Art In The Spotlight

BlownAway

The art of glass

Right Page: Glass Artist Dylan Cotton creating a glass mushroom with the aid of Moshe Bursuker (bottom right), Owner of Evari Studio in North Salem, NY

Glass is everywhere. Wherever you are, there is probably glass close to you, whether it’s windows, lightbulbs, cups, eyeglasses, or the phone in your pocket, it’s a common material to which we often pay little attention. There are some, though, that have developed a passion for expressing themselves through the art of glassblowing; a fascinating process. “Glass, as an art medium, is really new,” said Moshe Bursuker, Owner of Evari Studio in North Salem, NY. “Even though it’s been around for centuries, glass art in the US has only been here since the 50’s and 60’s when we started using this material as an artistic medium.” Now, glass blowing has become popular enough that the oldest museum in the US, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford is holding a glass only show called Fired Up, of which Bursurker is a participant.

Hartford is a special place for Bursuker. He first encountered glass blowing as a student at the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, where he now teaches as an art professor. After school, he worked at several workshops including Urban Glass in Brooklyn, Glass Roots in New Jersey, and the Woodstock Art Exchange.

“I was working at the Woodstock studio and I was really impressed with their shop and I thought what they had put together was really simple yet effective,” he said. “It got me thinking about how I would set up my own studio one day. In 2018, we moved to a new house that had a big barn in the back, and it was just perfect. Two years later, I had my own working studio.”

Bursuker started Evari Studio, a fully

Every machine is strategically placed in the glass blowing studio to optimize efficiency during the fast paced process of producing glass art. This pipe cooler cools the blowpipe so it may be safely handled.

Moshe Bursuker is experienced in creating many varied forms of glass art, and is often commissioned to do so.

operational glass workshop that utilizes the ground level for glassblowing. Several kilns, heavy specialty machinery, and lathes are strategically laid out for efficiency and safety during the creation process, and the main level of the barn was renovated to function as a gallery space, but not only for himself.

Not long after the completion of his studio, Bursuker invited several local artists to use the space and show their artwork in the private gallery, such as Robert Panepinto, Jason Bauer and his wife, Romina Gonzales - who is also a glass artist and business partner, Joseph Pagano, and Dylan Cotton.

“There’s a lot that goes into glassblowing and creating a piece with an assistant or partner is an amazing experience,” said Cotton, who focuses on making artistic glass mushrooms. “When I’m creating one of my pieces with Moshe, we are both so focused on what we’re doing that we both know what to do with very little talking. You have to keep the glass a certain temperature when you’re working with it, and it always needs to keep moving. A mistake could cause the piece to crack or even explode.”

The Hardest Part

Bursuker explained that there’s a lot of techniques and skills an artist can practice to become more advanced, but there’s one aspect of glassblowing that takes years to master and comes only from experience and intuition.

“Timing is everything and it’s by far the most challenging,” he said. “You can equate it to music, if you don’t have proper timing, you’re off. You have to know your material and your assistant or partner, and you have to know that if glass is brought out of the furnace early, it can be devastating. If things are too slow, the glass gets too cold. I can teach anyone how to gather up the glass and make a cup, but once the work becomes more intricate you become more aware of the process and do more technical feats.”

After years of experience, Bursuker and his community of glassblowers are no stranger to technical feats. From lighting fixtures and candle votives to sculpture, outdoor installations, wall art, home décor, and fine glasswares, it seems there’s little that can’t be made at the studio.

“There is so much you can do with glass,” he said. “It’s like someone saying they are a writer. Well, what do you mean you are a writer? Do you write fiction or non-fiction? Do you write magazine articles or scientific documentation? Just like any art form, we are always pursuing and exploring different things with the medium.”

If you are interested in learning the art of glass blowing, Bursuker recommends learning from Kinship Glassworks in Milford, CT, Urban Glass in Brooklyn, NY, or the Hartford Art School, which is the only university that has a fully operational glass blowing studio.

“It’s something that really changed my life and I’m so passionate about the art form,” said Cotton. “It joins creativity, performance, physical stamina, and patience in order to create some of the most beautiful forms I’ve seen.”

Evari Studio is a private artist studio and showroom that operates by appointment only. Visit www.evaristudio.com to set up an appointment to see the space. Bursuker will also be showing as a guest artist at RPAC Gallery in January. For details, go to rpacgallery.com•