World Art Glass Quarterly Summer 2007

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16 6 Maintaining the Fire: The Art of Sonja Bloomdahl by: Cathy Balach 16 Lutz Haufschild by: Jeremy Walton 24 David Huchthausen: Capturing the Mysteries of Light by: Alex Maynes 34 Okra Studios by: Susan & Mark Walton 44 Latchezar Boyadjiev by: Nathan Grover 4

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54 Pismo Gallery by: DK Sweet 60 Eric Hilton by: Jill Culora 70 Steven Klein by: Jill Culora 80 Catching up with Richard Whitley by: Cathy Balach 88 Robert Oddy: An Expanding Canvas by: Corey Alan Camp World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 3

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Letter From the Editor We’ve had a fabulous start here at Art Glass Quarterly! We’d like to thank our many friends and supporters who have made the success of our magazine possible, enabling us to showcase the finest art glass in the world.

Over the past several months we’ve had the privilege of meeting many of you at shows in Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and we’re looking forward to the SOFA New York show in June. Co-founder Mark Walton traveled in the U.K for over a month earlier this year, meeting artists and visiting galleries, studios and shows such as the COLLECT show in London. This is the best part of our job – meeting the amazing people who make the world a better place through art. We are delighted to be a part of and to help expand both the international and the local art glass communities.

With the influential group of artists in our newest issue, we continue the tradition of bringing you the finest art glass from around the globe - Eric Hilton from Scotland, Latchezar Boyadjiev from Bulgaria, Richard Golding and Nicola Osborne from the U.K. as well as Sonja Blomdahl, Steven Klein, and Robert Oddy from the United States.

In upcoming issues we will be featuring artists from Japan, China, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and other countries around the world. Upcoming issues will feature the work of Dale Chihuly, Randy Strong, Kimiake & Shinichi Higuchi, Peter Aldridge, Treg Silkwood, Johnathon Schmuck, and Paul Stankard.

Publisher Editor-In-Chief Managing Editor Creative Director Staff Photographer Software Consultant Copy Editors

Advertising / Sales Foreign Correspondent Accounting Manager Office Administrator Web Manager Web Consultant Staff Writers

Contributing Writers

Consultants

Enjoy!

Curt Walton Co-Founder / Editor-in-Chief Julia Morgan House | World Art Glass Quarterly Headquarters

Advisors

Volume 3

Mark Walton Curt Walton Robert Cullen Leann Sirkin Brittany Walton Jared Frisby Kathryn Knudsen Alex Maynes Jamie Robinson Susan Walton Emily Walton Alexandra Hagerty Tom Stanton Bob Lim Jennifer Hummel Masud Akram Patrick Thompson (Entrabase) Nathan Grover Jeremy Walton Jill Culora DK Sweet Susan Bowen Corey Alan Camp Cathy Balach Art Vandalay Lloyd Braun June Lim Michelle Walton Anita Schiller Gigi Erickson Nyal McMullin Larry Selman

Cover Photography Yellow Figure © Latchezar Boyadjiev | Cover Photography Vortex © Llyod Shugart Cover Photography Etched Glass © Eric Hilton | Cover Photography Bamboo Tree © Robert Oddy

World Art Glass Quarterly is published by Global Arts Publishing, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without written consent is prohibited. Advertisers assume all liabilities for printed advertisements in World Art Glass Quarterly. Opinions in World Art Glass Quarterly are those of the writers, and may not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Quarterly, its management, or its advertisers. Please address unsolicited material to 1650 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126. Phone 408.834.8945. It will be handled with care, but the quarterly assumes no responsibility for the material. ISSN # 1934-8665 Postmaster: Please send address changes to World Art Glass Quarterly, 1650 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126.

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Maintaining the

Fire: S

The Art of Sonja Blomdahl by: Cathy Balach

onja Blomdahl’s pieces are not created, crafted, or even necessarily contemplated. They are born. This is not the way that Blomdahl puts it, but after seeing her work and the meaning it has to her, it is hard to see it any other way.

Blomdahl is careful not to ascribe too much meaning to her work.

First, because the effect it achieves is personal to the viewer, and to Blomdahl herself. Second, because Blomdahl works more from feeling than from thought. “I came to [my craft] from pure enjoyment,” says Blomdahl. Once you comprehend that, you have the vocabulary for understanding Blomdahl’s work—not an art critic’s vocabulary, but a personal aesthetic.

As Blomdahl says, “My work is like me – approachable.” Galleries repeatedly tell her that wide ranges of people, from the art aficionado to the novice, enjoy her work. An artist can appreciate the craft that has gone into Blomdahl’s precise symmetry, but that same symmetry holds a universal appeal that reaches a much broader audience.

For this Blomdahl is pleased: “You don’t have to understand art to appreciate the beauty [of my work]… One gallery told me that even the mail delivery person loved my work, and that made me happy.”

Yet for Blomdahl, symmetry is only a component in achieving her overwhelming goal, which is beauty—and through it, joy. In addition to symmetry, that means her

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“Color is a form of joy,” says Blomdahl.

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preference for creating smooth, round curves, and a seduction of color.

Color stands at the forefront of Blomdahl’s notoriety. A master of color, she finds her inspiration against the backdrop of the rainy Seattle days. “The dull gray days are conducive,” she says. “Color pops out in the rainy days here. I’m inspired.”

“Color is a form of joy,” says Blomdahl, referring both to her use of it as well as to it’s visual outcome. She admits to getting attached to a particular color, often without being fully conscious of it. “At the end of a month I realize I’ve used a lot of a certain color, but then I get tired of it.”

Blomdahl works more with color fields than pieces of color. She also prefers color overlays to achieve unique colors. “One aspect of color overlay is that it allows the light to transmit through glass differently, since each color is like a separate layer of skin,” she explains. The ultimate effect is unique, complex.

“Density is important in working with color,” Blomdahl adds. She prefers that her glass remain translucent, so she seeks the critical balance between her goals of intense color and translucency.

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Though she works increasingly on architectural commissions, the trademark Blomdahl piece is the vessel. This form allows her to entirely capture her goals of symmetry and round curves. They also appeal to another Blomdahl aesthetic: the practical. “I like the idea that you can use them if you wanted.” She believes that too many people are intimidated, and says, “They are afraid to touch glass.” Blomdahl wants glass to be accessible—elevated to an everyday level.

Blomdahl launched her career in 1976, after attaining a BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art and then studying at Orrefors Glass School in Sweden. In 1978, at Pilchuck Glass School, she was first exposed to Checco Ongaro’s incalmo technique, and it was then that she found her artistic roots.

Since that time, she has remained true to her vision. Using the incalmo technique (which, literally translated, means “with calm”) is the forefront of Blomdahl’s vessel form. First, she blows two open cups of colored glass—nicknamed a “double bubble,” referring to the two bubbles of different colored glasses—so that the lips are identical in diameter. She also blows a clear band of the same diameter, and joins the three components into a single piece while they are hot. Then she blows the three-part form into one perfectly formed piece, a delicate balancing act that can take up to two hours.

“Density is important in working with color,” Blomdahl adds. She prefers that her glass remain translucent, not opaque, she seeks the critical balance between her goals of intense color and translucency.

The clear glass band at the joint is inherent to the incalmo technique, but Blomdahl emphasizes it in her work. It is critical to the overall aesthetic, and she sometimes crafts multiple color bands into her pieces to add an additional level of complexity. Under Blomdahl’s skilled hand, the clear band is not merely a connection, but also a point of juxtaposition for light; it allows light entering from the top to “move around” and thus create a glow within the entire piece. The result is a vessel with two distinct sections of color that interact and come alive. “It adds an additional benefit,” says Blomdahl. “It allows you to see inside the vessel without looking straight down.”

The incalmo technique is a Venetian methodology – and a great streak of Venetian influence runs deep in the Pacific Northwest. Blomdahl’s work does no t look particularly influenced by the Venetian masters, but, as she says, “There is a more primordial, feminine effect.” That, and what she calls the Swedish influence, a Scandinavian-influenced emphasis on clean, pure lines and simplicity.

Blomdahl was attracted to the form of the vessel from the beginning of her career. She began with bowls, evolved to forms of spheres and double curves, and now works with lipped spheres. “I like the primordial aspect of open bowls,” she admits.

The femininity of Blomdahl’s work is undeniable. Her choice of the vessel make this apparent, as do her words, “If I have done things correctly, the profile of the piece is a continuous curve. The shape is full, and the opening confident.” There is a flow, a rhythm within her voluptuous forms, and a sense of fertility inherent in her craft.

These days Blomdahl signs, or “gives birth,” to around 100 pieces per year. She works increasingly on architectural commissions, but that has its tradeoffs. From a practical standpoint, the commissions allow her the flexibility to create on a part-by-part basis. However, she loses the gratification of working hands-on with her vessels, of having full mastery and inspiration in her pieces.

