and it looked… like a flow pattern. That was the day my Wind & Water series took form.

- Shayna Leib, 2016

Shayna Leib

Ten months ago my newest son was born.

He wakes up smiling and laughing every morning.

The happiness I am experience with my new wife and being a new father is amazing the second time around.

Cove - 2013 30 x 16 x 6” Glass, gold leaf, mica Photo credit: Lumina Studio

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Antoine Leperlier

When creating with this time arrangement, I found that my feelings were a kind of weariness that changed later into boredom. If feel that I cannot longer go on in this manner with this series of work. At times I feel that I am no longer able to create and I simply await some kind of inspiration. As if some idea will come to me inside or hit me as if knocking on a window.

This idea may come from a museum visit, meeting someone new, a discussion, a new book or movie, etc. All of a sudden I am inspired and see new possibilities. This is not a revelation as it is not experiencing something like a lighting strike. This idea simply allows me to continue working.

This process is not easy as I usually push this feeling away at first. I am reluctant to change my work in this new direction as I feel it may be hard to work toward this new idea in the future.

I force myself to start drawing. My appetite for creating gradually returns.

I start to see that my previous work is evolving into something new. During the process of discovery I figure out how to achieve my goals by developing new studio techniques.

There have been several precipitous moments in my career that have caused me to alter my direction. When I first began to make sculpture I was completely taken by wood, the material that my father put into my hands as a young boy. In the late 1960’s while teaching at Smith College I met Mike Brenneman who was running the foundry program at the University of Massachusetts nearby. He gave me the opportunity to try some bronze casting. I found that because of the detail that could be incised in the wax original, bronze allowed an added dimension that, when combined with the wood, enhanced my pieces. By that time they were becoming much more narrative due to the influences of George Segal and Ed Keinholz.

For the next fifteen years I continued to work in this manner until the early 1980’s when I got an idea to do a sculpture about Imogen Cunningham, a California photographer associated with the f64 group which included Ansel Adams, Minor White, and Edward Weston. She worked extensively with an 8 X 10 view camera which uses treated glass plates for its negatives. I thought it would make a powerful statement to put her life-size image on a plate of glass. A sandblasted scene on the window of an Italian restaurant in Manhattan pointed me in the direction of this technique that would be a sculptural means of achieving my objective. A chance encounter through the yellow pages introduced me to Sam Shefts, one of the premier glass carvers, who taught me the skills that made it possible to execute the sculpture and begin the adventure with glass that continues to this day.

Steve Linn

In the past I created bodies or series of works that I focused on for almost equal amounts of time. My inspiration changed over time and this process was slow and I finally realized that timing should not define a body of work.

I am now in a transition period in my work. For the past two years I have been experimenting with the incorporation of holograms into the mix. I first became fascinated with them at the Museum of Holography in New York in the 1970’s yet it took all this time to find a logical justification to incorporate them into my narratives. I do not want to succumb to using them as a gimmick so for the moment I have one piece finished about Ai Weiwei and another in progress about Stephen Hawking. I am fascinated by the possibilities of new age technologies yet I still adhere to my studio based techniques thus the work represented here remains traditional.

For me the solutions are in the material. It is revealed in the process. Glass is revealing its book of secrets.

- Antoine Leperlier, 2016

- Steve Linn, 2016

CHAIR ED OS XIX - 2015 (top) 12.5 x 13 x 3.25” Pate de verre

CHAIR ED OS XVIII - 2015 (bottom)

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12.5 x 12.5 x 3.25” Pate de verre

Keinholz and the No Name Dog 91.75 x 36 x 32” Sandblasted glass, cast glass, bronze, and galvanized steel

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Marvin Lipofsky

In 1968, Marvin Lipofsky was invited by friend and fellow glass artist, Joel Phillip Myers, to visit the Blenko Glass Factory in Milton, West Virginia, to work after hours. This was his first venture into working at a factory, and would be a harbinger of things to come for the aspiring artist. That singular visit set in motion a way of working that he practiced throughout the remainder of his career: visiting factories, studios and schools, learning, adapting and exchanging ideas on working with glass. Seeing the methods of the factories, their tools and skills, Marvin was able to establish a unique voice, integrating their practices with his creative impulse. Discarded molds, available glass color, the visual landscape, all became the ingredients to his final creations. The works presented at the Hababat 44th International are from two such factories he worked at over the years: The Crystalex-Hantich Factory in Novy Bor, Czechoslovakia, and the Violetta Glass Factory in Stronie Slaskie, Poland.

In 1979, when we began our collaboration in Harvey Littleton’s studio, neither one of us imagined how it would change our work or our lives. Within a short time, our collaborative work dominated our creative output, and our individual work fell to the wayside. It wasn’t something we thought about; it just happened. Working together felt natural. It made sense to collaborate when it took two people to work the glass.

There is a balance in pushing and pulling in new directions. We both have a willingness to combine our ideas, allowing a new body of work to emerge. The collaboration is an independent creative force. It combines our ideas, transforming them, pushing past what each of us would do alone.

The work has taken many directions over the years and at the core of it all is our collaboration and shared life.

- John Littleton Kate Vogel, 2016

For Marvin, to seek beyond his own immediate environment, to reach out to areas unfamiliar and unknown, was his means to develop, change and advance his artwork. An inveterate traveler, his art became a reflection of all that he experienced; what he could absorb, interpret and reflect back into the very personal expressions of his glass sculptures.

From the very simple works he began at Blenko to the masterful works made in Czechoslovakia, his work grew in proportion to his experiences in the world, with factory and studio experiences always echoed in each creation.

It is no exaggeration to speak of the thousands of artists with whom he crossed paths during his 50+ years of working.

Together with them, he has now written a unique chapter in the history of the studio glass movement.

John Littleton & Kate Vogel

On the factories:

Succulent - 2014 (top) 9.5 x 14.75 x 8” Cast glass

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IGS III 1988-93 #5 - 1993

Ikebana Inspiration - 2016 (bottom)

17 x 22 x 18” Blown glass Photo credit: M. Lee Fatheree

61.5 x 14.5 x 24.5” Cast glass flower with forged steel vase and leaves Photo credits: John Littleton

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László Lukácsi

It was the late 90’s. I was working in my studio when I got a call from Robin Feinberg, Peter Keogh’s wife. She told me that Linda Benglis was offering a class at the Santa Fe Art Institute and they needed a few more students. To be honest, at the time I had no idea who Linda Benglis was. But I didn’t have anything pressing to do and it was free, so I agreed to take the class.

- László Lukácsi, 2016

At that time, I had done some figure drawing in night classes in New York and I was in the early stages of casting…..just beginning to get the figures to come out well and using a number of stained glass techniques. I’d been to Pilchuck once, and had found out that I had a lot to learn about glass and art.

Lucy Lyon

Ever since I was a child nature has been my most inspirational source. Leaves, flowers, pebbles, wings, snails, wood grains, drops and the waves of the water. The harmony of nature includes millions of perfect shapes and details. I feel I must express these in the beautiful material of glass. This is the difficult challenge of my profession. I’m interested, affected and influenced by this every day. I will never grow tired with my discovery of nature because the possibilities are endless.

Linda Benglis was my introduction to what a very successful artist is and how they make work. I was limited to working and thinking only in glass.

Our class was made up of artists who worked in a variety of media. First, Linda told us about her work, which was very experimental, enormous in size and totally abstract. Then she had us use materials that anyone could work with, lath, chicken wire and papier mache’. It was SO liberating. Using those materials, you can make very large work. I made larger than life busts, which themselves were satisfying - just for their sheer size. However, when I took them a step farther and incorporated slight gestures, a tilt of the head or a lift of the chin, they came to life for me. I have tried to incorporate this into my work ever since.

To this day I can see Linda’s influence on my work and I am grateful that I got that phone call 20 years ago.

- Lucy Lyon, 2016

Carapace - 2016 (top) 75 x 20.5 x 20” Cast glass and steel stand

Petals - 2016

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10 x 19.75 x 5” Cut and polished glass

Rising - 2015 (bottom) 28 x 20 x 17” Cast glass and bronze Photo credits: Addison Doty

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Joanna Manousis

The most important recent change to my work occurred in 2011. My career and business was in the dumps due to the recession. Every previous method I had ever used to sell my work and promote my career over almost 40 years had disappeared or become untenable. I really thought my career might be over. My wife was saying things to me like, “I hear they are hiring over at Home Depot”. Then, in March of 2011, I accepted a three day teaching assignment at a private studio in Austin, Texas hosted by the owner, Kevin Ivy. Kevin and Luken Sheafe (Salt) spent the entire time trying to convince me I should try my hand at making glass pipes, something I had been very reluctant to do before. “You’ll be a Ninja”, they told me. Having nothing to lose, I finally agreed to give it a try.

It has been a transformative experience. Far from dumbing down or compromising my work, making glass pipes has completely liberated me, and not just because I have had the four bestselling years of my career since then. It has opened doors for me that I never dreamed were there. It has taught me to love my craft anew. I have learned more about glassblowing in the past four years than in the previous twenty.

I work frequently with the best and most creative glass pipe artisans in the country.

My entire family is now involved blowing glass so we are now looking for a bigger home and studio. I am reborn in glass and am having the time of my life.

- Joanna Manousis, 2016

Robert Mickelsen

“Painting and drawing from an early age has prompted me to look at the world and the individuals in my life with a close eye to detail. I draw connections; quite literally between beings and place, objects and their use and past histories that shape the way we live today.

At the age of 19, I decided to put down pencil and brush, taking on a BFA in Glass that would allow we to express my personal narratives in three-dimensions with a new material. Not only did glass allow me the flexibility to translate objects of the material world with the precision to detail that I strived for in my drawing, but its ability to act as a reflective surface, embodying its environment, while acting as a magnifying lens to interior spaces and objects within it, amplified glass’ ability to connect the self with the inanimate art object, whose purpose is to provide meaning and understanding in our lives”.

Perhaps most importantly, the success I have derived from making pipes has made it so that I no longer am dependent on marketing my work through galleries such as Habatat. Don’t get me wrong. I love showing my work in the best glass gallery in America. I just don’t *have* to in order to survive anymore. So I can now make whatever I want! The two pieces in the show are prime examples. They are not pipes, and I don’t care if I sell them. I just want to show them. Art is now pure creative fun, as it should have been all along.

- Robert Mickelsen, 2016

Resurrection Rabbit - 2016 (top) Opaline Tear - 2016 (top) 21 x 11 x 1.5” Negative-core cast glass, stainless steel, aluminum

Veil - 2015 (bottom)

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36 x 24 x 2.25” Water-jet cut mirror, fused glass murrini

(Anthropomorphic Oddity Series) 14.5 x 11 x 10” Flame worked glass

Crow Flies - 2016 (bottom) (Anthropomorphic Oddity Series) 13 x 9.5 x 5” Flame worked glass

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Janis Miltenberger

The house where I spent my early years had a backyard, which led to a path through the back yards of several homes leading to the street behind our own street. In this overgrown path was a date palm. I didn’t venture back there much, I was small and it seemed part of my big brother’s world, one that I did not yet belong.

