prettybabiesglass.com Blog

Wheaton Village in Millville, NJ is an enigma. It looks like a little frontier town tourist thing…it just has this old style furnace. That seems to set it apart from your average frontier town tourist center blah, blah, blah. It also has quite the glass museum in one of those western type buildings.

Most importantly, they hold this event.. called Glass Weekend. Major galleries from all over the US are there representing their artists. It’s like a mini-SOFA Chicago. The Heller Gallery, Pismo Art Glass, Amy Morgan Glass Gallery.. just to name a few. I was convinced, because Pismo was repping me at this event, that I should be there. The stars aligned (and some arranging on my part) and I was able to attend. It was a good thing. I was able to catch artist Judith Schaechters’ keynote address and it was excellent. You can access it here:
Judiths’ Blog
It’s worth a read. I also saw some fine craft that would knock your socks off. It looked like an excellent and profitable weekend for the galleries and in turn for the artist..
[caption id="attachment_449" align="aligncenter" width="1936" caption="Ronit Dagan"][/caption]
Worth the experience, every moment. If only I had not left my Kindle in the rental car…….argh!
Student work
While I was in Milwaukee, I ran in to a student, whose work was included in the competition, “Bead Dreams” She took my class last year. She was influenced by the technique but you have to look really hard to see it. She did exactly what you should do when it comes to taking class and making it your own. The technique I taught her is buried deep in the bones of this awesome piece. You might be able to see it, or maybe not. I had to look hard. Either way, I think the work rocks. The piece deserved first place in my eyes. The only problem was her competition. An oriental rug out of seed beads and a hard one to ignore….

Susan Blessinger’s fab necklace

No rest for the weary here… now on to the next stop! Take care dear readers…..

These days where I bounce from place to place are therapeutic in a sense. The pace and subsequent exhaustion have the effect of temporarily silencing the endless loop of things to be done and let me look along the horizon from past, present to the future. I spent several days teaching in Detroit this month. It’s a private studio and I love teaching there, partly because I love the studio owner Cindi….she loves to read and melt glass and so do I, but also because the tight group of flameworkers living in Michigan continue to invite me back. I am truly grateful. I am a member of their guild and now know how to demonstrate to you the location of the studio, in real Michigan style.

My hostess treated me to a day of perusing some of the delightful treasures of art housed in the DIA (the Detroit Institute of Arts)
in downtown Detroit. The pieces have been the source of some controversy of late as the city has made noises that they are considering selling some of their artistic collection to pay down debt. Unlike the Vatican who knows that selling the priceless pieces of art is not nearly as profitable as making you pay to see them for centuries, the city, which has become an icon for decline and decay, wants to recover financially with art. The residents of the state are not amused. Every person I spoke with both inside the state and out are vehemently opposed to such an action. Wandering around the fabulous marble halls of the DIA, it’s wonderful to see what pieces are part of the collection owned by Detroit. I was delighted to find this painting by Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1656).

She was one of few female painters in her day. She was lucky to have the famous Tuscan painter Orza Gentileschi as her father. This painting, in the DIA is of the biblical character Judith. Gentileschi the daughter loved to paint it and did so in many versions. Judith, of course seduced one of the conquers of her city in order to kill him and liberate the city from invasion. Some say she painted this story over and over because she was raped herself by her painting teacher who subsequently served jail time. In order to preserve her honor, her father quickly married her to another man….she used her art to deal with all this trauma. Detroit is lucky to have her.
The DIA also has some work of Diego Rivera (1886-1957). Some talk of selling those is also rumbling around. It would be a shame as the paintings are very Detroit-centric and chronicle some of the highlights of the industry, both genius and glory of the golden age of Detroit. One of America’s premier cities, in it’s day. The pieces are installed in a fabulous inner chamber with a huge skylight and could be compared with the Sistine Chapel, if the subject matter was less about building big business and more about God. But the feeling of wonderment when you see it is as remarkable as the Sistine Chapel. I snapped some photos with my iphone….

