1962: Age five was a turning point ...it was then I realized I wanted to do art for the rest of my life.
Busying myself at the kitchen table with paper and pencil in our N.W. Pa. home, I learned early that drawing quietly had grand rewards. For example, my five other siblings who drove mother nuts were consequently shooed outdoor to play in the (dreadful) snow. I was excused (from such torture).
Frankly, the only time I enjoyed snow was watching the tiny crystalline sparkles accumulate at night under the street lamp in front of my house, returning from taking dinner to Grandma. Mainly because it was like looking at, and dreaming them to be, a gazillion glistening, diamonds-all within my reach.
I love things that glisten and flaunt the colors of the spectrum. I discovered faceted lead crystals in college. I love the playfulness of refracted light when the sun strikes: the dancing rainbows that follow.
Unwittingly, I was laying building blocks for yet another turning point in my life that would come later.
In 1975, I attended Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio on a scholarship, and finished with a B.F.A. from Edinboro University. I was a rising pastel artist. I married a prolific artist in 1981 and we continued to participate in all aspects of the fine arts: from exhibiting, to selling, to doing a lot of charity work. On the side, we rescue animals, garden, travel, are raising two great teens, and we continue to grow as artists.
In 1997, we decided to move south where the sunshine was abundant (and life comes to a screeching halt at the first sign of snow). During this transition, we had no idea our art supplies would remain in storage for more than three years.
Anxious to feed my creative juices, I spied a stained glass course offered through the local arts council. I saw endless possibilities of color interactions from working with pastels, using instead, colored glass, playing with sun and incandescent lighting, reflective qualities, and implementing an old favorite: prism crystals. I quickly learned how to put my images to form, and serve the craft well by doing, doing, doing, and reading everything I could on quality production and techniques.
Several years later, I am still just as fascinated with this relaxing medium of breaking glass and piec0ing it back together. I capitalize on what I love: creating an imaginative composition from a subject that interests me, then bringing it to a 3-D reality while making it the most exciting, elegant art work possible. With both large and small works, I take great care to ensure a long-lasting, special keepsake. Many items are one of a kind.
Working with glass is extremely time consuming and the supplies are expensive. There is so much that goes into a stained glass creation---even with the smaller ones!
Aside from the equipment (cutting tools, solder gun, glass grinder, etc.), the cost of materials (glass, copper foil, lead, solder, etc.) can break the bank. I love the iridescent, rainbow-like finish, varied textures, and red glass. All considerably more expensive per sq. foot. Most people are amazed to learn red glass contains 24 K gold to achieve the color.
The crystals I use are of the highest quality possible, to achieve the rainbows I desire and expect. They are worth every penny.
The art of stained glass is an acquired skill. The more you read, the more you learn; the more you do, the more you know.
Glass seems to have a mind, of its own. Depending on which manufacturers glass you are cutting, you learn the temperament of each, by doing. Some brands are a pure joy to cut and help maintain sanity while dealing with other brands that refuse to comply.
Because there is an exactness as to how the pieces of the puzzle fit together, there is a lot of wasted glass via imperfect cuts, Something as simple as the temperature of the room can make some glass seem impossible one day, and a best friend the next.. Fortunately, if you are clever, the scrap glass can be carefully recycled in other works or smaller creations. Necessity is the mother of invention : a flair for ingenuity also helps to reduce the chance of what could easily become an unaffordable art form!
This final statement comes from someone who loves working with glass so much, she quickly got over nearly four and a half decades of suffering a low threshold for the sight of her blood (though she can tolerate others!). I jokingly tell my clients each work includes a sample of my dna at no extra charge.
All jokies aside, I love working with glass for the sheer atmosphere-altering, mood-elevating, ever-changing brilliant light show it bestows on the simplest of spaces. It is a breath-taking art worthy of heirloom status. In my mind, each artwork I create becomes a tiny, glistening, diamond in the newly fallen snow.