One day I was out in the back yard while my father was puttering about, probably trimming something or planting and I walked out that overgrown path. The place was strewn with palm fronds, I was maybe six but still the image is vivid, brown dried fronds on the path. Barefooted I stepped on them and pretty quickly realized I had encountered what felt like a thorn in my foot. Screaming bloody murder my dad came running and scooped me up taking me inside to examine my foot. It really hurt, but we saw nothing but a tiny red spot underneath my ankle. No massive thorn to pull out, the pain a source a mystery.

Debora Moore was born into a military family in 1960, the third of six children. Between the ages of seven and twenty, she spent many summers with her grandparents in California. Debora reveled in the beautiful garden there and in the public art classes that she attended during each visit. Art became her personal refuge.

Flowers were part of Moore’s artistic repertoire before her encounter with glass. She recalls a day in 1980 in which she and her nieces, nephews, and two-year-old daughter made flowers out of sticks and other materials picked up in her grandparents’ California garden. The session lasted nine hours. Later, she would create her first glass flowers for friends and relations in distress. She calls such offerings “therapy gifts.” Roses, sunflowers, daffodils, fuchsias, and irises preceded orchids.

Debora Moore

There was an event that had happened to me as a small child. Impressions tend to linger and create an impact when we are small and this one became a pivotal turning point which has become a corner stone of sorts.

Later my mother came home and determined I was fussing for nothing, trying to get attention as usual... that evening I think my parents were having guests over, it was during the party that my mom noticed my foot was swollen and red. Maybe it was then we started soaking my foot in warm water. By the next day there was no way I could put weight on it and off we went to the hospital. The story gets pretty fuzzy here, maybe there was an x-ray? At any rate my mother delivered the news to me that if the doctors dug around in my foot trying to get the thorn out there was no guarantee that they would not accidentally cause further harm to my foot.

Life as I knew it changed, from that point forward I was to keep my foot raised and my mother procured by some means a “poultice” to draw the thorn out. This ground up concoction was applied to my foot where we think the thorn entered (based upon the red dot on my ankle). It took maybe a month or possibly two but sure enough the thorn was showing itself. Oddly it had traveled from where it entered my foot at the ankle to the area above my heel near my Achilles tendon and when I would flex my foot you could see the budge of skin and under it was the thorn.

Finally, my mother decided to take me back to the doctors so she scheduled the appointment. The day came and that morning my mom was running the bath water and she suggested to me that if I wanted I could try my hand at removing the thorn myself. I could take a bath, soaking my foot and making the skin pliable and then take a sterile needle and puncture the skin myself. While she readied the bath I recall sitting on the bed, needle in hand and just started at it. I flexed my foot and broke the skin using the needle. My mom was back on scene and intrigued letting me continue. Once the skin was broken we could see the end of the thorn recede and emerge with the flexing of my foot. I was handed the tweezers and my mom cautioned me to take it slow and not to break the thorn while pulling it out. Slowly I pulled and out it came.

My own palm tale is one that wisdom that she could forge her faith in me and my body’s

holds a lot of meaning. I learned that my mother had some big own truth and it could have a positive outcome. I also felt her ability to heal.

- Janis Miltenberger, 2016

Thought’s Guardian - 2016

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39 x 23 x 16” Lampworked glass, 22k gold luster Photo Credit: KP Studios

Specimen Box - Blue Epidendrum - 2015 31 x 15.5 x 4” Hot sculpted glass

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John Moran

But I guess at some point in all of these moments, something clicked. Something positive emerged, even from the depths of the debilitating fear... Not in myself, but in the world around me. Sure, there was political grandstanding… bigoted opportunists… and progressive regression, but somehow, somewhere there was a glimpse of godlike humanity. From these moments people reveal themsleves, disgusting yet beautiful reactions arise from this bullshit, leaving me confused and trying to discern reality from this Orwellian nightmare. In this chaotic array of inputs and truthful lies, how do you process grief? How do you discern emotion from logic? How do you even begin to distinguish between the finite concepts of good and evil? I have no immediate answer, no blind leap, nothing that even allows for a cast shadow, but somehow … somewhere; hope arises between a cliché and a revolution.

Our hearts thrive on stories of love and the simple truths they reveal, because some fundamental part of ourselves is confirmed. The Cinerary Urn series was prompted by personal experiences with death, beginning with the passing of my mother. Her death was the first in a continuum of seeming tragedies both close to home – with the deaths of friends and mentors – and escalating to include the events of the nation on September 11.

The first of the Cinerary Urns was made for my mother, and it became a focal point for my nomadic thoughts and torrent of emotions. The inspiration was a modest Maasai blood-and-milk jar fashioned from a gourd, with a wooden lid, that I had had in my kitchen for years. I came to realize that by focusing on the urn that held my mother’s remains, the object became a springboard from which my mind could rise above the intellect’s and the ego’s needs for security.

The urn was simple in its presence and function; its power was in its ability to become the vehicle through which the realm of the unknown might be accessed. The remains, now dust, reside safely within the jar. It is there that my mind rests and my soul finds its way to the infinite mystery that exists, where it expands into a place of no measure or judgment, no time or concern – to true peace beyond thought.

William Morris

For the theme of the catalogue, I was asked to define a moment in my life or career that altered the direction of my work.

I’ve been thinking about how to answer this question, pacing around in my studio, listening to the news of the bombings in Brussels, unable to focus on the question at hand. Living less than 45 minutes from there, the news has left me with an empty feeling in my stomach… Anger, frustration, helplessness, anxiety… you name it, still at this point I am at a loss. The thing is, I have felt this way before. I recognise this feeling all too well… Last week there was a bombing in Istanbul, the week before…

Ankara, in November… Paris. Paris hit close to home because my wife was there, in Saint-Denis in the midst of the attacks.

In the end she was fine, terrified, but fine. That feeling of hopelessness stayed with me for a while. I wish I could remember a time where these things didn’t weigh heavy and they weren’t in the forefront of my mind, pasted over the headlines, news television, internet.

As a Shoshone medicine man questions, “If the dead be truly dead, why should they still be walking in my heart?”

- Text from the book: William Morris Cinerary Urns

I don’t remember at the exact moment this became apparent to me, but I do know that it defined the direction of my work, it allowed me to process the world and find my place in it.

- John Moran, 2016

Cinerary Urn - 2002 13 x 7 x 7” Blown glass with woven enclosure

Cinerary Urn - 2002 8 x 8 x 8” Blown glass with woven enclosure

Bright Eyes - 2016 (left) 50 x 24 x 20” Free- hand sculpted glass head, hands and arms, metal, fabric, epoxy resin, gold leaf

OUR Lady - 2016 (right)

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24 x 20 x 20” Free- hand sculpted glass bust, hands and arms, fabric, epoxy resin, enamel Photo credits: Evert Van Laere

Cinerary Urn - 2002 13 x 7 x 7” Blown glass with woven enclosure

Cinerary Urn - 2002 11 x 7 x 6” Blown glass with woven enclosure All photo credits: Rob Vinnedge

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Nick Mount

These pieces are compositions of forms that are loosely based on the shapes of the seed pod of the Eucalyptus tree.

Many of these nuts in the Australian Bush require fire as the impetus to release their seeds and start the process of regeneration.

I like the idea that an extreme event is the motivator for something new and grand.

- Nick Mount, 2016

There was a time in my life where I gave myself entirely over to the making of the Pittsburgh Glass Center. It is hard to exactly describe how this came to be. I kept telling myself that I could do this and make my own work at the same time. I felt like I was spinning plates on my head, my hands and my feet. Then there was a moment when I realized I had to devote myself to this thing of making a place for others to work in glass or it wouldn’t happen. Because I love glass I love everything about it, the heat, the hard work, the sweat, the looseness and the precision, I kept going on this quest to make this happen in my city. I had directed a glass program at a local university but it didn’t engage the public or change the city or do what the PGC does for so many others. That sense drove me on. As I did this a group of women found me and asked if I would like to join them on a canoeing and camping adventure. It was a sea change for me, in my life, in my work, though I didn’t know it at the time. Planning and getting on the river isn’t much different than planning new work or a project like the glass center or at least it seemed that way with this group of high powered women. They are driven, directed, planners and visionaries. They showed me a place where I could be at peace on the water, on an island, on an inlet, near big rocks and up on the banks. This world was different, Nature has its own pace, you go with it. It took some time before this reverie sunk in deep enough to find my creative seam within the layers of my being. One day it just drilled down deep enough and it lead me to my new work.

Kathleen Mulcahy

In the realization of every piece is the seed of the idea for the next.

Several months later after I had forgotten my musing I woke from a dream where I saw my new works on a wall engaging drops on one, beads or round forms on another and a molecular study on the final one. This moment has been my fuel for the past decade.

There is so much to mine here. I am still finding poetry in the drops and the spheres and the molecular studies.

- Kathleen Mulcahy 2016

Woody Fruits with copper stems #020216 - 2016 (top) 19.5 x 18.5 x 8” Blown glass, murrini, surface worked, patinated copper stems, Corten base

Woody Fruits #030216 - 2016 (bottom)

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27.5 x 23 x 8” Blown glass, murrini, surface worked, Corten base Photo credits: Pippy Mount

Eclipse - 2016 48 x 120 x 5” Stainless steel with bent and etched glass in clear and smoke gray with drops and a silver gilded line of etched hollow clear glass orbs

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Stepan Pala

Cigler’s confidence in me along with his faith in my ideas strengthened my path toward constructivism, minimalism, geometry and poetry in math. Meeting Cigler was the event that set me on my path that has continued ever since.

- Albert Paley, 2016

- Stepan Pala, 2016

Infinity - 2012

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“The process of art and the evolution of my career has relied on a diversity of personal experiences and encounters.

Fundamental to the art process is personal awareness which affords a perceptual awareness into arenas that one would not normally be directed towards. The opportunities in this path could be based on commissions, exhibitions or other arenas of cultural dialogue. Having said that, exploration in process has always been fundamental to aesthetic questioning.”

43.5 x 43.5 x 7.25” Cast, hand ground and polished crystal

Albert Paley

The biggest change in my life and career happened right after I graduated from the High School of Glass Design in Kamenický Senov, Czech Republic. I then traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia to work and study in 1968. There I worked for two renowned Slovak sculptors in their studios. I learned the basics of sculpture the construction of large molds. These skills later benefited me when I taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in the Department of Glass in Architecture led by Vaclav Cigler.

Fusion - 2015 31 x 11 x 10.5” Glass and steel Photo credit: Paley Studios Archive

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Zora Palova

It has always been my nature upon finishing a piece to ask how it could have been done better. How it could be of higher quality? This leads to many questions on the process used as well as what the object aspires to represent and communicate. Over forty-nine years there have been a lot of questions.

After I graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, my husband Stepan and I built and shared a studio space. Stepan’s abilities in both the conscious and subconscious led to the creation of new design concepts in geometry and mathematics. This is present in all of his work which includes his models, drawings and glass sculptures.

