Put A Bird In It

Episode 2 of IFC's new television show "Portlandia" has a very funny spoof of the crafty application of birds.

Daily Art Muse's Susan Lomuto Is Here to Work!

Susan Lomuto, a Connecticut based artist / writer, established a blog called "The Daily Art Muse" (DAM), showcasing contemporary fine craft.

DAM covers the global landscape of handcrafted artwork with thousands of readers of her weekday posts and content in over 3,000 archived posts. Susan created the site to inspire "artists, designers and collectors worldwide" and the website is frequently used as an educational resource in traditional classroom settings (high school and college) as well as online learning environments.
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As part of exploring what it takes to be dedicated to art and fine craft, Susan has set out to work as an apprentice for a number of artists across the country. She wants to learn – about art and about the life of an artist; ultimately writing in-depth about the working artist’s life. Many of her experiences will be featured in the Daily Art Muse blog. Susan is working at creating a multimedia experience complete with pictures, video and text.

The apprenticeship project continues this coming week, as she begins a 6-week internship with several DC area artists - including the Washington Glass School.

Said Susan of the process: "I suppose I could have just planned a road trip to visit artists around the country, asking questions, taking lots of pictures, shooting video – but that felt incomplete. Instead, I wanted to develop a solid understanding of the how/why/when/what that makes this a well-lived life, so I am getting my hands dirty as an intern – in many cases jumping out of my comfort zone and into their studios, working in mediums unknown to these hands (like glass), sweeping floors, conditioning clay, gathering supplies – and whatever else they need me to do."

How Washington Glass School welcomes Susan Lomuto.

"My first internship, with jewelry artist Dina Varano in Connecticut, was a quiet one, working in a studio nestled in the woods, away from the distractions of the outside world.
The DC internship promises to be a lively experience in an arts complex that is home to several busy studios and more than two dozen artists. I will make sure I’m ready for the “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment once I get there!"

Read more of Susan's travels and internship - click HERE.

For an update on Susan's kick-off mtg with the studios - Click HERE

To help fund the arts endeavor, Susan has created a great fundraising project, complete with perks for donations. Click HERE to learn more about perks.

Matt Duffy joins WGS

Please join us in welcoming our newest member of the Washington Glass Studio staff - Matthew Duffy. Matt will be coordinating the Safeway supermarket public art project for the studio.

Matt looks for the tin side of float glass.

The production of the wall of cast glass panels and installation into the steel framework will take place thru the spring. Next time you are at the studio, be sure to say hey!

"Color and Shape" at City Gallery DC

"Color and Shape" showcases Nancy Donnelly’s glass art and Jill Finsen’s oil paintings.

Fascination with texture as a component of color and shape is apparent in the work of both these artists. Surface abstraction contributes to the success of these art pieces—the texture of the glass plays off the layered textures within the paintings. These works truly complement each other.

Both artists find negative space crucial to this effect, moments of rest that energize each work and in this sense make each stronger. Donnelly and Finsen’s artwork provides an elegant balance between familiarity and abstraction.

Color & Shape

February 5-26, 2011

City Gallery

804 H Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002

202.744.6439

Opening Reception Saturday: February 5, 2011 from 6-9pm

"Dead or Alive" Exhibition at MAD Update

The Apothecarium Moderne Marc Petrovic/Tim Tate

Readers of the WGS blog might remember earlier postings about Tim Tate & Marc Petrovic's collaborative work " The Apothecarium Moderne" that was part of the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) exhibition "Dead or Alive: Nature Becomes Art".

The museum's curators just received notice that the International Art Critics Association (AICA) will be giving the exhibition an award. These awards are given in recognition of the exceptional and important work in the visual arts contributed that year by artists, curators, gallerists, writers, scholars, and cultural institutions. Past winners include the nation's most important and innovative art institutions. Last year they included the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art among others. The award ceremony will take place on March 14, 2011 at Cooper Union’s Rose Auditorium in New York City.

Category: Architecture or Design Show
Title: Dead or Alive: Nature Becomes Art
Institution: The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
Dates: April 27 – October 24, 2010
Curators: Chief Curator David Revere McFadden and Senior Curator Lowery Stokes Sims

Congrats to all the artists and the museum!

Glass Sparks: Jeff Zimmer

Washington Glass School alumn Jeff Zimmer had returned to the school for a visit in January. Now a resident of the UK, Jeff lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he received a MDES in Glass & Architectural Glass, at the Edinburgh College of Art, (ECA), where he is now an instructor.

In the UK, Jeff has been making quite a name for his artwork - recently featured in the British Glass Biennale and shown in a collaboration between Contemporary Applied Arts & Contemporary Glass Society This year he will be exhibitng at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery, in the UK .