Blomdahl works out of her hot work studio in Washington state. She built the studio in 1983, one of the first independent glassblowing studios in Seattle. She sees this decision as one of her greatest commitments to her craft—not the financial commitment, but the life commitment. “It’s a big World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 3

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Blomdahl

Sonja Blomdahl

“Creativity cannot exist without balance”. step,” Blomdahl says. “There’s a rhythm and responsibility to maintaining the fire. It comes at a price.”

Of course, having her own studio has also allowed her to flourish as a glass artist, and she admits that the studio was critical to developing her own work, remaining true to her artistic vision. With over thirty years as a glass artist, Blomdahl is proof positive that, though difficult, it is still possible for artists to make a name for themselves based on their own artistic talent and vision. She is not web savvy, does not market herself—does not even have a word of self-promotion in her vocabulary. With only a single assistant and an admittedly simple shop (“When something breaks,” she admits, “I use duct tape.”), Blomdahl has built a reputation as a leading glass artist and master of color. Her works can be found in a wide range of public and private collections, from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Museum of Decorative Arts in the Czech Republic, to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. The key to her success is her lifelong commitment to her craft. Blomdahl is, above all, consistent. She does not stray from her path, and is not lured by trends in glass or art. Instead, she remains true to her passion and artistic vision. She maintains good relations, works closely with her clients on commissions, and never forgets to stoke the creative fires. In other words, she has worked hard to get where she is today.

As Blomdahl explains, creativity cannot exist without balance. This applies not only in the artistic aspects of her work, but also in her everyday life. When asked what she does to nurture her creative process, she does not hesitate to answer, “Working with glass is intense, you have to be in the moment and it takes all of you.” She finds rejuvenation essential to maintain the creative process, “just being outdoors, away and in different scenery, a sense of solitude.”

Physical rejuvenation is also important to Blomdahl. “When I first started [blowing glass], I thought that I was getting all the 14

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exercise I needed, but that was not true.” She practices yoga to offset the repetitive motions and maintain a sense of personal quiet. This is no surprise given the physical challenge of her work. She might alternate between furnace and bench fifty times within the two hours it takes to create a single piece. Moreover, she enjoys blowing larger vessels, making the strain even greater, the balancing act even harder.

Though Blomdahl has received notoriety as a prominent woman in a maledominated field, she does not give it much thought. Just as she has no interest in trends, or need for self-promotion, she does not see herself in comparative terms. Blomdahl is simply pleased when a viewer enjoys her work, not because it glorifies her as an artist, but because it is a vessel of happiness and joy.

Blomdahl has been working on a Solo Exhibition, opening at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art in Montgomery, Alabama in May 2007. From there the exhibition will travel through 2008 with stops at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse New York, the Muskegon Museum of Art in Minnesota, and finally at the Museum of Northwest Arts (MONA) in La Conner , Washington.

All photos © 2007 Sonja Blomdahl

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LUTZ Haufschild

T

hose who have traveled in Taiwan will agree that it is a busy country. In its larger cities, travel is often congested and at times even gridlocked. Yet strangely enough, in even the most congested subway station there is an eerie silence. Unlike in the transit systems of other large cities throughout the world, in Taiwan no one speaks, shouts or laughs during the commute. The only audible sounds are from shuffling feet, rustling baggage and from the trains themselves. Everyone seems secluded in their own thoughts and they don’t look up except to step on or off the train cars. However passengers exiting the soon to be completed subway station at the International Airport of Kauschung will be confronted with a work of art that is bound to awaken their senses and provide a topic of discussion. The piece is called Emerald Laminata and it is a glass sculpture representing the torrents of the open sea, created by artist Lutz Haufschild.

“Kauschung is Taiwan’s industrial and shipping capital as well as its second largest city,” says Haufschild, “for Emerald Laminata I wanted to create something peaceful that would also speak about the ocean environment that surrounds this island.” Lutz explains that he wanted the piece to exemplify the nature and purity of water.

The piece is comprised of two separate sculptures, each ten feet tall and fifty feet long. One of the sculptures, which is not yet completed, depicts a wave that looks like a tree with branches spreading and stretching across the entire composition. The other relief, now finished and installed, shows a rippling splash in the ocean. “What I wanted to demonstrate in this piece was the infinity of water,” says Haufschild, “as if a giant rock had been dropped in the ocean and the waves radiate outward forever.”

The piece is made of six-millimeter thick strips of glass cut at gradually varying degrees, stacked and laminated on top of each other. The sculpture’s relief ranges from twelve to one and a half inches thick. There are over 500 vertical layers of glass which create a ten foot high wall of flowing by: Jeremy Walton contour equal to that of water.

The sculpture was first sketched and drawn out several times. When he was satisfied with the sketches, Lutz created a clay 1:10 scale model of the finished piece. He then took several high-contrast photographs that were sent to fellow artist Christian Karl Janssen where they were used to create digital models containing more than 94 million three-dimensional coordinates.

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LUTZ Article

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“Randomness” is essential to the nature of the piece and to the

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“I worked on the virtual fabrication,” says Janssen, “we had to translate the clay models into glass, and the computer helped a lot.” Janssen used the powerful 3D imaging software of Maya to slice the models up into cross-sections, which were printed out as nearly two and a half miles of paper templates. These templates were then sent to Derex Studios in Germany to hand cut the 10,200 glass pieces that would be stacked to create the piece.

“We could have used a laser or a more precise way of cutting the glass from the templates,” explains Haufschild, “but the edge would be too perfect. I wanted there to be a sense of randomness that could only be found in hand-cut and broken edges.” This “randomness” is essential to the nature of the piece and to the very nature of the ocean.

“This was a very unique piece,” Lutz continues, “because it incorporates twentyfirst century technology through the use of the Maya software and hand glass cutting techniques which have been around for hundreds of years.”

very nature of the ocean.

“The piece seems to move when you walk by it, but it’s an illusion,” Lutz says, “because it’s not the piece moving, it’s you. It gives the piece some mystery, and a little bit of mystery is always good in art.”

“It was a real privilege to work with Lutz,” says Janssen, “the way he engages each project is so fascinating, it’s as if the pieces already existed and he is just freeing them up into tangible matter.”

Haufschild is an accomplished sculptor who had an early exposure to art glass. “I put myself through art school doing stained glass,” says Haufschild. After graduating from The Advanced Institute of Art and Technology in Hanover, Germany, Lutz (who was born and raised in Germany) relocated to Canada. After several years in North America working as a sculptor, Haufschild began working with stained glass again. Now, with nearly forty years of experience in art glass, he has earned a reputation as an artist for whom no job is too big.

“Scale has never been a deterrent,” explains Haufschild, “I like working on large projects, they’re very challenging.” The larger the project, the more headaches and complications there are and a solid understanding of architecture is a requirement. It is for this very reason that some artists, especially in the realm of stained glass, tend to shy away from large commissions.

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“I believe that art can and should be used to work in conjunction with the other elements of the structure in order to create a flowing harmony.� This attitude has carried Haufschild to experiment with many types of art glass.

All photos © 2007 Lutz Haufschilds

used to work in conjunction with the other elements of the structure in order to create a flowing harmony.” This attitude has carried him to experiment with many types of art glass.

Lutz’s imagination created another stunning piece when he was commissioned to design a 135’ by 35’ window for the departure lounge in the Vancouver International Airport. “They wanted an ocean theme, but they didn’t know what that meant.” The same lounge also houses Bill Reid’s famous sculpture, The Spirit of the Haida Gwaii, The Jade Canoe, that depicts legendary creatures from Haida tribal lore paddling out to sea. “It’s a beautiful sculpture that depicts what the Haida believe to be the creation of the first man,” explains Haufschild. Lutz wanted to incorporate this bronze sculpture into his own work which would come to be known as The Great Wave Wall.

His window akin to The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai would force Haufschild to do what he does best - think outside the box. “I originally wanted to create a 3D relief, similar to how I would eventually create Emerald Laminata,” remembers Haufschild, “but the piece would have been too heavy and due to the direction the piece would be facing the relief would be completely wiped out by the direct sunlight.”

“I decided to use thin strips of colored glass that would be laminated to clear float glass,” Lutz explains, “up close it is easy to see the variations between the different colors and strips, but the farther you step back the more it looks like a wave.” The result is staggering. Lutz used nine different shades to create a 135-foot long wave, into which Bill Reid’s canoe sculpture seems to be paddling.

Through these and other commissions, which are featured in public and private collections throughout the world, Haufschild’s reputation has become as large as the pieces he creates. Emerald Laminata will be turning thousands of heads a day for years to come and is bound to make Taiwan a destination for every admirer of art glass.