I work in a different way so I decided to separate from Stepan’s minimalism and work more with the physical glass. I worked very hard and in 1989 when we purchased our first kiln to cast glass. I now had some incredible new casting options! I could create a model of what I wanted and then cast it in our new kiln. The scale of my work also began to increase.

I’ve always sensed my involvement with glass as a relationship. As in all relationships over time, problems and shortcomings are revealed. When addressing them, over time, other solutions present themselves. Some taking shape and beckoning a more fulfilling direction. It seems wrong not to follow.

From 1996 until 2003 I was a Research Professor at the University of Sunderland in the UK. I spent my downtime watching the North Sea near where I lived. This always changing sea left a strong impact on me. My daily view of the sea depended on light, wind, my point of view and mood. For a long time I did not know how to translate these feelings and emotions into glass. When I returned to Bratislava in 2003 Stephan and I built a new bigger kiln and I found a way.

- Zora Palova, 2016

Mark Peiser

My life’s path has been defined by my many choices that include discovery, marriage, children, and self-discovery.

- Mark Peiser, 2016

Etude Tableau 6 - 2015 (top) Autumn Leaf - 2016

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54.5 x 11.5 x 6.5” Cast,partly polished grey-purple-red glass Photo credit: Dano Zachar

34.75 x 22.5 x 7.5” Hot cast phase separated glass

Etude Tableau 5 - 2015 (bottom) 27.75 x 14.25 x 7.5” Hot cast phase separated glass

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Sibylle Peretti

Art has always been my first love. Early in my life I discovered that my work captures states of feelings, which eluded words and my ability to communicate them. These early experiences led me to believe that art in all forms reflects our emotional existence. When I am moved I understand from the inside. Words alone can only hint at the depth and complexity of our emotional experience, but art accesses and transmits emotions directly and reaches us in deeply personal ways. By observing life, including the smallest and the biggest things, and becoming part of them is the reason of change, sometimes dramatically other times in more subtle ways.

- Sibylle Peretti, 2016

My career changing event took place before my career began. I attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, which at the time was a five year BFA degree program. My professor Brent Kee Young went away on sabbatical to teach in Japan midway through my fourth year. I took a hot glass sculpting class with William Morris and Pino Signoretto at Pilchuck Glass School that following summer.

My Pilchuck experience alone had career changing implications. Aside from the astounding skill, and range of the two professors, the students in the class were incredibly gifted professional glass artists. My class mates included Martin Blank, Paul Marioni, Robert Carlson, and Richard Royal. Richie was kind enough to agree to be my blow partner. I was young, still in school and entirely anonymous.

I was awestruck by the amount of knowledge I was being exposed to. I learned an incredible amount, much of which at the time I was not skilled enough to use, but I tucked the information away to be accessed at a later time. This was a once in a lifetime class, but this was not the career changing event that I am alluding to. That came upon my return to CIA for my Senior year and thesis show. That is when I met Jack Wax, who had become my Professor, my mentor, and my friend.

Marc Petrovic

As a self-employed artist I am often at odds with the conflict of living my life in freedom as a creative human being and the necessary constraints of surviving as a professional artist. I experienced that during the residencies my work changed dramatically in size and complexity. Especially, the Art and Industry Residency at the Kohler Factory changed the way I work today and encouraged me to create life size bodies in clay. After this experience I had the confidence to translate these bodies into glass.

Jack taught me how to be creative in new and inventive ways. He taught me to question everything (damn him). Jack taught me how to take my newly developed skills and to use them to pursue my own lexicon. He taught me to disregard the easy and obvious and to pursue the many paths tangential thinking could lead to. He taught me to appreciate the ephemeral, the subtle, and the whispered qualities of the material. Jack Wax gave me the push and the support to be able to have a self-guided career in making art with glass.

- Marc Petrovic, 2016

Elderberries - 2016 (left) 31 x 11 x 1” Kiln formed glass, engraved, painted, silvered, paper

To Know a Hawk - 2013 (right)

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19 x 26 x 10” Kiln cast glass engraved, pigments

Avian Tablet - 2014 (top) 20 x 25 x 5” Hot sculpted glass

Avian - 2013 (bottom) 13 x 16 x 4.5” Hot sculpted glass Photo credit: Marc Petrovic

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Jenny Pohlman & Sabrina Knowles

Over ten years ago, a tourist in Jackson Hole, Wyoming asked me: “At what elevation do the deer turn to elk?”

Deceptively accurate to the untrained eye, I take this question on literally in this series of busts that combine the heads and the horns from different species.

In September and October of 2008 we traveled to Southern Africa for a two-month journey. It was in the country of Namibia that we had a brief exchange with some members of the Himba culture. They are semi-nomadic, pastoral people who wish to maintain their ancestral way of life. The women adorn themselves in symbolic ways: plaiting their hair, wearing ornate clothing and jewelry and, at a certain age, coating themselves with animal fat and ochre. Their adornment symbolizes who they are and where they are in their life, in other words they tell their life story with their adornment. Upon our return home we felt compelled to share the portraits we had taken of these people. Our challenge was to integrate halftone imagery into blown glass while minimizing distortion. The result, after seven years, is this new body of work - portraiture in blown glass - our homage and honoring of the Himba culture and their ongoing struggle to maintain their identity in a rapidly changing world.

Steeped with history and myth, the collision of creatures is sprinkled with farce and majesty; from centaurs (halfhuman, half-horse) to Janus, the two-headed Roman god representing beginning and end. The binary imagery of these ancient beings, combined with research at the Natural History Museum, birthed the impetuous of these surreal animal hybrids that are part fantasy and part sincere desire to fuse the impossible.

- Charlotte Potter, 2016

- Jenny Pohlman and Sabrina Knowles, 2016

Untitled, Himba Portrait series - 2016

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The absurdist notion of colliding two unlike beings into one is the cornerstone of my work. This series began my investigation into the break between myself and the rest of the world. I question the philosophical need for distance and through my work, the allure of fusion.

Charlotte Potter

Although our collaboration in sculpture spans 23 years, we have been amateur photographers since the 1980s.

Throughout our seven lengthy international journeys we have engaged seriously in photography as a way to preserve memory and share our experiences within our community.

22.5 x 14.5 x 5” Original imagery; screen-printed, kiln-fired, blown, sand-carved and sandblasted glass; ferrous and non-ferrous metals

Mountain Goelk - 2014 47 x 26 x 28” Hand-sculpted glass, wood, metal, altered taxidermy forms

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Clifford Rainey

Standing in the natural light of the Hôtel Biron, I found myself thinking about digital scanning technologies for reproducing threedimensional forms and sculptural conventions of today. I made a few sketches of “The Age of Bronze” and the wonderful small terracotta maquette for “Despairing Adolescent.” I wrote as a working title, “The Digital Age.” I was embarking on a new journey.

On returning home, I first considered enrolling in computer and new technology classes but soon discovered that this would involve a steep learning curve to attain my desired level of expertise coupled with a commitment to an extended period of time and study.

It was wisely recommended to me to form collaborative relationships and consult with specialists in their field.

Throughout my career as an artist working in glass there have been many reasons for evolving and changing my work.

In the 1970’s, discovering that by introducing the figure to abstracted glass sculptures gave my work a narrative. It then became apparent to me that this narrative could used to tell a story and reflect on us as humans in society. In the 1980’s the then prime minister in the UK, Margaret Thatcher said there was no such thing as society and began to destroy a sense of community that had been built up over centuries in this country. This enraged me and gave me a need to introduce politics into my work. The Engineers was made towards the end of this period and discusses the lost of skilled workers in a disappearing industrial landscape.

A major change in my work came in the 1990’s when Tony Blair aligned himself with George Bush in an unholy alliance and manipulated us into believing a war with Iraq was a good thing. We now know this was a bad thing and this has created the dangerous world we now live in. The mindless entry into war sparked a series of work based on robots and how our politicians were acting like robots. Armed and Dangerous and Follow My Leader were a result of this change of direction. Since then my work has been driven by looking at the human condition and how we are often manipulated by and react to the world around us. In Just a Pawn and the Marionettes I try to reflect on these issues. I am forever an optimist. I use a blend of ironic humour and love making to subtlety put my thoughts over to the viewer.

My first collaborator was, and still is, Ruby Rieke, an accomplished digital modeler and photographer. I had myself scanned striking the same pose that Rodin’s model, August Neyt, held for “The Age of Bronze.” Then I was scanned with my arms stretched upwards after the pose for “Despairing Adolescent.” A 3D laser scanner is a small device that sweeps a laser line over an object and uses a video camera and magnetic location to reconstruct the geometry of the subject matter. I discovered through the process of technological representation that there are digital errors and various levels of fragmentation which I could incorporate into the work. The scanning process is followed by manipulating the forms through digital modeling applications. The problem I found was the vast amount of possibilities available. My intention was to produce a classical inspired form that could only have been created digitally. The next step was working with Mind2Matter to print the three-dimensional torsos, a process by which the form is fabricated by printing multiple layers upon one another until the desired form is attained.

David Reekie

On a visit to the Hôtel Biron (Musée Rodin) last year, with my good friend Howard Ben Tré, I came face to face with Auguste Rodin’s original casting of “The Age of Bronze.” Art history lectures came to mind and I distinctly remembered studying the sculpture’s critical reception when it was exhibited first in Brussels and later in Paris. Rodin’s realistic modeling of the nude represented such a departure from the conventions of academic sculpture of the time that he was accused of making a cast of a live model. Such an accusation was serious as this was greatly frowned-upon and was unacceptable in the art world at this time.

Thereafter, in order to escape any future criticism of his work, the artist produced modeled work on a smaller or larger than life scale so that there was no question about his work being cast straight from a model. Rodin also used photography to preserve images of his studio practice and the human models on which his sculptures were based.

- David Reekie, 2016

“The Digital Divide” is the first in a series of works that questions the role of digital technology in art making and explores the question of authorship. It is the representational crossroads between traditional sculpture techniques and the expanded field of new technologies. The weathered life scale torso with outstretched arms is classical in format, cast in nine separate sections. The shoulders and waist sections incorporate mold making techniques with v-shaped connectors. The separate sections rely on gravity, pins and binding wire to hold them together. Nestled in the torso’s solar plexus is a red 3D print scanned from the artist’s body in the pose of Rodin’s “Despairing Adolescent”. The feet may stand firmly on the ground but the torso, containing the 3D print, is in a state of flux and uncertainty.

- Clifford Rainey The Digital Divide. Digital Age Series.

New Technologies: A Brief Synopsis

The Digital Divide - 2015

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72 x 36 x 18” Cast glass Photo credit: Lumina Studio

Casual Bystanders VI - 2015 11.5 x 11.5 x 9” Two lost wax cast glass figures with enamel colours, applied glass pieces, holding brass metal rods

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Colin Reid

The sea has been a constant in my life. When I was young my father loved sailing so much he moved my family onto a sailboat and we lived in the Bahamas and US Virgin Islands for six years. The close proximity to water shaped me; it was my playground. I loved being underwater; it was a different world than above the waves, cool and mysterious.

