Panels: My Newest Passion!

Artist have to keep growing. I’m a big believer in pushing myself to try new techniques and create new forms. Sometimes I fail, but those failures often form a basis for further experiments.

Last year, I had a residency at STARworks in Star, NC. While there I decided to focus on making slumped panels, using a traditional technique for making sheets of glass: blowing a large cylinder, cutting it lengthwise, and slumping it flat in a kiln. Of course, I added patterns to make it more interesting! The best way I can describe this process is making a drawing that you don’t really get to see until it comes out of the kiln. I loved it! I was hooked.

To create, finish, and display these pieces, I have acquired a host of new tools, skills, and friends. Jim Flanagan at Fremont Antique Glass Company helped me with some early experiments, and the team at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma has helped me experiment with the best way to do the slumping. Karsten Oaks cuts and polishes the edges and helps me with surface issues. I’ve learned more about glues, cleats, and gravity than you’d believe…. the hard way.  And I just bought a new kiln, so that I can take the process to completion in-house! It’s been an awesome year and I’m so grateful to all who have helped me on this path, including Sarah Traver and Traver Gallery in Seattle for exhibiting my first major work in the series, “Quilt”, during my 2016 solo exhibition.

This fall I will show new wall panels at SOFA Chicago with the Duane Reed Gallery, including “Twin Galaxies” pictured here.

Hope to see some of you there!