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FREED

David Huchthausen:

Mysteries light

Capturing the

of

To see one of David Huchthausen’s creations in print is a visual feast. But like a picture of a fine meal, satisfying the eyes but not the palate, something is missing from the experience. Indeed, it is only when you walk around his sculpture, watching the patterns of colors diffuse, reflect, shrink, and magnify that you see that the art is at once both cold and warm, confined and free, static and dynamic, vibrant and mysterious. And when you start to see how the light reflected through the glass interacts with your movement around it, you begin to understand how limiting the two-dimensional space is in presenting his work.

by: Alex Maynes

To move around one of Huchthausen’s pieces is to literally see it in a new light, as each is designed to be viewed from any and every angle, and each and every angle reveals a new and different facet, as the colors reflect and refract in countless ways. Each piece is a study of the interaction of light and color with the abstract shapes and carefully placed lenses and fractures.

“I’ve always been interested in using the full 360 degree circumference of the piece, creating something that is fully volumetric, fully three dimensional,” Huchthausen says, “where literally every angle you look from gives you a very different impression, and looks like a completely different piece.”

The experience is seemingly unconstrained by the physical borders of the glass itself. Light and color reflect off lenses and fractures, creating the impression of depth and size well beyond the physical perimeters of the sculpture.

Peering inside the glass, the reflections make it difficult to determine the source of the color, with each reflected image in the glass an illusion, an echo of another. To engage the piece is to allow that there may be things beyond us,

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© 2007 Lloyd Shugart

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more dimensionality to the world than what we may recognize. And while Huchthausen is careful to leave the interpretation of his art to the viewer, he does admit an interest in exploring and capturing a certain mystery and elusive dimensionality in his art.

These glass-encased studies of light and color are so different, unique and unexpected, that it’s not unusual for some to question the source of his creations. “People ask me, ‘Where did this come from?’” Huchthausen says, “and I say, ‘well, it’s 35 years of evolution.’”

This evolution has been nothing short of amazing, as Huchthausen’s ever-evolving techniques and ideas over the past thirty-five years have progressed and complemented each other, resulting in increasingly complex and fascinating pieces.

Earlier works, such as those in Huchthausen’s Leitungs Scherben series, started with light panels containing fewer colors and little of the clear optical glass that serves as the medium for the panels in his current work. These light panels, thrust up and supported by opaque black or white glass plates, were jaggedly cut and seemingly precariously balanced. The colored panels, made up of opaque, transparent, and translucent glass sections laminated together, projected the light passing down through them in patterned displays onto the surfaces below.

From there, Huchthausen began to support the colored panels with polished optical glass center columns. This transitional direction is represented in his abstract Winter Strike series, which was influenced by the precision-guided weapons demonstrated during the 1990 Gulf War. These pieces project light into the fractured edges of the

© 2007 Lloyd Shugart

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© 2007 Eduardo Claderon

colored panels and down through the center column, which is also surrounded by a highly focused geometric shadow.

“An interesting thing happened during that series,” Huchthausen explains. “I discovered that if the glass plate was an inch or more thick, and I had at least an inch of glass between the fracture and the panel, that the light reflecting off the color bar would project out and fill up that fracture with color.

I started playing with those possibilities, adding stripes and controlling the color patterns, so that I could actually reflect specific colors back out into all of the fractures. I just kept pushing that and making the panels thicker. This led me into making the pieces solid so I could create the huge fractures at the bottom of the blocks.”

Then, in addition to the jagged fractures in the pieces, Huchthausen began to cut lenses into the bottoms, sides, and corners, as well as into the fractures themselves. This allowed the light to bend and reflect back through the glass in a more ordered manner, projecting patterns of light and color back up, across, and through, both filling the spaces and creating the illusion of more space and dimensionality.

The current evolution has brought Huchthausen to spheres. He looked at the dome-shaped lenses in his Echo Chamber series and started to wonder 30

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© 2007 Roger Schreiber

© 2007 Lloyd Shugart

what would happen if he took the lens, and instead of making it hollow to reflect, wrapped that lens around the color panel, putting the panel inside a solid sphere of optical glass.

“We started working with the spheres about three years ago and I’ve really been having fun with them,” he explains. “It moves the work into another realm, where the hard-edged geometry in the center plane bends and wraps around the interior edge of the sphere, distorting it out into infinity.”

While David Huchthausen’s experience has served him well, he started building from a solid foundation. His resume is long and distinguished, and includes degrees with Academic Honors from the University of Wisconsin and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Illinois State University, also with Academic Honors. He spent time in Europe as a Fulbright Scholar in the mid 1970’s, and has been an influential member of the American art scene. His work is in the permanent collections of over 60 museums worldwide and

© 2007 Lloyd Shugart

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© 2007 Roger Schreiber

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© 2007 Lloyd Shugart

he has been included in biographies such as Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Art, and Who’s Who in the West. His work, accomplishments, contributions to the art community and other interesting facts are well documented.

It was in the United States in the early 1970’s that he began developing the coldworking techniques and visual aesthetic that has evolved into the art he creates today. His interest in architecture was a strong influence, as was his penchant for collecting things (see the fascinating “Obsessions” section of his website for more information on this topic). However, he had to teach himself many of the processes he uses currently and invent others from scratch. “Cold working in the United States back in the Seventies was almost non-existent,” Huchthausen says, “though it had always been an aspect of glass I was drawn to. I started laminating pieces together with adhesives because I was frustrated by the relatively small scale achievable at in the furnace.” © 2007 Lloyd Shugart

Since then, Huchthausen has cultivated and developed his instincts for how colors should be combined in his pieces. He is intrigued with colors and how they interact with each other and respond to light, refraction, and diffusion. His interest, study, and experience have served him well. “I’ve been doing this for so long,” he says, “that it’s like a painter grabbing various tubes of paint, I know exactly what will happen when I put different colors together in a panel.”

Along with his intimate knowledge of the characteristics and properties of the many types of glass he uses, Huchthausen is also a glass historian of sorts. He acquires glass from all over the world, and much of it from eclectic sources. And so, hidden in the glass color panels, is another facet of his art: the unique histories of the glass he uses.

© 2007 Roy Adams

A faint blue opal glass made by the Asahi Glass Company in Japan in the late 80’s is one type of glass Huchthausen uses. Created for a few specific architectural projects in Tokyo and the US, it was discontinued in part because it was very corrosive due to its silver and cryolite content. Screen glass developed by Corning Glass as Fluorescent light covers in the 1930’s was mostly destroyed when plastics were developed to replace the glass. Huchthausen rescued a few sheets of this glass, and small pieces have appeared in various works. Huchthausen also uses a thick black plate glass that he salvaged from an Art Deco restaurant in a train station in Buffalo New York when the restaurant closed. He bought crates of old Vitrolite and Carrera glass in the 1970s. This architectural glass was developed in the late 1920s as a substitute for marble, but eventually became unprofitable to make, fell out of fashion, and by 1954 it was discontinued. In fact, much of the material he uses for color is “obscure glass” designed originally for optical or architectural use. “And by obscure,” Huchthausen says, “I mean it’s no longer produced.”

In several of his pieces, he has used some of the difficult-to-obtain Asahi glass to create ghost-like grids. One of the most notable of these is in an eleven and three-quarter-inch sphere titled “Tholian Web”. The grid has an ethereal, almost Escher-like appearance. It appears bent and stretched through the curved surface of the otherwise crystal-clear sphere. And depending on the viewing angle, it appears as solid-edged or dreamily soft. “It’s deceiving,” says Huchthausen, “it looks simple yet it was very difficult to laminate that grid, to get everything to line up and work visually.”

Attention to detail and studied precision are two of the “secrets” of Huchthausen’s success. But he has other secrets. In the studio, as Mike Barrette, Huchthausen’s studio manager, works grinding a sphere, Huchthausen smiles as he lightheartedly World Art Glass Quarterly – Volume 3

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Mike Barrette

warns against taking pictures that could reveal his secret methods, tools, and processes. “Yeah, big secrets,” responds Mike as he leans into his work, his voice straining with effort as he grinds a new lens into the side of a sphere, “you mean secrets like hard work and skill?”

Creating the color panels for Huchthausen’s pieces is a painstaking process that takes equal parts hard work and skill. Huchthausen carefully selects each piece of glass he uses to create the panels. He chooses his glass based on many factors, including the color, opacity, texture, and how he knows the light will interact with adjacent colors and textures. Once he has selected the glass for the panels, the pieces are cut, laminated, machined, and the process repeated until the panel has the desired properties and the required dimensions. Then the color panels are laminated to the carefully machined pieces of optical glass, ready for final finishing.