So what were the strengths of cast glass? Whereas fluid, shiny and hollow come naturally to blown glass, they are the most difficult to cast. Casting is good at texture, form, controlling the interior of the glass body. I was creating texture by modelling in the studio and casting by lost wax technique. I felt I was on the track of something but not there yet.

That life was left behind and I lived on the land in the continental US for the next twenty-one years until I had the opportunity to go on a Fulbright Scholarship to live in Venice/Murano, Italy for a year (2001-02). Powerful memories of living on the water bubbled to the surface of my consciousness that year of travelling by boat around the Venetian Lagoon. After I returned to the Pacific Northwest where I live, my work refocused on the sub aquatic. I began to explore childhood memories of aquatic fauna of the Caribbean, mainly coral. Shortly after, local Pacific kelp forms took root in my work and I so enjoy to celebrate their buoyant curves.

At the time I lived in a cottage in Shropshire near the Welsh borders, beautiful wooded rolling countryside. One day I loaded a few bags of plaster and buckets into the back of my old van and took them home. I spent the next day wandering around the woods and fields making plaster casts of whatever I could find: tree bark, fungus, and a mole hill. The mole hill seemed the least promising, a very humble starting point for an artwork. When I got the collection of plaster casts into the studio and started to work with them, the mole hill was a star. The detail and texture found in a simple natural form was an inspiration. I cast a series of small pieces incorporating the texture and they formed the basis of my degree show. Some are in major collections to this day.

This discovery of the incredible detail to be found in nature, and the technique of casting direct from natural forms as the starting point for series of works in glass, is an approach I still use.

Kait Rhoads

I studied glass under Keith Cummings at Stourbridge College of Art in the early 1980’s. I quickly identified that I wanted to work with kilnformed glass, specifically kilncasting, not blowing. This was partly because Keith was an inspirational figure and kilnwork was thriving at Stourbridge whereas the hotshop was moribund.

In 2011 I was invited to teach for a semester at University of Hawaii at Manoa on the island of Oahu. My time there was not a return to my idyllic youth, but a reminder to me of how nature can be ruthless. The water in Hawaii is beautiful, but is also deep and dangerous. Yes, nature is beautiful, but in it is a savage splendor that holds within it light and dark, life and death. My work has changed since that experience; still retaining its celebration of wild beauty it has become imbued with a sense of menace or danger, more a true mirror for the reality of life on our planet.

- Kait Rhoads, 2016

My work ‘Sunflowers’ which I made for the 2016 International Invitational Exhibition is case in point. I was at the local farm shop last autumn and saw their fields of sunflowers, mostly past their best as flowers but with splendid seed heads. I asked if I could have some to cast and they let me wander round the fields with secateurs helping myself. I came back to my studio with a car load of fabulous sunflowers and got to work. You can see the result in the exhibition.

- Colin Reid, 2016

Sunflowers - 2016

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27.5 x 19 x 6.25” (Including slate base) Kilncast optical glass, slate

Beehive - 1998 15 x 16 x 17” Hollow glass murrine woven onto a steel structure with copper wire

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Richard Ritter

The births of our two children were undoubtedly defining moments in our lives; having children changes everything, but it was the birth of Florence Lorente that was a pivotal point in our artistic careers.

- Richard Ritter, 2016

As artists we worked alongside one another for years, ten years actually. We co-owned a business, helped each other with projects, and started a family. We taught each other new glass blowing tricks and shared many experiences. The work we were making had similar concept, subject, and technique. At some point in 2010 we decided to make a sculpture together to see what would happen. With two of us invested in one idea we were able to challenge, complement, and inspire each other. Our competitiveness and strong will only brought us to make better work. We were inspired by the experience and decide to make more.

Julia & Robin Rogers

A stroke of luck found this advertising illustrator out of work and not quite 30 years old. It was 1969. I returned to the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit to finish school, teach, and pursue a new career as a metalsmith. There I helped build a simple glass furnace, and first worked with hot glass. Later that year, I was offered a chance to build a glass studio for the Bloomfield Art Association in Birmingham, Michigan. These opportunities changed the course of my life.

Florence Lorente is the fictitious artist comprised of both of us.

Florence was Robin’s grandmother’s first name and Lorente was Julia’s grandmother’s maiden name. For a moment we considered making work under that name and signing it “F. Lorente.”

Although we decided to create a monogram of our own initials to sign the work, internally we still refer to Florence Lorente.

The collaboration continues at home, becoming parents moved our work in new directions. We reflected on creation, birth, and our own childhood. Through our children’s eyes we became more aware of the world around us. A new passion developed on the importance of raising healthy children in a society that seems to continually move away from nature into a world of greater technology and indulgent consumerism.

- Julia and Robin Rogers, 2016

Grandfather’s Cache - 2016 22 x 22 x 3.5” Wall mounted maple drawer, solid glass eggs with murrini and lattacino

Apple and Sunflower Study - 2016

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20 x 18 x 4” Wall mounted etched glass panel with Green Glass Apple and murrini Photo credits: Bob Vigiletti

Rabbit Mother - 2016 (top) 23 x 12 x 12” Blown and flame worked glass, silver leaf

Bat Girl (Chiroptera Sapien) - 2015 (bottom) 18 x 11 x 7” Blown glass, fur, zebra wood Photo credits: Robin Rogers

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Marlene Rose

Davide Salvadore

I started in glass back in the 80’s, just as the sand-casting movement was finding itself. It was under Gene Koss at Tulane in New Orleans that I fell under the spell of this most seductive medium. As with any first love, the smells, sights and sounds of the environment where it all happened are indelibly printed in my mind.

As I studied I saw what the great masters observed in African art: everything can be rendered down to its essentials and that essence can be expressed in bold, strong concepts. These ideas continue to resonate throughout my work in every series that I do, from my Asian Simplicities to my Experimental Abstracts.

A later journey to Africa allowed me to meet my distant mother-in-law, an artist who knew all the artists of her time.

We met one of them, a most charming and influential man, Cecil Skotnes. He had single-handedly distilled the essence of Africa into his colored woodblock prints and become a name for this feat.

One of his works, a gift to me, quietly rekindled in me again the images of my first love of the African figure.

And so I made the Five Figure Family as homage to the passage between things... A famous artist now passed on... my beloved and extended family... and my own love of the imagery that called out so strongly to me all those years ago.

Thus a great circle finds its completion, and all these now live again in this sculpture.

The Family dances here, caught in a moment of time, frozen in the silent glass of the sculpture. They dance their family, and they dance, most vividly, at the still and unmoving center of the wheel of the world which whirls about them. Each step they take settles that piece of future into the past. And thus they dance themselves, and us, into our future.

- Marlene Rose, 2016

Fire Dance Triptych - 2016

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32 x 32 x 4�

Sand cast glass Photo credit: David A. Monroe

Tirabason - 2015 43.25 x 51.25 x 15.75�

Blown and carved glass Photo credit: Lumina Studio

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Jack Schmidt

Harue Shimomoto

Two very important and influential events took place early in my life. First, was the loss of a dear and close friend.

Second, was meeting Fritz Dreisbach, who introduced me to the world of makers. These two events changed the whole direction of my life.

Many more important experiences and relationships have caused major ripples throughout my career as an artist. But what influences my work the most is the work. Resolving an idea. Resolution is a transforming event.

- Jack Schmidt, 2016

After I graduated from undergraduate art school I didn’t make my own work. Instead, I was teaching children. I loved the job and spending time with kids, but I didn’t have any creative drive at the end of the day. During the next seven years my desire to create accumulated until it exploded and overflowed. Since then, I make something every day.

Looking back on that experience, I realize creation is my source of energy. I’m like a fish and cannot stop swimming.

- Harue Shimomoto, 2016

What Are You Seeing? - 2016 (top) Blue Splitter - 2016

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36 x 17 x 8.5” Glass and steel Photo credit: Douglas Schaible

25 x 37 x 7” Fused glass and stainless steel

Futatsu - 2014 (bottom) 41 x 16 x 11” Fused and slumped glass

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Raven Skyriver

All that was about learning technique and hand skills, trying to get to where muscle memory would kick in when it came time to sit at the bench. That time was immensely valuable in hindsight, but It wasn’t until I joined the William Morris team in 2003 at Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen’s request that I truly found the ability to express myself through the medium of glass. This really was the pivotal point where I was taught, the sky was the limit. Being surrounded by such amazing talent and creativity was a lightning rod of inspiration and knowledge. To this day I draw from that well, and it pushes me to keep learning and growing as an artist.

I am from North Bohemia, the region of the glass industry. Somewhere, very deep, this probably formed me. While living there I encountered glass objects, decorations and design everywhere. Nevertheless, I didn’t consider them to be so important and become my life mission. The focus of my artistic work on glass was affected by my professor Stanislav Libenský. His idea that glass is a sculptural material was the important principle.

I am constantly impressed by nature - landscapes, different kinds of animals etc., I enjoy observing human characters or moods and expressing them simply.

I have a weak point for the art of primitive people - calm, dignified and somehow, monumental figures.

I am trying to create non-flashy introverts, who do not vie for a top spot in a beauty contest. They do not harm or aggravate, but there is something disquieting in them, which makes you feel that they are strong personalities.

- Ivana Šrámková 2016

- Raven Skyriver, 2016

Ivana Šrámková

I started blowing glass in high school, learning from my good friend Lark Dalton. Ever since my first time in his shop I knew that I was hooked. I worked with Lark two days a week the last two years of school and got high school credit for it! After graduation I sold my sail boat and went to Italy to take a workshop with Davide Salvadore. When I returned to the states I set up a rudimentary studio in my dad’s shop space. I worked manual labor jobs during the day, so that I could pay for my addiction, blowing glass nights and weekends.

Awaken - 2016 (top) 28 x 13 x 11” Off hand sculpted glass

Risso’s - 2015 (bottom)

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18 x 10 x 29” Hot sculpted and cut glass Photo credit: KP Studios

Lioness - 2009 31.5 x 55.25 x 15.75” Cast glass

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STANI

- STANI, 2016

An Old Man’s Meditation on Expression.

I took a year off flame-working for medical reasons and came back to work at the torch with a different attitude. Now, working with hot glass is a Blessing. I feel a heightened sense of gratitude knowing that at age 73 the process is still teaching me ways to express my feelings. As I coax the end of the melted rod with tweezers the botanical component is shaped as a prayer in search of expression. What at times was mundane repetition now is a narrow path opening onto a visual language. The more personal my response to interpreting nature the more visually accessible it becomes.

-Paul Stankard, 2016

Local Hero - Ranger - 2016

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21 x 26 x 20” Blown and kiln cast glass, wood, bronze, copper and steel

Paul Stankard

I am inspired by the beauty and variety of nature. My focus is the uncountable amount of life in our world including animals, humans and more. However the world speaks to me – my art is my language in which I answer.”