Jeff’s work was selected to be part of the Corning Museum of Glass’ New Glass Review 31. Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass said of his work:

“… glass is not immediately apparent in Jeff Zimmer’s '1/1000th the Distance between Me and You (in a Deadrise)', but it is an essential part of the work. A dark and dramatic object, it is constructed of 22 layers of enameled and sandblasted glass in a light box. In the obscured photograph, an object in the distance that emerges from black clouds under a clearing sky can be faintly discerned: is it a ship or something else? Using a box of cut glass sheets, Zimmer creates the depth and luminosity of a painting, but it is an image that undoubtedly changes every time it is viewed, depending on the angle and the ambient light.”

While at the Glass School, Jeff worked on a piece that will be shown at the WGS 10th Anniversary Exhibition to be held this May at Washington, DC’s Longview Gallery.

A strong narrative is created by meticulously layering imagery made from enameled and sandblasted glass.

The layered composition works in a tremendously subtle way; the depth of field changes as the viewer moves around the work, allowing one's perception to shift and migrate.

Jeff evaluates and modifies each individual layer of glass as he fires the enamel onto the glass sheets.

Jeff constructs a box of glass for presentation, and installs LED lighting to illuminate the panels.
The box-like construction of each work creates an almost cinematic experience of space, volume and depth. One is drawn in by the emergent light from beneath the horizon or trailing into the distance like a wake.
Check out the final piece - titled "Fog Of Communication" at the 10th Anniversary Show!
Click HERE to jump to Jeff's website.

For other glass artist profiles:

Diane Cabe

Sean Hennessey

Teddie Hathaway

Elizabeth Mears

Allegra Marquart

Jackie Greeves

Call for International Artist-In-Residency: Finland

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Glass Secessionism

Tony Oursler

The Internet and social network groups continue to create changes and offer options in art criticism and discussions. A new Facebook group "Glass Secessionism" has sprung up, creating a venue for artwork with a narrative or content-driven aesthetic.

According to the group description:

The intent of this group is to underscore and define the 21st Century Sculptural Glass Movement and to illustrate the differences and strengths compared to late 20th century technique-driven glass. While the 20th century glass artists contributions have been spectacular and ground breaking, this group focuses on the aesthetic of the 21st century.

Kiki Smith

The object of the Glass-Secession is to advance glass as applied to sculptural expression; to draw together those glass artists practicing or otherwise interested in the arts, and to discuss from time to time examples of the Glass-Secession or other narrative work. This movement is modeled after Alfred Stieglitz and the Photo-Secessionists and how they redefined photography.

It was said of Stieglitz" What, then, was this secession from? It was not only from artwork that had gone stale through the copying of Victorian, conventional styles, but more importantly from the dictatorship of the entrenched institutions, galleries, art schools and professional art organizations that enforced or at very least sanctioned copying or imitation."

Stephen Paul Day & Sibelle Peretti

Keep in mind, by Glass Secessionism it is not to say that we as artists are seceding from glass, just from the aesthetic of purely technique, material and process driven sculpture. There is no disrespect meant towards technique driven work. Glass Secessionism is a different branch of the glass tree. Think of them as separate but equal.
Glass Secessionism, with notable exceptions, is focused on 21st century sculptors in glass - and can include mixed and new media. There is a strong movement which begins at the graduate school level, to focus more on the narrative content and less on materiality. The newest emerging artists in glass tend to be much more focused on this direction.

Christina Bothwell

Glass is finally being allowed to be just another sculptural medium. The fine art world is certainly beginning to take notice, as so many notable fine art galleries and museums (not focused on glass in the past) are allowing and, in fact, promoting work and artists that are glass based.

Members are encouraged to post and share their own or others examples of 21st century glass sculpture and open discussion topics regarding this issue. Click HERE to jump to the Facebook group.

Kiln Tips From Paragon Kilns

From Paragon Kiln's Arnold Howard-

Repair bulging elements. Please see Paragon’s video before attempting the repair.

HOW TO GET THE LONGEST LIFE OUT OF YOUR ELEMENTS

The lower the kiln temperature, the longer the heating elements will last.

Long holds at high temperatures add wear to the elements. Use only as much hold time as you actually need.

Contact with foreign materials such as ceramic glaze, glass, kiln wash, and glass separator can ruin an element. Do not coat the kiln walls, lid, or roof with kiln wash; it can flake off into an element groove and burn out an element.

Occasionally vacuum the element grooves. A build-up of dust can overheat an element and reduce its efficiency.

Repair bulging sidewall elements. Elements that bulge out of a sidewall groove are susceptible to breakage since elements are brittle after they have been fired.

Avoid reduction firings (burning carbonaceous materials) in an electric kiln.

When replacing elements, always use new element connectors, and tighten them to your kiln manufacturer’s specifications. Loose element connectors burn out.

Click HERE to jump to Paragon's website.