“The processes we use are long and drawn out,” explains Huchthausen. “Each lamination takes a couple of days to prepare and cure. It’s a painstaking process of cutting, laminating, cutting, re-laminating, re-cutting, and then doing all the final machining.” Each piece is assembled and finished by hand.

It is very labor-intensive and that’s the way Huchthausen likes it. “I’ve never wanted a production studio,” he says, preferring to work with the precision and care necessary to make the high-quality, low-volume sculpture for which he is so well known. Although Huchthausen might be working on three

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David Huchthausen

or four pieces at any one time, it can take up to five months or more to complete a piece. The labor-intensive part of the equation includes manipulating the heavy optical glass blocks and carefully grinding and polishing them to perfection. “Some of the pieces weigh 80-90 pounds.” Huchthausen says, and laughs as he continues, “That’s why I have young people working for me.”

What can we expect next from the studio of David Huchthausen? He is hesitant to reveal exactly what his next project will be. After all, there are some secrets that he does keep. But it promises to have all the mystery, dimensionality, and volumetric expression found in his current work. Precision crafted, painstakingly finished, and thought-provoking creations that feed the imagination, speak to the soul, and just may be the next step in the continuing evolution of his art.

All photos © 2007 David Huchthausen

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ra O k Studios Exclusive UK Article 1st in a SERIES

a

by: Susan & Mark Walton

s

the windshield wipers swiped madly across the front window of our car, we made our way into the little village of Wordsley. We were anxious to visit the studios of Richard Golding and his partner, Nicola Osborne. Not knowing quite what to expect, and braving the typical stormy English weather, we pursued our quest to see Okra Studios at work. Straining to see through the foggy windows, we turned down a narrow street and were pleased to see signs indicating we had come to the right place.

Clutching our raincoats about us, we walked briskly down a stone path to the door of Okra Studios.

As we were welcomed into the warm studio, it was hard to imagine that we had felt cold moments before. The warmth came not so much from the glowing furnace and glory hole, as it did from the welcome of the people who introduced themselves to us. We were charmed by the beauty of the glass art surrounding us, and also by the friendly smiles of Golding and Osborne.

Richard Golding was originally trained as an

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electronics engineer. Having also been in the Navy, he found many opportunities to practice his tireless attention to detail, including working on helicopters.

In 1978, he impulsively decided to change careers and follow one of the early interests of his life, which was art. He enrolled at the International Glass Centre in Brierley Hill in the West Midlands of England.

It was just a one-year course, but it became significant in his life. It was not only where he acquired the basic skills of working with glass, but also during this time he met Osborne.

This was the beginning of the formation of Okra Studios, founded in 1979. The studio moved to several different locations in the following years, one move being to the Broadfield House Museum. There they converted an old barn into an art glass studio. Golding saved money by using his skills to build most of the equipment needed, his engineering background becoming invaluable. Currently they are located in the studios at Number 12, Queen Street.

Long admiring the work of Okra Studios, we were anxious to see first-hand more of the techniques they had developed. Having brought together various styles and forms, combined with their own inspiration, they have introduced nature into almost all of the work they produce. What makes Okra Studios exceptional is the fact that they custom make all of their own colors and when finished with the iridescent coating, the work is unique. One technique in which they’ve excelled is the layering of glass, color upon color; and finally engraving, to expose colors in the layers beneath. This process is not new, but Okra Studios has jumped a step further by adding cameo engraving. The glass is then reheated, smoothing out the sandblasted look and then the piece is iridised again.

For the last five years the cameo engraver for Okra Studios has been Terri Colledge. She came from a background of painting at Bilston Enamels. Feeling frustrated by the repetitive work there, Colledge looked for a job where she could express her creativity. After being introduced to Golding, she began using her skills in engraving and cameo work for Okra.

Watching her work painstakingly with the engraving tool, it is evident that she is a perfectionist. Colledge says she would never let her work go out if it wasn’t 38

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Terri Colledge’s talented hands

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perfect. Her pieces take upwards of forty hours to reach completion.

As Golding showed us through his studio, we were fascinated by the ingenuity used in designing the studio to make the most of his space and the wise use of energy. All throughout, Golding has made his equipment to be energy efficient. Both saving money and using fewer natural resources. He has developed a process of pre-heating his glass before it goes into the furnace, thereby saving energy and also the wear-and-tear on the crucible.

Recouping heat from the furnace is nothing new but Golding has taken that a step further as well. The influence of his engineering background can be seen in almost every detail in his studio. It was amazing to see all the timesaving devices he has developed. Having worked in glass for over thirty-five years, We found ourselves thinking over and over; it makes so much sense – why haven’t we ever thought of that?

We watched Golding working the hot glass to form a perfect paperweight. Using a torch and rods of color to help create a flower,

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Nicola Osborne seemed to become an extension of Golding’s arm. She seemed instinctively to anticipate what needed to be done next.

It was no surprise to learn later that Osborne had been trained as a classical dancer, working in a ballet company. They worked gracefully together to create something remarkable.

Widely recognized for his work, Golding has led various workshops and has lectured at the Royal Academy of Art in London. Works of art from Okra Studios have graced the halls of various museums and collections including the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.

Golding was also commissioned by the Mayor of Dudley to create a presentation piece for the Queen of England.

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tant close. We knew we were keeping our new friends from their work. We left with hearty handshakes and a sincere invitation to return again for future visits. Making our way back down the little stone path that led us back to our car we hardly noticed that it still was raining. With the artistic talents of the people behind Okra Studios, and the innovative processes Golding has developed, we are sure to see the impact of Okra Studios in the art glass world for years to come.

Richard Golding & Nicola Osborne

All photos Š 2007 Okra Studios

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Your individual journey with art

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Latchezar Boyadjiev by: Nathan Grover

A

t first glance, Latchezar Boyadjiev is something of a paradox. While his sculptures embody passionate gestures of purist abstraction, the man himself is surprisingly practical. The colors he uses are rich and vibrant, almost shouting for attention. In a frozen state of activity, they surge, swoop and lunge. Yet as the creator of these highly energetic forms, Mr. Boyadjiev appears endearingly soft-spoken and composed. The energy of his sculpture provides a glimpse into one theme that is an essential part of Boyadjiev’s story: Freedom. One needs only to listen to him talk about his art and his life to sense the spirit and passion beneath his even composure.

Boyadjiev was born and raised in communistgoverned Bulgaria.

He began his studies in 1979 in Sofia at the Academy of Applied Arts, then continued from 1980 to 1985 in Prague, Czechloslovakia under the tutelage of renowned glass artist Stanislav Libensky. He held his education and his colleagues in high regard, but found the atmosphere stifling. “There was no freedom in the country,” Boyadjiev says. “I like to travel, to be free. To create something beautiful you need to be free.” He objected to the government’s demands that he glorify the party with his art and create propaganda rather than follow his vision. “You 46

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had to become a member of the communist party in order to succeed,” he explains. “I wasn’t communist, nobody in my family was communist, and I had a lot of problems with the government. I couldn’t imagine being closed up and told what to do all the time.

I wanted to be free.”

The desire for freedom left Boyadjiev with one option, and so in 1986 he and his wife defected to Italy. They stayed a while at a hotel for refugees outside of Rome (where, Boyadjiev fondly remembers, you could buy a car from a fellow refugee for next to nothing because so many were shipping out and leaving behind whatever they couldn’t carry) and then immigrated to the United States. They settled in the San Francisco Bay Area and Boyadjiev began from scratch to make a name, construct a social network, and sculpt with whatever glass he could find.

His early work involved cutting, grinding, polishing, and bonding optical glass into shapes that are not altogether unfamiliar when compared to his current work. “Even at that time,” says Boyadjiev, “I wanted to bring a softness to the glass, not to make it cold. I wanted more energy, more dynamics.” Over time, these desires and the shapes they inspired earned Boyadjiev increasing attention from his peers and from collectors around the world. And as his name in the art world has grown, so has his work, as seen in his towering blue sculpture, the aptly named Guardian, which stands over six-feet tall.

Boyadjiev’s sculptures celebrate and reflect the love of freedom cherished by the artist. They range in size from table pieces of one or two feet to large, stand-alone pieces the height of a human.

They are uniformly abstract, and although his shapes are surprisingly varied, his vocabulary remains consistent. The source of tension that energizes Boyadjiev’s sculptures is a dialogue between

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free. To create something beautiful you need to be free.”