Meditation on the Healing Virtues of the Plant Kingdom - 2016 4 x 4 x 4” Flamed worked glass

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Cassandra Straubing

There is still something intriguing about what can be learned regarding an unfamiliar person just by observing the garments on the line. The type of employment, or lack thereof, can be determined; class and poverty can be suspected; marriage status and ages of children can be established, as well as evidence of a violence, domestic or other, can be discovered. Secrets are aired out for everyone to see, becoming the inspiration and stories within my work.

- Cassandra Straubing, 2016

What affected you in your life or career that caused you to alter the direction of your work? This could be something such as a personal discovery, a news story or a life changing event. We ask you to share this story with us (feel free to add visuals) in the 44th International Catalogue.

In 1990 I had only been doing glass for a few years. I was at a point in my career where I was trying to decide if it would become my life’s work or just a hobby. At the same time, the Aids Quilt came to Washington, DC. It covered almost the entire Mall area. As an HIV+ person, it was profoundly moving walking through the quilt as people quietly wept while reading each panel. I wandered alone through the hushed landscape seeing the panels of many friends I had known. Something disturbed my intense reverie and I realized that I heard voices through a sound system up ahead.

Tim Tate

When I moved to Michigan, I became fascinated by the ways of the residents of a broken system. Surrounded by rusted industry and blue-collar labor, I began to study the clothesline stretched across the front yard. To me, the clothesline became a timeline of a personal history. The clothespins became the marks and emotional pulses of the memories and periods of someone’s life.

It was the practice of the Aids Quilt to read the names of all who had died and were represented at the Quilt (a task impossible today). I was dead center of the quilt, directly in front of the podium where they were reading the names of those lost, usually by someone who loved them. Even writing this memory brings tears to my eyes.

By sheer coincidence as I looked up, there was Keith Haring reading the name of Robert Mapplethorpe. It shot through me like a lightning bolt; a clear precise vision that I was intended to follow my dreams of an artistic career. This was the sign I had hoped to find, yet never imagined I would. The Universe had spoken loudly and clearly, and I never looked back.

- Tim Tate, 2016

She grew stronger with every moth-eaten mend. - 2015 20 x 25 x 13” Cast glass, found artifact (sewing machine)

The Garment Worker Takes Her Tightly Bound Broomstick Bundle To Press. - 2014

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32 x 25 x 2” Cast glass, found artifact (bundle of material) Photo credits: Elizabeth Torrance

Vitruvian Visions - 2016 36 x 36 x 4” Mixed media Photo credit: anythingphoto.net

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Michael Taylor

- Michael Estes Taylor, 2016

The journey of the stone March 2001. Egypt, Sahara Time exists in a different way. I am walking in an ever-changing landscape, in places rarely traversed by footsteps, where only the wind breaks the silence. Grooved tracks of caravans convey a sense of ancient presence. Stones, which have created their own order in this vast sandbox. Centuries of wind have placed them where they are for the moment.

“Everything changes and moves”.

I am a dot in an infinite space and can do nothing but be there. Every step I take is deliberate, otherwise I shall lose my way or the way will lose me. Irregularities in the surface I am walking on make me look down at the ground at regular intervals. I automatically look for a stone that wants me to pick it up. A stone that wants to be part of my journey. Every day I pick up several of them, retaining them in my hand for a while, sometimes telling them a story, pocketing them.

Most of them I give back to the desert or place on a tumulus, man-made mounds of stones which loom up all over the place, like road-signs. I thus leave not only my footsteps behind but also a part of myself, receiving a part of myself in exchange. Freedom.

At the end of each day I keep one stone. For the rest of the journey it travels in a separate bag which is kept in motion all day long by one of the camels.

The stone I have chosen spent more time moving in my hands than the others. Because of its almost round shape it felt good to keep on holding and gently polishing with the moisture and grease from my hands.

Winnie Teschmacher

Instability and chaos in my life has lent my work to be a source of order, quiet, meditation and stability.

Part of my story now lies in a deep-blue opening. Consigned to an intensely experienced emptiness: void. Surrounded by transparency. On one side you look straight down into the depths. It is not fixed, but creates its own equilibrium in freedom.

- Winnie Teschmacher, 2016

Magnifying Hyperbole - 2016 (top) 17 x 21 x 18” Fused glass

Formidable Matter - 2016 (bottom)

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19 x 18 x 17” Fused glass Photo credits: M. Estes Taylor

Twilight 2 - 2014 (top) 5 x 10 x 10” Optical cut and polished glass

Touching the Void 3 - 2013 (bottom) 8 x 13 x 8” (each) Optical cut and polished glass Photo credits: Gerrit Schreurs

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Margit Tóth

Throughout my career as an artist, change and renewal has always been an important part of my process, and a way for me to try and keep my approach and outlook fresh and vibrant. But, as my curiosity and eagerness to explore beyond whatever current space I occupy, outside events also occasionally force on change.

17 - at the age of seventeen I fell in love with GLASS at first sight.

30 - in my thirties I started to knead our BREAD DOUGH. Using these materials which interact with each other and learning from these experiences fulfill my days.

I am completely satisfied that all these are granted to me.”

- M.Tóth, 2016

One such change occurred in 2002 when, daily on the highway, I had to pass the gun loving folk’s “roadside poetry”, which in insipid ways glorified gun ownership and promoted even more laxed gun control laws. The time came when I felt that I had to make a statement of my own on the topic, which then led to the body of work titled “Guns Save Lives”, a clear satiric message to the “Guns Save Life” organization behind the “roadside poetry”, as the title piece featured images of Lincoln, J.F.K, M.L.K. and Gandhi, thus making the “Guns Save life” slogan backfire. For this body of work, however, in order to make the strongest statement possible, I found it necessary to employ new processes and techniques than what I had previously worked with.

Another and more recent event that caused a major change in my work was the sad and unfortunately much too early death of my younger sister. In the time after this tragic event, nothing seemed to make any sense in my life, and certainly, working in the studio, making yet another piece of art, definitely made no sense to me. As it turned out though, it was through my artwork that I regained the equilibrium in my life.

When I eventually began working again, the only thing that seemed natural and made any sense, was to address the emotional turmoil I was left with. Given the drastic change of subject matter, my work at that point also took on a very different visual expression which, in time, again began to morph into new forms and directions.

Janusz Walentynowicz

9 - I was nine years old when I discovered CLAY.

It seems though that, whatever I may leave behind at some point, it is still always there, waiting for a possible re-visit, whenever the time seems right to reach back and bring newness to a process from my past.

- Janusz Walentynowicz, 2016

Harmony - 2016 16.25 x 17.75 x 9” Pate de verre

Alert Watchfulness - 2016

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20.5 x 18.5 x 9.5” Pate de verre

At Leisure Var II - 2016 29 x 29 x 4” Reverse paing on cast glass, stainless steel

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Vivian Wang

Why the change in my approach, the ways in which I engage my art? I had come to the realization in recent years that I needed to develop my own concepts in my work. Embodying distinct differences from the manner in which I had always created.

At the time, I was living in New York and working as a fashion designer for Jones, New York, a very large, very corporate, not very creative, clothing manufacturer. Several years earlier, I had had to sell my own design firm because small fashion companies could no longer compete against the large corporations swallowing up all the smaller fish. To satisfy my creative needs, I began playing around with ceramics, casting plates and bowls and cups and painting intricate Chinese scenes and people on them.

What has emerged has evolved and now I let the main elements of my creations, including, color, line, form and glassiness, give voice to my subject in a deep-seated effort to share what I ponder.

- Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen, 2016

Perhaps my interest in ceramics is what took me to Akio Takemori’s exhibition that day. From the moment I saw Akio’s pieces, I was hooked. I was literally transfixed by his work. The exhibition consisted of a dozen ceramic figures, about two or three feet in height, of the people he remembered from the Japanese village he had lived in as a child. I had never seen anything like them. My embrace of Akio’s work made me want to do what he did, to become a sculptor, to create my own figurative pieces.

But for several years, I continued my career as a designer, longing to change my career, to do something else, to become a sculptor. But what a major step to take. How does one do that? Luckily for me, my husband encouraged me to take a giant leap, to quit my job and become a sculptor.

For a while, I stayed in New York, taking design and anatomy classes. But soon, in 2007, my husband and I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida so that I could become an artist. I needed space, I needed kilns and I needed sunshine. I started by learning basic techniques in sculpting clay and casting glass. And then I began to sculpt, first American children, Ragamuffins, I called them. Then I moved on to Chinese and Japanese courtiers and children.

Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen

One lucky day, sometime around the turn of the new millennium, I walked into Garth Clark’s Gallery on West 57th Street to see Akio Takemori’s sculptures. I knew then, though I wasn’t sure quite how, that viewing that exhibition would change my life.

By 2009, I had enough work to have my first collection shown by the Stewart Fine Art Gallery in Boca Raton, Florida. My work was popular and, three years later, I was invited to join Habatat Galleries. Since then, I have been creating sculptures as quickly as humanly possible – and having a wonderful life doing so.

Akio Takemori’s early work had a tremendous influence on me. I think I will send him this catalogue. He would probably enjoy reading this. Thank you Akio!!

- Vivian Wang, 2016

Sunrise Egret - 2016 (left) 28 x 8 x 6” (base size 7.5 x 6”) Blown glass and steel

Kimono Boy - 2016

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26 x 11 x 8” Cast glass and stoneware with gemstones on a steel base Photo credit: Gregory Ross

Night Heron - 2016 (right) 25 x 11 x 6” (base size 8 x 6”) Blown glass and steel Photo credits: KP Studios

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Hayden Dakota Wilson

The “Insight” that altered the direction my life took was not my insight. It was the insight of my 10th grade art teacher, Mr. Osterholt. He had the insight to take me from getting beat up on & off the P.E. field to a small private studio in the rear of the art building & giving me free reign (and materials) to create, to draw, paint & sculpt in peace. Thank you Mr. Osterholt…..

- Stephen Clements, 2016 Everything changed 8 years ago when my younger sister died from cancer. This was for me, as it is for all that sustain a deep cellular loss, a defining moment that changed me. I could not make work for a year and had not one single idea. But slowly as I contemplated my grief, I found a metaphor for that feeling of being leveled by an unpredictable and unimaginable event.

I thought a lot about that split second, when invisibly, all is changed and for me the wind became the metaphor. It is that invisible force that can wreak havoc in an instant. It’s that crazy dust devil that leaves you disheveled and sends your hat tumbling down the road. Conversely it is that cool breeze that provides relief and clears the stagnant air. I made a first small series of Wind pieces that pitted my sister and I against the wind. They were painful and beautiful for me to make and helped to get me back to work. Subsequent work keeps referring to that time, though it may not be immediately obvious.

From the initial fight against the storm, Steve and I moved into thinking about the way we came together to manage our grief and support each other. We try to have strength in the wind by relying on each other. On a Precipice together, the force of the wind is diminished. The power of and vulnerability to an unseen force, the strength to stand up to it, a search for support and safe harbor in the storm, hope for a lucky breeze, and strength through connection are the characteristics we try to imbue into each sculpture.

- Leah Wingfield, 2016

Leah Wingfield & Steven Clements

In thinking about the theme for this show there was one major thread that ran through my entire glass experience.

Penland School of Crafts has by far had the most direct and mostly indirect influence on my life and career as a glass artist. This story starts in the early 1970’s when my mother came to Penland to take a ceramics course. There she met Billy and Katie Bernstein (who were also lured to the area

by Penland), and was convinced to relocate. Katie offered to rent her the ceramic studio, which was attached to their glass shop. A few years later my father found his way to the valley to visit a friend and found his love for glass through working for the Bernstein’s. He too settled in the area and that is how I came about. As the son of a glass artist I naturally had no interest in becoming a glass artist myself.

It was not until college when I received a scholarship to attend Penland for a casting course with Hank Adams that I became re-enamored with the material. After my experience at Penland that summer, I came back to school and built my own furnace, experimenting with using glass as a medium for encapsulating hazardous waste. The following summer I worked in the Penland glass shop and solidified my commitment to the material. That summer Alex Bernstein moved back to town and was in need of an assistant.

Through working with Alex and occasional stints at Penland, I have been able to pursue an exciting and inspirational career in glass. The importance of institutions like Penland to inspire the next generation of artists and serve as a place of experimentation and collaboration is of the utmost and must be praised.

-Hayden Dakota Wilson, 2016

Seeing Through - 2016 (top) 24 x 16 x 8” Glass powder print assemblage, steel

Integration - 2016 (bottom)

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30 x 42 x 10” Glass powder print assemblage, steel

Precipice 3 - 2016 41 x 15 x 8” Cast glass and claro walnut Photo credit: Robert Jaffe

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Ann Wolff

- Ann Wolff, 2016

When I turned 50, I realized many things seemed to change for me and I was feeling different about life. I will be 60 and am only getting older, I find myself wanting to spend more time in nature for the peace of mind that it brings. I value the simplicity and quiet that I encounter there, surrounded by the beauty of the Japanese landscape. As I walk with my dog in the forest near my home, I experience an inner quiet and fullness.

In Japan there are four seasons, each with very distinct scenery. Some flowers and birds appear only during Spring, some flowers and birds only in Summer, some in Fall and Winter. For Japanese people, the feeling of each season is very important, one of most important things in our culture. This idea is strong in my mind. Every day of my life, I feel the seasons, Winter to Spring. During a cold winter day, I can still anticipate the Spring day coming. It just makes me happy to think of this. I would like to share this wonderful moment with my audience through my art. This is what my work is about.

- Hiroshi Yamano, 2016

Hiroshi Yamano

“Nothing special. I think ART is most important for human being and cultural expression. This keeps me going. I can do it. I will go on. I am curious.”

Drawing on the Vessel #1 - 2016 (left) 28 x 17 x 12.5” Blown glass, engraving and cold works, painting, torch works

Lill Lucifer - 2005-2008

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15 x 14.25 x 8.25” Cast glass

Drawing on the Vessel #2 - 2016 (right) 28.5 x 21.5 x 16” Blown glass, engraving and cold works, painting, torch works

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Loretta H. Yang

She vowed that one day, she would create Chinese LIULI with the same colors and quality.

- 2016

Loretta H. Yang had spent years mastering the Pâte-de-verre technique, including the intricacies of kiln firing and color placement. A massive flower in bloom displays vibrant and complex colors that can only be achieved through experience. Yet sleepless nights drenched in the heat of the kiln and sixty days of firing often resulted in no more than failure and a new beginning.

Praising life through LIULI is like using the spring wind as a pen with heaven and earth as the stage; like a massive flower in bloom, stained with painterly effects. The rich colors shine through LIULI, reds and purples that speak of spring, of proud blossoms in perpetual bloom. It is the artist’s desire to break through previously established confines of sculpture and color with each new creation.

Arise Through Contentment - 2012

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Chang Yi’s work is uninhibited, free-spirited and rich with human emotion. Unconstrained, his sculptures reflect independence and arbitrariness. Yet he listens to the material and allows it to dictate its own path. Call it “willful”, call it “in the moment”. In 2012, Chang Yi embedded a cast flower within a sand mold. He then applied glass-blowing to the mold and at the same time, combined the flower with the body of the vase. This gave LIULI the freedom to form in the most natural state. From instability comes an unaffected Zen life philosophy.

Chang Yi

In an antique shop on New York’s Madison Avenue in 1987, Loretta H. Yang saw her first 19th century Pâte-de-verre piece. The design was of a small mouse with a carrot in its mouth; the mouse was gray, the carrot lifelike. Although the piece was no larger than a fist, it left an indelible mark on Yang and twenty-five-years later when she began her creation of “A Chinese LIULI Flower”, she recalled its mesmerizing allure just as vividly as she did then.

23.75 x 29.5 x 19.75” Pate de verre (lost wax technique)

A Realm of Zen within Fire - Orchid - 2013 19.75 x 14.25 x 15.75” Cast glass

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Albert Young

“Altering the direction of your work is an ongoing part of investigation.”

Once realized, the worth of that ideal, that experimentation and risk is an important part of being creative, change becomes ever more natural. My work over the years has taken a different tact numerous times. Early on, our natural environment along with the fascination of working hot glass, there was a lot of blowing. This culminated in the “Fossil Series”. In this series, which began in the late ‘70’s, I learned to flame work in order to incorporate fossil like, negative relief images that existed within the walls of thickly blown vessels. Inquiries into using other natural images and within the context of trying to expand a visual vocabulary that differs from the blown form, I began moving my interest toward casting. There were several series defined in those investigations.

- Albert Young, 2016

Brent Kee Young

Like most people, we are influenced by the history in our lives and our ability to navigate the many successes and failures we encounter on our creative paths. If we are lucky, such as I have been, we encounter many important and pivotal teachers, friends and family that help clarify our paths and give us the power and direction to succeed in our creative quest. There is an old saying that pertains to how I have been able to achieve my goals “LIFT AS YOU CLIMB” there has always been someone there to help me.

Most recently and with grounding in many influences; our natural environment, the wonder of materials, a need to be “making”, and an interest in light and form and what they can do, I chose to use flame working again, trying to use it primarily as a way of constructing a vision. An initial “experiment” developed in the Matrix Series. As an experiment in building and informed by an interest in such disparate things like brain coral, root balls, tumble weeds; iconic objects of use, like chairs, suitcases, boats, traditional vessels; folk art, geometry and piles of rebar building rubble from razed buildings; I imagined ways to build using glass. As problems arose, solutions became a necessity out of which numerous building strategies were realized. My background in math and engineering was and is very helpful.

Looking back historically cannot be overlooked. Significant forms of art throughout time, have involved experimenting and “altering direction”. Painters for example were curious about defining form when “cubism” and thusly, modern art arrived. It is said that the genre can be attributed to experimentation in the examination of form. To paraphrase Paul Cezanne, “Everything in nature can be reduced to a sphere or cylinder of cone or cube…”

With the complexity of what goes into the creating works, my commitment to glass is on going. With so many things to be considered, mitigated somewhat by the magic of a medium that easily lends to the decorative, I need to be vigilant of an overarching ideal, which is a greater personal understanding of art, and the physics of glass. Defining form with elements of light and line is just part of it.

Are there more unanswered questions? Of course!

- Brent Kee Young, 2016

Western Tribute...Aries, Matrix Series Cubism V - 2016 (top) 22 x 22 x 22” Flame worked borosilicate glass

STROHLER - 2016

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57” Cast glass and welded steel Photo credit: Leslie Patron

Across A Crowded Room, Matrix Series - 2009 (bottom) 39 x 27 x 22” Flame worked borosilicate glass Photo credits: Lumina Studios

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Udo Zembok

Toots Zynsky

The path of our life takes are generally based on our family heritage, experiences and life learning. The precise steps of our inner development remain mostly unconscious. Only when looking back on our lives we recognize our personal achievements. Some of these events occur without any preparation and change our biography almost instantly. My life and work is dedicated to artistic enhancement. I remember times when I experienced powerful and emotional situations which changed my way of seeing things. I have the feeling that these precious and rare moments are made possible when our mind is ready to receive certain perceptions or experiences at a precise moment in our lives. These powerful biographical events function as mind openers for new expressions.

I have two stories to share: In 1999 I visited the Rothko retrospective in Paris. This painter wasn’t unknown for me but never before I had the opportunity to dive literally into his Colorfield environment. This experience moved me so strongly that it provoked a change of my work direction. Before this experience I created sculptures based on folded, mostly dark colored devitrified glass. After this encounter I flattened the glass to create curved screen shaped panels featuring simple color surfaces. In 2001 this new work, titled ‘’Homage à Rothko Series’’, was awarded the prestigious ‘’Liliane Bettencourt Award’’ in Paris.

Later, in 2010 I moved to the South of France, where my wife Pascale and I built a new home and studio on the heights of Menton on the French Riviera. When we finally were able to step on the newly built terrace and I was hit by the simple and stunning beauty of our new panorama view of the Mediterranean Sea. The sea met the sky in an ever changing atmospheric of colors and hues, depending on weather, season and time of day.

Being exposed to this scenery every day I decided to document my visual experiences with my camera. I took dozens of images. They were framed like two surfaces meeting on a horizontal separation which became the base of my ongoing ‘’Horizon Series”. These works are made with multilayered fused glass with inclusion of pigments. Without this visual experience the newly found theme of the horizons would not have been possible.

- Udo Zembok, 2016

Spacecolor Blue - 2015 (top) 22.5 x 22.5 x 4.75” Multilayered fused, slumped and polished glass with inclusion of pigments

Spacecolor Pyramid - 2015 (bottom)

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22.5 x 22.5 x 2” Multilayered fused and polished glass with inclusion of pigments

Fogliame Mizimah - 2012 7.5 x 22.5 x 10.75” Filet de verre

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Sculptures of Mass Destruction

-Christina Bothwell, 2016

Peace/ Piece: Sculptures of Mass Destruction offers the perspective of 20 artists exploring the controversial topic of gun control. The inherent fragility of glass offers an interesting paradox to this powerful discussion.

Christina Bothwell

Peace / Piece:

I made the piece, Season, in response to hunting season which is a giant deal around where I live. I prefer deer alive, as opposed to strapped on the back of pickup trucks. I was feeling particularly anxious about the blue eyed albino deer that I saw every day on my drive to my daughter Sophie’s horseback lesson... After this last Doe season I never saw her again and I feared the worst. But just the other night (six months after deer season) as Robert was driving Ellis home from baseball practice; they both saw HER, my albino deer. This has made me feel so happy and relieved! It was a miracle!

It has been estimated 42% of households in the United States have at least one gun. That is equivalent to 310 million households with firearms. Gun owners are protected by the constitution of the United States and have the lawful right to bear arms. Peace/ Piece: Sculpture of Mass Destruction is used as a podium for artists to express their feelings, voice their opinion and to open up a discussion about gun control in the United States.

This exhibition will be opening alongside the 44th Glass International. We hope you enjoy this unique presentation.