“I like to travel, to be

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opposites. Bold, straight lines meet playful, meandering curves. Robust, dark stands of glass support delicate, transparent flourishes. Smooth, clean textures and organic, rough surfaces are coerced into precarious balance. There is a sensuality, not only in the female torso, which makes a number of both literal and inferred appearances in his work, but also in the blazing colors he chooses. The pieces are monochromatic, a practical choice by Boyadjiev owing to the complications of mixing colors in a single body of glass, but Boyadjiev has thrived within this constraint by elegantly exploiting the nature of his medium: “I work with the density of the glass,” he says. “The thicker the glass, the darker it is. The thinner the glass, the lighter it gets. Even though it’s just one color it has so many variations.” The result, in a piece like the predominately dark blue Guardian, is not just dark blue, but a gradient that includes every shade of blue between darkness and transparency. This endows the sculptures with an alluring depth, a sense of shape and movement within. Further mesmerizing are the changes to the sculptures when viewed from different angles; they must be fully explored to be fully understood. A movement of just a few inches to the left might cause a line that divided light from dark to suddenly reverse. The composition changes from each angle as new lines are revealed, as positive and negative spaces trade positions, and soon the surprisingly fluid sculpture becomes something not just to look at, but to enter into, an invitation to explore the depth, quality, and emotion of the art.

Boyadjiev’s sculptures have titles such as Influence, Emotion, Retreat, Diversion, Steam, and Speed,

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titles just as abstract as the pieces themselves.

The sculptures speak to you about their topics in a language of lines and textures, balance and movement; a language you understand with not your brain, but with something more primal.

This is the language that Boyadjiev uses to title them, translating that emotion (as nearly as possible) into written language. “The hardest thing is to name it,” Boyadjiev says of his sculptures.

“I just go by what I feel when I look at the piece.

What does it remind me of?” Thus, when you view the piece Influence, with its thick foundation and its bulk leaning single-mindedly into a perceived headwind, you feel the sculpture speaking deep inside of you about the idea of influence; you’re feeling the very intuition that the artist felt as he created the sculpture.

The process to create each sculpture is difficult but rewarding. The journey takes Boyadjiev’s sculptures through numerous mediums and across the globe.

It is remarkable the number of incarnations his idea takes as it is translated from one medium to another before assuming its destined form. Generally, making a copy of a copy of a copy is considered a degenerative process. But with each translation, Boyadjiev’s work advances closer to perfection.

Every Latchezar Boyadjiev sculpture begins in his studio, conceived in front of a large sheet of paper, where Boyadjiev stands wielding a stick of charcoal.

It is here, away from furnaces and molten glass, that the bulk of the creative process takes place. “It has to be the right combination of size, composition, balance, and energy,” Boyadjiev says. It is a journey of intuition, and the companion muse is often capricious. “Some days I’m in good shape and I can do a lot of drawings, four or five good designs. Some days I have to struggle and I can’t do one.” But Boyadjiev, ever practical, isn’t tortured by his block. He chuckles, “I just go do paperwork instead.”

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Boyadjiev’s large inceptive drawings are stunningly accurate when compared to their corresponding finished sculptures. He is even able to simulate the dense color in the thicker sections of glass with smeared black charcoal. “I know exactly how it’s going to look once I have the sketch,” Boyadjiev says. His clarity of vision is impressive and once the sketch is finished, nothing is left to chance.

When the drawing is complete, Boyadjiev renders the concept again, this time in three dimensions using clay. Boyadjiev the Sculptor stands just behind where he stood as Boyadjiev the sketch artist, and, equipped with earthy hands and a palette knife, sculpts the idea on a small, draftsman-style table. The sculpture will have a flat back, a remnant of its two-dimensional origin, as if the drawing has extruded out of its restricting plane, emerging from the confines of two dimensions. With a satisfactory shape, Boyadjiev then creates a plaster mold, a negative of his design. From this incarnation, he casts another positive, this time in plaster. Now his ideas are ready to travel.

His process next takes him to the other side of the planet, to the Czech Republic—a less-stifling place since the 1989 Velvet Revolution toppled the communist regime. Here he collaborates with long-time glass working friends to make each idea a reality. Rather than deal with the hassle of shipping his plaster positives and meeting them there, Boyadjiev takes a practical approach. “I fly with them,” he says.

“I take them as luggage. It’s more fun that way.” And there is something fun about imagining this quiet Eastern European artist in line at the airport with his giant crates full of abstractions. It seems bizarre that the heavy ideas of Influence, Emotion, Retreat, Diversion, Steam, and Speed could fit in anyone’s luggage. He claims he packs light otherwise.

From the airport in Prague, he drives a rented station wagon 120 kilometers north to the town of Turnov where he works with a colleague, Tomas Malek, on casting the final pieces. Here he picks his glass and his colors (the color is not necessarily cheaper here, but he maintains that the quality is unmatched). New molds are made 54

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from Boyadjiev’s plaster traveling companions, and the glass is cast. Each sculpture is cast in up to six different colors, and each requires its own mold as each mold is destroyed when the glass sculpture is extricated.

Boyadjiev then leaves the pieces in the hands of Tomas Flanderka, another member of the Turnov studio, who, with Boyadjiev’s instructions, carefully completes the grinding and polishing that lends the pieces their final luster. Boyadjiev feels a special debt to these helpers, Malek and Flanderka. “Without them I could not do what I am doing now.

Our collaboration relieves me of some of the technicalities and gives me more freedom to pursue my creative work.”

The finished sculptures are shipped back to the United States, and finally, poetically, the process ends where it began. Only a few feet from where the piece was conceived is a small, homemade set where Boyadjiev photographs his sculptures like a proud father.

Latchezar Boyadjiev’s sculptures can be seen in galleries around the world. The energy and fluid beauty of his work illustrates the artistic possibilities realized when the artist is free to follow his vision. His work and his story both deserve a long, admiring gaze.

All photos © 2007 Latchezar Boyadjiev

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O

PI ISM

by DK Sweet

gallery

f the general public were asked to conjure all their images of “gallery owners,” one wonders what would come back. Few people, however, would imagine a gallery owner like Sandy Sardella. About as far from the art gallery stereotypes as one can imagine, Sardella came to her present calling in a most improbable way. She looked closely at her options, ran the numbers, and gallery ownership won.

They tell you in business school not to confuse yearning with cash flow potential. In other words, if you love something like art, it might be better to sell auto parts, soybean futures, or something else to which you are unlikely to attach excessive emotional value. Perhaps start a venture capital fund and, if you’re fortunate, buy some outrageously cool objects d’art and write them off as “office furnishings.”

Sandy Sardella bypassed this conventional business-school wisdom and took her own road. After looking at several kinds of businesses to buy that would sustain a business-travel-free, family-centered life in Colorado, Sardella made the decision to step off the cliff of secure corporate employment and take on the many challenges of private gallery ownership. The year was 1990, a time when small business dreams were stoked by the seemingly unquenchable fires of a strong economy. And it was in this booming economic climate that Sandy signed a conservative twelve-month lease and took her first careful steps.

Within two years, business writers would refer back to 1990 as one of the worst years to have launched a small business. Recession began to take hold of the national economy in 1991, and many small business owners suffered.

But it was not the recession that affected Sardella early on, but progress.

Before signing that first lease, the aspiring entrepreneur noted something about the location of the gallery space she wanted. A shopping mall was slated to be built nearby. Sardella wondered if the changes in traffic would help or hurt her new business. As it turned out, the new mall drew people away from her location, making her first year exceptionally tough. But the now veteran gallery owner remembers the period with a chuckle: “I was so naïve about this business I really had no idea it was actually that bad.”

That bit of favorable naïveté allowed her venture to defy not only the recession of the time but also most of the conventional wisdom about what it took to succeed in the business. When asked how long she had wanted to run an art glass gallery before starting PISMO Fine Art Glass, Sardella laughed softly before admitting the idea had never occurred to her before she settled on the idea of owning her own business. She had no direct expe56

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All photos © 2007 Pismo Gallery

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rience in small business and little exposure to the art world beyond her own affection for art glass. If not exactly a stranger in a strange land, Sardella certainly had few experiences that would easily translate to making her new venture a success.

But the one skill she did bring proved crucial: financial acumen. Combined with her conservative attitude towards risk, the financial management skills she had honed in her previous corporate career allowed the new owner to avoid the mistakes many experienced gallery owners still make. Sardella comments on one of the more egregious errors that can be made. “Consignment gallery owners can get themselves into a jam by paying overhead from sale proceeds that should go to their artists.”

Turning artists into unwilling bankers may be born of desperation but, Sardella points out, it’s usually avoidable. “If you get too enthusiastic and take on excessive overhead, bad things can happen” she notes with some understatement.

Playing her cards conservatively allowed the budding gallery owner to survive well enough in her first year and to continue successfully far beyond it. But how did Sardella get from one gallery with a mix of offerings to four galleries with a heavy emphasis on a small niche like art glass?