- The staff of Habatat Galleries

Season - 2015

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9 x 12 x 5�

Cast glass, ceramic

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Eunsuh Choi

My hope is that we remain people who value freedom and have the courage to face the realities with faithful hearts and have responsibilities about their rights about guns. I hope people hold tight to the notion and remain the land of the free and home of the brave.

Clone–O-Matic In my view guns represent power over and control of individuals and societies thru violence or the threat of violence.

The Clone-O-Matic represents the other way of controlling societies, thru population control. My vision of the future is that guns will no longer be used for violence but to repopulate a society with genetically altered humans that can be easily controlled by the leaders of that society. The Clone-O-Matic is one vision of what that gun might look like.

- Maxwell Davis, 2016

- Eunsuh Choi, 2016

Maxwell Davis

The current public gun control debate in the United States occurs after a major mass shooting. Although guns are common in the American Colonies for hunting and/or general self-protection, more steps are needed for public to help reduce gun violence and save more lives. We want a solution to ensure that we and our loved ones will never be in the situation of being caught unaware by someone who chose to do evil things.

Clone-o-matic - 2006 (top) 8 x 12 x 3” Blown, hot worked and cold worked glass

Forbidden Rights - 2016

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10 x 20 x 7.5” Flameworked, borosilicate glass

Raygun 16 - 2016 (bottom) 7 x 16 x 6” Blown, hot worked and cold worked glass

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Carmen Lozar

This is a portrait of a mother who has decided to consume all the guns brought to her in order to protect her children.

Feeling completely powerless, the figure has chosen an illogical solution to a problem that she feels she has no control over.

This piece is not pro or anti-gun but represents the stalemate we have come to in the United States about gun violence.

We seem to have no answers on how to stop a destruction so we sit idly by and wait for the next mass shooting.

-Carmen Lozar, 2016

There are three panels in this series in the format of the light box: *Desert Eagle 1-red guns , bringing the excitement and passion to an almost theatrical scene *Desert Eagle 2-grey guns, reflecting the real image of the gun. *Desert Eagle 3-the play with the Hebrew word +the target (red dot in the middle) Desert Eagle is the name of an American gun ( Magnum) manufactured, and signed by the Israeli military industry, a mutual project.

This gun is very famous for its qualities, especially for its especially large size, and heavy weight, (that make it “men’s gun”) and for its lethal shots. The gun is a number one collector’s item all over the world, and known to all weapon collectors and users.

The “Desert Eagle” image was chosen as a cultural and manly icon.

Mira Maylor

The Gun Eater, (Appetite for Destruction) stems from our inability to solve gun control in the United States.

Specifically, school shootings.

The image of the gun in life size was engraved on crystal glass sheet, turning the low-tech weapon into something else, precious, beautiful, elegant and fragile. Still, the large life size and the machines details, transmit the feeling of power and the potential violence.

The two identical guns facing each other so close in an absurd futile position create a beautiful harmonic visual symmetry, using an optical illusion to the effect of infinite regress. The contradiction between the harmonic beauty on the one hand and the sadness and hopelessness of the position, push the viewer to think beyond the here and now.

The third work on this series is using the Hebrew verb/noun Lanetzah or Lenatzeah a four letter identical word that means either “ to win “ or “forever” depends on the way you pronounce it. The linguistic connection between victory and eternity, is brought up, combined yet in another symmetrical composition, with the target sign multiplied in infinite regress.

-Mira Maylor, 2016

Desert Eagle 1 - 2012 (top) 13.75 x 29.5 x 6” Engraved crystal glass & light box

The Gun Eater - 2015

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7 x 13 x 6” Glass and wood

Desert Eagle 2 - 2012 (bottom) 13.75 x 29.5 x 6” Engraved crystal glass & light box

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Robert Mickelsen

Could it be that humankind’s historic propensity for conflict is balanced by an equal propensity to art and beauty?

Could it be that these two propensities are as inseparable as the two sides of a coin? Could it be that this conjoining of seeming opposites is one of the most profound ways in which humans can state what it means to be human?”

“We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.” (1984) When a police officer kills an unarmed black person and the victim is criminalized, there is a problem. Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, ...

-John Moran, 2016

- Robert Mickelsen, 2016

John Moran

“As long as humans have been on the planet, they have made weapons. And as long as humans have made weapons, they have made art. Human weapons have always had an element of art in them. The question is why? Why make an object designed to kill beautiful? I believe it says something profound about what it means to be human.

Weapons of Peace - “Bang, Etc.!” - Tec-22 Semi-automatic Pistol (full scale replica) - 2015 (top) 20 x 14 x 3” Lampworked borosilicate glass

Weapons of Peace - “By Any Other Name” - Hotchkiss M1914 (50% scale replica) - 2014 (bottom)

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34 x 21 x 21” Lampworked borosilicate glass

When Reason Fails 35 x 14 x 24” Free hand sculpted glass head, hands, and arms, epoxy resin, fabric, metal, latex, gold paint

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Clifford Rainey

It was on one of those morning drives I was listening to yet another report and debate on a high school shooting rampage. A caller defended the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. This is stated in the Bill of Rights, Second Amendment, adopted in 1791. I wrote in my passenger seat notepad, “It’s the 21st Century— Amend the Second Amendment.” A working title was born. Back at the studio, ideas are developed in sketchbooks, the subject matter is researched and analyzed, sketches are refined through drawing. Eventually an articulate sculpture is fabricated in the appropriate materials. Amend The Second Amendment #2 incorporates the negative image of a handgun embedded in a black coffin form that rests on a pedestal inscribed with the numerous names of Americans killed by firearms during the making of the work.

During a residency at the University of South Australia in Adelaide in 2009, I worked on a series of abstracted figures based on the character of Ned Kelly an outlaw in 1880’s Australia who had a legend built around him. This legend was further added to by the images of his exploits created in the paintings of artist Sidney Nolan in the 1940’s.

In this series of work, Another Kind of Dignity, I have used elements of Nolan’s paintings to explore the character of someone, who through prejudice and miscarriage of justice was led into a life of crime and violence.

Ned Kelly was an intelligent man who throughout his life, as a wanted man, documented this injustice and the reasons for his crimes through letters and documentation. In these two pieces is the figure holding guns or are they rolled up documents?

- David Reekie, 2016.

David Reekie

My days normally follow a set routine. If I am working in Oakland, I get up at 4:30 am, try not to wake Rachel, bid Kitty good morning, shower, dress, and drink a Vega nutritional shake. I brush my teeth and hit the road at 5:00am to beat the heavy traffic heading toward San Francisco. I then have a forty-five minute drive to listen to KQED, our local public radio station. I have a need to be informed. Whether I am starting the day with a relaxing coffee and the New York Times, making breakfast to Al Jazeera America, or watching the BBC World News online at lunch, I always have a notepad around. I am an analytical person, and if I hear something intriguing, I think, “Oh, that’s a substantial idea—I could do something with that.” If my interest is piqued for a few hours, these informative ideas are added to my sketchbooks.

- Clifford Rainey, 2016

Another Kind of Dignity I - 2016 (left) 15 x 7.5 x 5.5” Cast glass and metal

Amend the Second Amendment (2/3) - 2013

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11 x 21 x 21” Glass, wood, graphics, resin

Another Kind of Dignity II - 2016 (right) 14.25 x 8 x 6” Cast glass and metal

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Julia & Robin Rogers

For every man shown here, 1000 people died last year because of gun violence. For every gun shown here, a child dies every day. Only by joining together can we hope to curtail gun violence.

- Tim Tate, 2016

Tim Tate

Just as every coin has two sides, the most contested issues of our time produce valid contrasting arguments. In regards to gun control, debate points such as freedom (the fabric of this country) and self defense are weighed against horrible acts of violence and the senseless loss of innocent lives. How do we deal with these issues? The judicial process, it is what “we, the people” agreed on, right? With that in mind, an idea, a verdict and ultimately the opinion of the Supreme Court acts as a weapon itself to protect, interpret, and uphold the constitution and the rights it grants. By extension, the ability of the president to nominate a Supreme Court Justice can be viewed as a weapon; loading the seats of the court like the chambers of a revolver.

In regards to the second amendment, where do you draw the line? Is it acceptable for someone to own a tank, mortar, or cannon? How about a fully automatic rifle, shotgun, or handgun? While some citizens would like to ban all guns, it seems like the question about where to draw the line is the major point of contention. We have “the right to bear arms”, and according to recently deceased justice Antonin Scalia this means an individual can own a shoulder mounted rocket launcher, because one can “bear” it. Is the court working to honor old laws or to keep money in the hands of industry?

If new laws are made would only good citizens cooperate while outlaws would have all the guns? Some argue that what we need is more weapons in order to protect ourselves. It’s difficult to know what is the best choice, as both sides of the issue have very strong points. With this, and many other issues, there is no black and white, only many different shades of grey.

- Julia and Robin Rogers, 2016

Opinion Bearer - 2016

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27 x 9 x 11” Blown glass

The Endless Cycle 36 x 36 x 4” Glass, Aluminum, Poly-Vitro, electronics

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Janusz Walentynowicz

When considering the question of rights, the cost of granting or denying them must be considered. And when the tally is made, the decision must be made as to whether the price is acceptable or too high.

IT’S PLAIN TO SEE

This spindle contains receipts only for American mass shootings starting with Columbine in 1999 and ending with San Bernardino in 2015. Time, space and emotion made it impossible to create enough receipts on the required spindles to make an accurate accounting of the cost of gun laws to date.

IF YOU’RE NOT ARMED YOU CAN’T BE FREE Having to, on a daily basis, drive by roadside “poetry” like the example above, posted by the Guns Save Life organization, I eventually had to react, and did so with a body of work titled “Guns Save lives” intended to inspire dialog about Americas gun laws.

The irony of the title became clear when one was confronted with the title piece which featured images of M.L.K, Gandhi, J.F.K and Lincoln. - The “Guns Save life” slogan would backfire.

-It is high time to get serious about reasonable and sane gun control laws.

It is safe to say that the price continues to rise, but is apparently not too high. Clearly the price of gasoline, housing, electricity, taxes, food and consumer goods are considered too high and public outcry is swift.

Recently, an experiment was run with a 13 year old boy who was taken to convenience stores where he tried to buy cigarettes and liquor but was denied. He went to a polling place and tried to vote, but was denied. He went to a gun show and was not only encouraged to buy the guns of his choice, but found they were on sale at a discount.

705 mass shooting victims in the USA from Columbine in 1999 to San Bernardino in 2015. $705 donated to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

- Janusz Walentynowicz, 2016

- Leah Wingfield & Steve Clements, 2016

Leah Wingfield & Steven Clements

IN THE WORLD

Roulette O’ Matic - 2002 (left) 41 x 6.5 x 21” Kilncast glass, steel

Armed Men - 2002 (right)

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20.5 x 20.5 x 12.5” Kilncast glass, steel

The Cost - 2016 12” Wood, paper, metal

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Laura Donefer

Sad Song of Death Guns are for one thing. Bullets are violent.

Rik Allen

Alex Bernstein

José Chardiet

Shelley Muzylowski Allen

Martin Blank

David Chatt

Dean Allison

Péter Borkovics

Eunsuh Choi

Herb Babcock

Christina Bothwell

Daniel Clayman

Rick Beck

Latchezar Boyadjiev

Cristina Córdova

Michael Behrens

Peter Bremers

Matthew Curtis

Robert Bender

Emily Brock

Maxwell Davis

Give us this day our daily death.

Every single second of every day, lives are destroyed, families finishing in ruins. Gun culture is pervasive; destruction caused by firearms a plague. The right to bear arms is the right to kill.

Every single day I cry the tears of the helpless and the tears of the enraged. Guns are global. The sad song of death reverberates throughout the world. When will this barrage of bullets stop? Will we-the-people shout “No more guns?”

Or will we-the-people shoot and shoot and shoot until there is no one left. Just the wind left singing a sad song of death.

- Laura Donefer, 2016

Song of Sorrow - 2016

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26 x 7 x 2” Sandcast glass and mixed media Photo credit: Stephen Wild

For more information about any of this year’s participating artists use your smartphone to scan the QR code under their name.

Einar & Jamex De La Torre Susan Taylor Glasgow

Tomáš Hlavicˇka

Richard Jolley

Marvin Lipofsky

Robert Mickelsen

Laura Donefer

Robin Grebe

Jacqueline Hoffmann Botquelen

Vladimira Klumpar

John Littleton & Kate Vogel

Janis Miltenberger

Matt Eskuche

Wilfried Grootens

Evan Kolker Petr Hora

Jan Exnar

Monica Guggisberg & Philip Baldwin

Debora Moore Carmen Lozar

Jon Kuhn David Huchthausen

Chad Fonfara

John Moran László Lukácsi

Shayna Leib Sean Hennessey

Toshio Iezumi

Katja Fritzsche

William Morris Lucy Lyon

Antoine Leperlier Josh Hershman

Martin Janecky

Irene Frolic

Nick Mount Joanna Manousis

Steve Linn Eric Hilton

Michael Janis

For more information about any of this year’s participating artists use your smartphone to scan the QR code under their name.

Kathleen Mulcahy Mira Maylor

For more information about any of this year’s participating artists use your smartphone to scan the QR code under their name.

Stepan Pala

Charlotte Potter

Marlene Rose

Paul Stankard

Vivian Wang

Loretta H. Yang

Albert Paley

Clifford Rainey

Davide Salvadore

Cassandra Straubing

Karen WillenbrinkJohnsen

Chang Yi

Zora Palova

David Reekie

Jack Schmidt

Tim Tate

Albert Young Hayden Dakota Wilson

Mark Peiser

Colin Reid

Harue Shimomoto

Michael Taylor

Brent Kee Young Leah Wingfield & Steven Clements

Sibylle Peretti

Kait Rhoads

Raven Skyriver

Winnie Teschmacher

Udo Zembok Ann Wolff

Marc Petrovic

Richard Ritter

Ivana Šrámková

Margit Tóth

Toots Zynsky Hiroshi Yamano

Jenny Pohlman & Sabrina Knowles

Julia & Robin Rogers

STANI

For more information about any of this year’s participating artists use your smartphone to scan the QR code under their name.

Janusz Walentynowicz

For more information about any of this year’s participating artists use your smartphone to scan the QR code under their name.

AACG Visit to Israel 2014 H a b a t a t

G a l l e r i e s

J a n u a r y

2 0 1 7

S a r a s o t a

G l a s s

N o w !

An annual glass exhibition in Sarasota Florida

E v e n t s i n c l u d e a M a s t e r W o r k s Au c t i o n , gallery openings, artists talks, museum tours, and more!

If you love contemporary glass, you’ll love being a member of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass. Annual membership, starting as low as $65, gives you: • Subscription to the quarterly AACG magazine • Complimentary admission passes to national art shows • Invitation to AACG’s annual awards reception at SOFA Chicago • Travel on AACG annual trips (this year to Providence, RI) • Visits to collector’s homes …and more AACG memberships help fund grants awarded to 501c3 arts organizations in support of specific educational purposes. AACG Visionary members help elevate our grant-making ability with their annual $1,000 donations, which also support the AACG Visionary Scholarship program, providing awards to individual artists seeking to pursue a career in glass.

Visit AACG’s award-winning website: www.contempglass.org and join today.

2015 & 2016 Exhibiting Artist Peter Bremers

AACG Visit to Ashville North Carolina 2015

The Arts Commission is pleased to present its biennial Hot Glass Gala and Auction benefiting arts-related programming in greater Toledo, Ohio. Artists can receive up to wholesale price for their works and additional proceeds benefit the programs of The Arts Commission.

Exhibition Opens: Thursday September 15 Month of Glass Events: September 15 ‒ October 20 Auction and Gala: Thursday, October 20

For details visit theartscommission.org or call 419-254-2787

PENLAND

31ST ANNUAL BENEFIT AUCTION

Makram N. Talia, CFP速 Senior Vice President - Investments PMP Portfolio Manager UBS Financial Services Inc. 32300 Northwestern Hwy., Suite 150 Farmington Hills, MI 48334 248-932.8006 855-503-7980 makram.talia@ubs.com

AUGUST 12 & 13, 2016 A gala weekend in the North Carolina mountains

WWW.PENLAND.ORG Illustrated auction catalog available online.

Absentee bids accepted.

For tickets: auction@penland.org , 828.765.2359

Celebrating 35 years of Howard Ben Tré at Habatat Galleries

Howard Ben Tré Axis 8/4, 2012 23 x 4 x 4” Cast glass and metal

Casting of Being November 21, 2015 - March 21, 2016 Toyama Glass Art Museum Gallery 1, 2 Organized by: Toyama Glass Art Museum 82 page catalogue available

H a b a t a t

G a l l e r i e s

44th International Glass Invitational Award Exhibition

Grand Opening: Saturday May 7th, 2016 at 8:00 - 11:00 pm Exhibition concludes July 22nd

Habatat Galleries emerged from the suburbs of Detroit to become one of the leading galleries focused on studio glass in the world. The 44th Glass International is the oldest and largest annual exhibition for art glass in the United States. To sustain a successful 44 year exhibition we must offer something new and interesting each year. This often increases the difficultly when choosing artists as well as events that make this show unique. The Glass International must also maintain its history of quality and remain relevant in the ever changing art glass world.

This year we chose fourteen artists who have never exhibited at Habatat Galleries before. Some have been Hworking a b a for t aover t three G a decades l l e r while i e sothers A are n njust u aafew l years G l out a sofsgraduate I n vschool. i t a t i o n a l Whether emerged or emerging, this show is a fusion of artists who all share an exploration of expression through glass.

The most exciting glass extravaganza of the year Eight years ago we added a jury process to the exhibit that would strengthen the participating artist’s desire to send in what they felt was their very best work. The jury has typically been made up of art historians, museum directors, noted collectors and art critics. One artist is chosen by the attendees of opening night. “The People Choice” award will be given to the artist who receives the most votes by the public during the Grand Opening. This artist’s work will be included with the other twenty-four works chosen by the invited jurors in a museum presentation at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne Indiana.

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Over the years we have asked questions to the artists participating in this exhibition. This year we asked the question: you C o“What n t aaffected c t you t h ine your g alifel or l career e r y thatf caused o r y o tou alter r the V Idirection P i nofvyour i t a t i o n work?” We left this question open to possibly include many ideas such as a personal discovery, a news 2 4story 8 . or5 a5life 4 changing . 0 5 9 event.

0 i n responses f o @ h we a breceived a t a ranged t . c ofrom m deepwpersonal w w .exploration h a b a to t a t . c o m / r s v p The headlines in the newspapers. Please take a moment and read each journey that these participants have taken. This will give you an insight into the life and work of each artist.

Concurrent with Habatat Galleries Glass International we have curated a controversial display in a pop-up space across from the gallery entitled: Peace/Piece: Sculptures of Mass Destruction. In 2015 there were 53,173 recorded incidents in the United States involving guns. Most recently, six random people were killed in a mass shooting where I attended college in Kalamazoo, Michigan. As horrifying as this incident was the “Kalamazoo killing” was only 1 of 330 mass shootings in the United States over the past 13 months. This exhibition will include the work of twenty insightful artists who created work based on their interpretation of gun violence in the United States.

Nearly fifty-five years ago, artists experimented with glass to see if it was a viable material to create with. At the time these pioneers were exposed to ceramics, bronzes, oils and canvas and often times would remain anonymous by leaving their experimental glass works unsigned. They simply were unaware that studio glass would have a following that would continue for over five decades. This annual exhibition was created to promote artists who were working with glass and had no place to go.

We are very proud of what the Glass International has become and excited for the future of studio glass!

We hope you will participate in our journey and join us for the opening!

Corey Hampson Habatat Galleries

H A B ATAT G A L L E R I E S

4400 Fernlee Ave - Royal Oak Michigan

Call for VIP Invite & Auction Catalogue Grand Opening in Royal Oak, Michigan

Participating Artists Rik Allen Shelley Muzylowski Allen Dean Allison Herb Babcock Rick Beck Michael Behrens Robert Bender Alex Bernstein Martin Blank Péter Borkovics Christina Bothwell Latchezar Boyadjiev Peter Bremers Emily Brock Jose´ Chardiet David Chatt Eunsuh Choi Daniel Clayman Cristina Córdova Matthew Curtis Einar & Jamex De La Torre Laura Donefer Matt Eskuche Jan Exnar Chad Fonfara Katja Fritzsche Irene Frolic Susan Taylor Glasgow Robin Grebe Wilfried Grootens Monica Guggisberg & Philip Baldwin Sean Hennessey Josh Hershman Eric Hilton Tomáš Hlavicˇka Jacqueline Hoffmann Botquelen Petr Hora David Huchthausen Toshio Iezumi Martin Janecky Michael Janis Richard Jolley Vladimira Klumpar Evan Kolker Jon Kuhn Shayna Leib Antoine Leperlier Steve Linn Marvin Lipofsky John Littleton & Kate Vogel

László Lukácsi Lucy Lyon Joanna Manousis Robert Mickelsen Janis Miltenberger Debora Moore John Moran William Morris Nick Mount Kathleen Mulcahy Stepan Pala Albert Paley Zora Palova Mark Peiser Sibylle Peretti Marc Petrovic Jenny Pohlman & Sabrina Knowles Charlotte Potter Clifford Rainey David Reekie Colin Reid Kait Rhoads Richard Ritter Julia & Robin Rogers Marlene Rose Davide Salvadore Jack Schmidt Harue Shimomoto Raven Skyriver Ivana Šrámková STANI Paul Stankard Cassandra Straubing Tim Tate Michael Taylor Winnie Teschmacher Margit Tóth Janusz Walentynowicz Vivian Wang Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen Hayden Dakota Wilson Leah Wingfield & Steven Clements Ann Wolff Hiroshi Yamano Loretta Yang Chang Yi Albert Young Brent Kee Young Udo Zembok Toots Zynsky