It certainly wasn’t through listening to the advice of others. Virtually no one in Colorado art circles predicted success for even one art glass oriented outlet–never mind multiple galleries. But in less than eighteen years, Sardella had established galleries in Denver, Aspen, Beaver Creek and Vail.

Part of the explanation lies in the wide variety of art glass available in her galleries and the corresponding range of prices.

Sardella states the price-point differential matter-of-factly, “anything from under a hundred dollars to over three hundred thousand dollars.”

Dig a little deeper, and you’ll also see a commitment to the artists who create the art glass. Johnathon Schmuck, one such artist, explains. “Sandy is one of the best gallery owners to work with that I know. She always communicates every month with each artist she represents and keeps them apprised of the status of each piece that she has in her gallery. If an artist calls her, she always has time to talk.” It is this sterling reputation with artists that attracts high-caliber work to her galleries.

But the factors that loom largest in the success of Pismo galleries may be the two words you might not expect to hear from someone with Sardella’s buttoned-down professional past as a corporate spreadsheet jockey: passion and vision. The truth is, her Pismo galleries came about through her passion for the art and continue to prosper mostly because Sandy Sardella had the vision to foresee that other people would love art glass as much as she does.

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Eric Hilton

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by: Jill Culora

cottish artist and designer Eric Hilton is a true master at working glass to speak his message.

Though modest about his technical abilities, Hilton exercises skills developed over many decades. Today he is considered a virtuoso in optical glass illusion, giving Hilton the space to explore integral contemporary art issues that are sometimes missing from glass art.

Hilton is intrigued by how we as humans fit into the bigger picture—the universe.

“There is an awareness that we are the stuff of stars—our molecular structure extending through all eternity,” he says. “I wonder if our genetic code harbors a distant echo when, like children, we perceive shapes already familiar to us.”

Hilton concerns himself more with the process than with the end result. This notion of process as the central element for an artist is a post-modernist approach to art that permeates Hilton’s description of his artistic life.

Hilton’s approach sets him apart from many other glass artists and reflects a keen knowledge of the aesthetic and philosophical issues that have confronted artists over the past four decades.

Interestingly, with his post-modernist artistic approach, Hilton’s work still focuses on the theme of universal connectedness: an informed awareness of science and a reliance on the natural world to guide and inspire the work.

“Art, for me, is a vehicle that synthesizes order into the awe of existence,” Hilton explains. “It is the vehicle for dance, music, poetry, literature and the visual arts. It represents the soul of human consciousness.”

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“Our challenge is that intelligence is the wild card,” he says. “We do not follow the formula that nature has ordained. The dance between ourselves and nature has, in this century, reached critical proportions, and we must learn swiftly to come back to the path before affairs become irreversible.”

One of Hilton’s goals is to get people to think about what they see. The “incredible possibilities” of illusion captured in glass fascinate him, and he uses a multitude of techniques to construct his pieces.

His process usually involves building wooden moulds, making slugs, a staged slumping process, casting, cutting, sandblasting, fusing, and shattering the optical LF5 Schott Crystal glass by heating and fracturing it in cold water.

Hilton creates his internal sculptural forms by using intentionally produced features, such as bubbles, in the crystal glass, and sandblasting precision detail work into the crystal. He then fuses the pieces together to create the internal form. In these modular sculptures, refraction and reflection of angles of light create miniature halls of mirrors and illusions. The images that you see are actually illusions generated by straight and curved light etched onto separate modules of crystal. When these modules are placed together, the eye reads the images as recognizable objects.

His piece “The Source is Infinite” involved composing seventy pieces of detailed crystal glass—cubic units and rectilinear forms—in a creative process that spanned

I am influenced by nature from which infinite information can be gleaned.” “

eight months. In other pieces, cone shapes add rainbow hues of color. For his tabletops he designed a series made of water jet cut and sandblasted glass with bonded optical elements.

“The process is like painting. I build the piece gradually over the whole surface,” Hilton says. “Think of it as a canvas that can be deeply eroded.” Hilton also says that his true passion lies in the creative process—the molding, etching, cutting, sandblasting, and polishing.

His sculptures depict images of cosmic order and chaos. One such piece is “Storm,” a crystal and granite piece currently exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. The Museum’s description of the piece states, “The cold, pristine glass, suggestive of a block of ice, reinforces the sense of a hostile environment. Hilton captures a sense of the cosmos in constant expansion, frozen in time in pure glass.”

Hilton explains that his fascination has to do with transparency and translucency, the way the illusion stops your eye in space and allows you to look beyond the purely physical to realms of mystery.

The work in his piece “150th Corning,” embodies technical virtuosity coupled with a nuanced understanding of science. Looking back to Watson and Crick’s discovery of DNA through the refraction of light through the double helix, Hilton captures not only the beauty of light but also the underlying structure of all living creatures.

Though he insists that he is an artist, not a scientist, Hilton says he has intuitive mathematics knowledge and a strong interest in mythology and science. All are strongly featured in his work.

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150th Corning

All photos © 2007 Steuben Glass

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“Art for me is a vehicle that synthesizes order into the awe of existence. It is the vehicle for dance, music, poetry, literature and the visual arts. It represents the soul of human consciousness.”

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© 2007 Steuben Glass

© 2007 Steuben Glass

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“I am influenced by nature from which infinite information can be gleaned,” he says. “We stand like beacons and it is my belief that certain places on the earth call to us.

Is it some elemental spirit within us entices us to these places?”

A native of Scotland, Hilton studied fine arts at the Edinburgh College of Art, completing both undergraduate and graduate degrees, initially focusing on ceramics and silversmithing.

It was there that he was first exposed to glass – sandblasting, which he describes as an instant attraction.

From there, he spent more than a decade teaching concepts in materials at universities and colleges in Scotland, Canada and the United States, including seven years at the Stourbridge College of Art. Then in 1972 Hilton joined Steuben Glass as a design consultant. This relationship has spanned nearly four decades and continues today with Hilton producing one-of-a-kind commission pieces. Including his tableware, paperweights and sculpture designs, as well as architectural commissions such as boardroom doors in The Council House of S. C. Johnson and Sons, the Simon and Schuster Building in New York, Queens College, New York and several cruise ship works.

Hilton has won numerous awards and his work has been exhibited throughout the world. Museum collections that house his work include the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, the Pilkington Glass Museum in England and the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Japan.

All photos © 2007 Eric Hilton

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“We stand like beacons and it is my belief that certain places on the earth call to us. Is it some elemental spirit within us entices us to these places?”

Hilton’s home in Scotland

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I

StevenKlein by: Jill Culora

nstead of seeing ordinary objects, artist Steve Klein says that he sees abstract images formed by light, objects, and space when he casts his eyes out onto a vista.

“I see a lot of drama in landscapes,” Klein says. “The raw natural landscape and environment, along with the sky, sea, and horizon line have inspired much of my current work.”

Southern California based Klein has spent the past three summers studying and teaching at North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland, and he says that his Scottish experiences have had a profound effect on him.

“I’ve fallen in love with the city of Lybster and Caithness County—the landscapes, the sky, and the people,” he says.

This love affair is evident in both his Lybster and his North Sea series, which are comprised of kiln-formed and blown pieces that convey an abstract interpretation of bales of straw scattered in fields, light and wind patterns on the

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water, the changing horizon line, and the grand sky. “The landscape is wonderfully carved by time and the harsh elements,” he says. “And the sky is big—overpowering and frequently changing.”

But ultimately, Klein says, he is searching for balance, which has been the predominant theme in most of his work for many years. “While there have been many visual influences, balance is what I’m exploring and seeking,” he says. “I have difficulty with things that aren’t balanced, not just visually, but emotionally.”

Klein’s quest for balance has encompassed more than a decade of investigation—trialing and testing form, shape, line and texture. He has experimented with techniques such as sand casting, kiln casting, blowing, fusing, kiln forming, and many forms and styles of cold working.

His journey and love affair with glass began at Pilchuk Glass School in 1996. “I was seduced by the material,” Klein explains. “I was drawn to the depth and to the reflection that one was able to achieve.” He only knew one thing for certain: that he loved the process of working with glass more than he liked his results.

“There was a human element [in sand casting and kiln casting], a thumbprint in having my hands in the sculpting and molding process. Since glass is a liquid, it defies rigid control. There’s a constant collaboration between the artist and the material,” Klein says. “I enjoyed the collaboration with the process and the material, but I never felt anything after a piece was made.”

An experience in New York City in 1998 seemed to be the catalyst for finding that missing emotion. Klein had traveled to the city to visit Urban Glass and do some sand casting. While there, he saw the Jackson Pollock exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. “I was totally taken by the exhibit,” Klein says. “Not just Pollock’s work, but also the way he worked. The idea of controlled chaos was very exciting to me.”

“I decided I wanted to throw glass like Pollock threw paint. I wanted to be involved in trying to control chaos. I wanted to take more risks and give the material voice in the work.”

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“The raw natural landscape and environment, along with the sky, sea, and horizon line have inspired much of my current work.”

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Klein developed a technique he calls “frit casting,” which involves throwing frit at a glass canvas. He does this in layers with each layer becoming its own composition.

For the first time, Klein was happy with what he produced.

“I would look at the pieces and there was a balance with the line and the color, and the pieces weren’t asking me to think about what they were meaning. There was no narrative. They were beautiful—it was controlled chaos, but it was beautiful.”

Thus Klein began a love affair with abstract expressionists. He studied painters like Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn, Piet Mondrian, Kasmir Malevich, Willem DeKooning, Barnett Newman, Ben Nicholson, and Helen Frankenthaler. He was also drawn to sculptors like Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Barbara Hepworth, and Jun Kaneko.

Klein has continued to study sculptors and the abstract expressionist movement, saying that he “borrows” some of what he sees, and, hopefully, makes it his own. He cites two examples of inspiring abstract painters: Piet Mondrian—whose trademark colors of red, yellow, and blue are evident in Klein’s work—and Barnett Newman, whose use of stripes evolved to become the most recognizable part of Klein’s work.

“I use the stripes for many reasons,” he says. “The lines or stripes are never even on the visual surfaces. They present a more painterly look. I try to make the lines follow the same directions of the lines that I drew while sketching the piece. There’s an emotional attachment with the lines—for me, it creates a rhythm and a balance. The lines can define or divide space. When light passes through the piece it barely recognizes the stripe. The transparent glass held in the stripe becomes predominate and the reflection is a glow of that transparent color. The wall or surface is just bathed in the glow of the reflection and no other material will refract light in this way. For me, the reflection is part of the piece.”

Klein uses primarily squares and circles in his work: “the Adam and Eve of shapes.”

They are the most basic shapes, and all other shapes can be derived from blending these two shapes.

“The sphere is the ultimate circle,” he says. “It’s strong and it’s perfect. The square is similar in many ways. However, in many of my pieces I choose to bend or manipulate the square. Perhaps it’s an act of defiance or just a way of compromising.”

John Davis of Davis and Cline Gallery in Ashland, Oregon said of Klein’s work, “While we are aware of the primacy of gravity in forming the underlying structure of his pieces, [Klein] places objects in defiance of this force. Spheres seem to be frozen in the act of finding a point of balance, a point where the composition says stop—but gravity says go.”

“Spheres can be many things to me,” says Klein, referring to a piece in his recent

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Memory and Consequence Show at The Bullseye Gallery in Portland, Oregon. “I chose to use them in that context because they can be like little people. The holes are like little faces to me. This piece was from a childhood memory of how people are accepted or rejected in groups. Children in particular do a lot of accepting and rejecting. Some of the pieces in that show were recollections of other childhood memories about taking risks.”

Klein says he doesn’t see completed pieces in his head, he sees only feelings.

“The stuff in my head is really not cast in cement. My ideas are only places to start,” he says. “Once I start drawing the idea evolves, but what I see in my mind never has the balance needed to finish the piece.”

When his sketches finally make sense to him, he goes to the material, which allows the three-dimensional shape to form and incorporates the reflection that comes through the piece. “There are so many factors involved—the drawings, the materials, material preparation, process, heat, gravity, and of course, me,” he says.

“There’s always a negotiation between thought, material and process,” he says. “If I do not or cannot communicate with the work, then the work will not communicate with the viewer.”

“In the end, I’m an object maker. My subject is balance. My subject is influenced by what I see and feel,” he says. “Don’t try to see a statement in my work. I work simply to bring beauty to a space and perhaps a smile to the viewer.”

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“The stuff in my head is really not cast in cement. My ideas are only places to start,” Klein says.

“Once I start drawing the idea evolves, but what I see in my mind never has the balance needed to finish the piece.”

Steve Klein Peter Aldridge and Steve Klein at “Collect” in London

All photos © 2007 Steve Klein

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Glass ar t society’s 37th annual conference Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania June 7-9, 2007

Demonstrations • Lectures • Technical Resource Center Education Resource Center • Gallery Forum • Auctions Tours • Exhibitions • Parties ... and More!

GAs membership is open to anyone interested in glass art: Artists Museums Collectors

Galleries Suppliers Writers

Educators Students Manufacturers

For more information or to join, contact the GAS office.

3131 Western Avenue, Suite 414, Seattle, WA 98121 USA Tel: 206.382.1305 Fax: 206.382.2630 E-mail: info@glassart.org Web: www.glassart.org

Over 3000 members in 54 cOuntries

register by April 2, 2007 for the lowest conference fee, at: www.glassart.org

CATCHING UP WITH by: Cathy Balach

Richard Whiteley’s

approach to his art mirrors his teaching methodology: it is firmly rooted in discipline.

A visit to Whiteley’s studio alone provides sufficient evidence. He maintains a logbook detailing each piece, including materials, annealing parameters such as time and temperature, and other information about the methods. In short, he tracks everything he needs to learn from both his successes and failures. His works are a deliberate evolution from concept to drawings to models, all of which guide the process towards reaching his artistic visions. Even more subtly, his personal studio is expertly organized, including proper accounting, as though a master plan is at work.

To an outsider, these details may not seem important, but they are the foundation of Whiteley’s success. He is an organized, methodical artist who achieves his artistic purpose by pursuing his visions with scientific rigor.

Balanced with his busy teaching schedule, his time in the studio allows production of about sixteen major works per year. Moreover, he manages to balance one of the major challenges that plague glass artists—understanding the costs of maintaining operations, and the fine line of profitability that is necessary to support the artistic objective.

Richard Whiteley

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Each piece results from the interplay of form and color, emphasizing sharp lines and an explosion of color. The geometric shapes, some with a distinct asymmetrical flair, create bold planes and sometimes optical illusions.

What any outsider will see at first glance, however, is what is most important—Whiteley’s work. The geometric shapes, some with a distinct asymmetrical flair, create bold planes and sometimes optical illusions. Each of Whiteley’s pieces results from the interplay of form and color, emphasizing sharp lines and an explosion of color. The minimal aesthetics Whiteley employs, these two elements to create an undiluted effect. The sensual effect of his art is immediate.

Yet if it’s ultimately his art that we appreciate, it is Whiteley’s craft that we must revere.

“The foundation of my work can be traced to crafts practice,” he says.

To Whiteley, this means that methodology underpins the process. His myriad of skills forms the lexicon of his artistic vocabulary. Within this framework, design is key, the backbone. “Design is the view of the entire process, from conceptualization to creation,” says Whiteley.

Whiteley’s success is marked by his long and dedicated career in art glass. He attributes his beginning to a day in high school, when he met visiting lecturer Robert Clark, a stained glass artist. “I never saw anything like it in my life,” says Whiteley, “Very cool, sharp lines. I didn’t know you could do that [with glass].” At the end of the talk when the artist said he was interested in taking an apprentice, Whiteley had already decided it was what he wanted to do. At sixteen years of age, he apprenticed to Clark, and stayed on for the next three years.

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Though Whiteley now does a balancing act between his own artistic endeavors and his full time teaching position (as Senior Lecturer and Head of the Glass Workshop at the School of Art, Australian National University [ANU] in Canberra, Australia), he remains committed to exploring new ideas and learning.

Whiteley is dedicated to the craft approach. He describes the creative moments in his career as, “when you have a hunch and you try it and fail, but you stay true to your vision and follow through with that hunch and the material—you find another way.” This is what Whiteley calls his “dialogue with the material.”

Yet Whiteley’s approach is anything but hit-and-miss. He captures his inspiration first through modeling and drawing, often employing more than one medium to capture the nuances and help him plan the path he will take to create his works. “What I found particularly successful was to create the negative, or to see the piece in a cutaway view,” Whiteley explains. “With my work, negative and positive is key.”

Though design is at the forefront of Whiteley’s approach, he admits that in his work with cast glass there always remains an element of surprise. “Only once I cast the glass can I really see its potential, see how it works.” The refractive aspect of glass in particular is so unique that prototypes can’t capture it fully—and it is precisely the refractive properties that Whiteley seeks to capture and manipulate.

Whiteley dedicated himself to casting in the early 1990’s, when he returned to Australia from the United States. Casting presents its own obstacles, as glass can be an unforgiving medium. Casting holds yet another potential for failure because of the need to create a mold. Losing a piece as a result of a flawed mold can be painful. Often a large piece will require weeks or even months of annealing time.

Recently, when Whiteley attempted to retrieve one of his pieces after five weeks, he found the kiln door firmly sealed because the cast had cracked, lining the bottom with glass.

Yet cast glass is Whiteley’s vehicle for form. Many of his pieces use a juxtaposition of form for refracting light and creating optical illusions. He employs highly polished surfaces in contrast to rough matte textures. And he often uses asymmetry, angles, and multiple components to enhance the refracted complexities in his work.

This refraction of light, the play of colors, is central to Whiteley’s designs. With his preference towards natural, cool hues, his approach to color is minimalist. The effect he strives for is nothing short of bold. “Light reflecting off of a bright yellow surface gives you a bright yellow, but light coming through bright yellow glass explodes—a color that you just don’t normally get.”

Whiteley’s veneration for color probably has its origins in his beginning work with stained glass, where he first explored the manipulation of light through refraction. Though his work is influenced by Czech techniques, he contrasts his work with traditional Czech art glass. “While the Czechs are more mono-chromatic, I’m more interested in an explosion of colors… a way to counterpoise form.”

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Although Whiteley emphasizes the relationship of form and color, he also strives to ensure that the form in itself is “successful.” This includes the overall shape of the piece itself, the exploration of the interior, and exterior relationship of the piece. In other words, he is always careful to see the holistic effect of the piece, and he is even conscious of its effect on surrounding spaces.

Like Whiteley’s casting work, his cold-working techniques also draw from the influence of Czech glass. One of the challenges that Whiteley encountered early in his work was the ambitious size of his pieces for an art glass studio. Glass artists who work with cast glass typically work with smaller scale pieces or large works created in sections. To work with larger forms in the studio, Whiteley has adapted his studio and incorporated technologies used by stonemasons, bringing the tool to the pieces in order to work on their surfaces.

All photos © 2007 Richard Whiteley

Whiteley first explored casting techniques at the ANU in the 1980s, working under artists including Klaus Moje, Neil Roberts, and Elizabeth McClure. At that time, Moje held the position that Whiteley now fills. Whiteley cites Moje as an influence in his approach to color. “Working with Klaus gave me the freedom to use color that I’d never seen before,” he explains. Yet in comparison to Moje’s extensive use of color, Whiteley adds, “Klaus is one of the few who can work with the power of multiple colors.” Whiteley remains intrigued by their boldness, their relationship with form and dynamic color.

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Moje was also instrumental to instilling Whiteley’s materials-based approach to designing and creating. Now, as the ANU’s Head of Workshop since 2002, Whiteley continues this tradition, including a heavy emphasis on rigorous design. This is the necessary “thinking through” from concept to creation. As in his own work, he sees the design process as essential for all artists, as what allows them to move from the creative vision to the artistic process—to creating.

Whiteley also builds upon the ANU Glass Workshop’s dedication to building skills. As Whiteley tells his students, “Through developing skills you discover what lies inside of you. This creates the vocabulary on which you develop your own abilities, the basis for your craft.” Whiteley’s personal devotion to this principle is not only what has made him one of the most influential figures in Australian glass, but also what has allowed him to cultivate the unique artistic voice inside himself—what defines a Richard Whiteley work.

Even with the demands of his position at ANU, Whiteley doesn’t rest on his laurels. He keeps challenging himself. Says Whiteley, “Sometimes I’m ahead of myself.” He conceptualizes ideas for new works, but they sometimes require new techniques or processes in order to be crafted.

Ultimately, these new concepts drive the pursuit of new skills and technologies—challenges that Whiteley seems to thrive upon. Still, his limited time has one positive effect: it keeps him focused. Repetitive, commissioned pieces are select, giving him enough time to design and create new pieces.

Richard Whiteley’s works will be exhibited later this year at AXIA Modern Art in Melbourne and Object Gallery in Sydney, Australia.

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From conferences, to museums and trade shows, the ISGB connects member to member, collector to artist, and artist to opportunity; celebrating glass of a more intimate scale.

PERSONAL SCALE, GLOBAL REACH.

Trajectories exhibits during the Bead&Button show, June 3 - 10, and will travel nationally thereafter.

Metamorphosis: the life cycle of the glass bead, opens May 5; Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh, PA. Running concurrent with the GAS Conference through 7/14, then travels to the ISGB Gathering 7/26 - 28, Minneapolis at Evoke Gallery, St. Paul, MN, running through 9/8/07.

For more information visit, www.isgb.org.

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Robert Oddy: an

Expanding

Canvas by: Corey Alan Camp

Glass has sparked curiosity in man for nearly five thousand years. Influences in technique and style draw from their roots, but continually change with time. Those who perceive stained glass art as something of a medieval decoration must seek and understand the strides made by artists who break that stigma by creating lifelike, personable stained glass.

In the search for such an artist, one might take interest in the work of Robert Oddy. He focuses on bringing the beauty and reality of his work to individual audiences, as more of a fine art than an architectural one. He does this by creating a sense of depth unparalleled in most of the stained glass world.

Like many great artists, Oddy taught himself the profession. However, only recently did his art become full-time. With a background in computing and a PhD in Information Retrieval, Oddy left his British schooling and moved to central New York to teach at Syracuse University. His peculiar interest in stained glass began when he found himself intrigued by a kaleidoscope while browsing through a glass retailer. Soon afterwards, Oddy read about copper foil techniques, collected tools, and constructed one himself. He created most of his early window pieces as a part-time hobby, but in 1997 he resigned from Syracuse University to pursue a passion in stained glass artwork.

Most cannot relate to stained glass on a personal level. It poses challenges for those who analyze art, because history suggests its use mainly in conjunction with forms of architecture, such as church windows. Many would not consider some forms of glass art creative, or even practical pieces for a home setting.

Oddy places an emphasis on changing the perception and view of stained glass. Many consider this art form to serve a structural function—more like the door of a house—because some architectural designs require forms of stained glass. Oddy focuses on turning that functional role into something more personally beneficial by creating real, appealing glass art. While some experts limit themselves with 90

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The evolution of idea and skill, along with the desire to change, can do more in one man what thousands of stagnant followers lost in submission will ever do.

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what they know can and cannot be done, Robert Oddy’s self-mastery overrides most well-known techniques to help him create natural subjects that people can relate to on a daily basis.

Oddy’s pieces are not unique merely because of their magnificence as artwork, but because of his choice to reject universal conformity and design, to create something rare. He creates true artwork, not solely for his own pleasure, but for those who have a love for the growth of glass art. This reaching attitude can help bring stained glass from towering buildings to personal space, where it can provide everyday enjoyment.

At best, a truly remarkable painting is as good as the light that it receives. A truly remarkable stained glass window, however, is itself a wall of light that changes according to the strength of the sun, giving the piece life at all times of the day.

One senses a distinct tone when in the presence of a Robert Oddy piece: a tone of peace and flow, originality and personal style, and a life of beauty seen through the glass. Windows are not Oddy’s only forte. He learned the great lesson of studying a trade: to perfect all aspects of the skill. Experimentation has helped Oddy meet the needs of both his clients and his free-flowing mind. Some

of his more creative pieces include hand carved wood branches placed perfectly amidst cut-to-fit glass pieces, which give a more realistic effect in the artwork. He has also played with the idea of sculpture, and recently went on to experiment with fusing glass.

An incredible process takes place within the framework of a conceived project. One of the more important aspects of Oddy’s work is his amazing use of plating—a layering system that offsets glass pieces in front and behind other pieces to create an illusion of depth and reality. Oddy has also expressed another artistic goal, aside from helping art glass become more personal. He wishes to have a clear focus on the piece and its ability to create a sense of intensity that make it look and feel less like a two-dimensional cartoon, and more like a living piece of three-dimensional art. By plating sheets of glass, Oddy can blend color, texture, and other elements to bring each piece alive. For this procedure to work properly and have an appealing tone, he tediously selects specific pieces to fulfill color and balance.

“This is like painting a picture using a palette of glass,” he explains. “That is why I am particular about the glass that I pick to use in the piece.”

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All photos © 2007 Robert Oddy

Evidence of Oddy’s selectiveness appears in the form of shelves and buckets of some of the tiniest pieces of glass. He also has many different glass sheets piled neatly along the walls of his upstairs home studio.

“Painting by numbers tends to make artwork very two-dimensional and flat,” Oddy says, reiterating his purpose for carefully picking pieces. He explained that while some forms of stained glass use single pieces and solid colors to make a nice, decorative piece, a sense of depth—even an illusion of depth—can do more to promote stained glass as a fine art than something very flat-looking can. The power of the work seeps through when he chooses specific glass pieces that fit into the art, rather than having solid, numbered color slots.

The evolution of idea and skill, along with the desire to change, can do more to help lift the level of quality and the aspect of fine art in this medium. This illustrates the influence one man’s work—the work of Robert Oddy—not only on the world of stained glass, but on anyone touched by his artwork.

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