The discussion about selling these works, which made headlines at NPR, defines the sad state of affairs. Conversations abound about corruption, misuse, mistakes made by city and state in the years after the decline of the American auto industry. The lovely people of Michigan don’t know what to do. Things like art seem simple when times are booming and there is plenty of money to go around. But when pensions are lost and people struggle to make ends meet, it only makes sense to consider all options. The DIA was bustling with activity the day we were there. The space is well cared for despite it’s age as the expense of heating and cooling a building like that must be astronomical. But Detroit’s treasures are indeed loved. It would be a shame to move those Rivera’s to a new space, say in New York city, as they would no longer make sense. It would be like moving the St. Louis Arch to Rome. Crazy. I hope they find alternatives to this problem.

Next, I moved on to Milwaukee, another great American city, for the annual Bead and Button show to connect with my tribe, teach and class and catch up with friends a little. I was there less than 48 hours and off again. But it’s good to taste a little bit of Milwaukee in June. It’s a tradition for me for over 10 years. As things change, I wonder how I will continue this tradition….. the future seems uncertain on that one. As the beading population ages, you have to wonder how we will navigate all this with walkers, scooters or canes. Oh dear. I think I will think about that one tomorrow.

Of course I taught some class…. and made time to be silly, of course…..

The last leg of the journey after a quick stop at home to celebrate a birthday for my son, was to Wheaton Village in Millville, NJ for an event that only happens every other year, called “Glass Weekend”. More on that one later. But here is a tidbit for you….

More on the Glass Weekend and Student work…. coming soon!

Once upon a time, I sat next to a woman from Denmark named Lise Aagaard. It was the Summer of 2002 and we were attending a bead conference in Alexandria, VA. I was making an effort to meet new people and she happened to be sitting alone waiting for a lecture to begin. We struck up a conversation and she asked me if I wanted to see a prototype of her ‘idea’. Of course I said yes. She showed me a simple bracelet with charms that would slide on and off at the owners will. She showed me sterling silver cast frogs and animals. She said the bracelets would be sold separately from the charms so that every owner could customize their own piece. The charms would be representative of milestones or special moments in the owner’s life. I nodded appreciatively. But I didn’t think much else about it. She said she wanted to talk to Susan Breen Silvy, the president of the organization whose conference we were attending. The previous year, Susan had written an article about a process she developed. It appeared in the now defunct Lapidary Journal magazine in June of 2001. Susan, being a silversmith, had adapted a way to add a silver core to her large hole beads. It was a way to make the hole a part of the design. Bringing her knowledge and skill of silversmithing helped her create a classy and impressive way to make a beautiful wearable piece of art.

Lise wanted to talk to Susan because she wanted to add lampworked beads with silver cores to the mix of those charms. The company was to be called “Trollbeads”.

Years passed and Lise was able to make her dream a reality. Susan went on to other things. I know that another company began using the same idea many, many years after that chance meeting with Lise and I honestly don’t know the details of how that happened. I only know as I am driving down the highway into downtown I see giant billboards advertising high end jewelry stores advising men to purchase this Pandora bracelet to ‘celebrate all your times together’ or the TV commercial with the woman in the airport over sharing her ‘red hot lover’ lampworked bead to the woman next to her. I have to sort of laugh and feel a little sad too. The idea, which was Susan’s, that she decided to share, was picked up again and again until it no longer resembled art. It is now mainstream.

I know a lot of people who use this technique in their own original ways, but I wonder if any of them think about how it all started? But isn’t that the way history goes? Jewelry, architecture, clothing…… every human design endeavor began this way. This technique, once someone’s style, is now mainstream, and the ones who originated the ideas, are largely forgotten. Not today. Today is your history lesson. Class dismissed.

Recently, on Facebook, the artist Tim Tate posed the question “Does anyone own a technique? Or is technique the starting point for narrative? And do artists own that narrative?” This sparked a pretty lively debate that not only narrowed the definition of technique but also the differences between the glass world and other disciplines. Just for reference, here is an example of Tim’s awesome work:

The discussion drifted from “does Chihuly own his designs?” to “My narrative is my story, so how can anyone own it?”
But the gist of it came down to ‘no’, one can’t really own a technique. At some point as a glass artist you need to acknowledge that you obtained this information via the Italians one way or another. You might call yourself a ‘self-taught’ artist but you can’t really claim that unless you invented the glass, the torch, the etc., right? Someone before you cleared that trail.

The idea of owning a narrative is also one of the things discussed on the thread. I believe artists are derivative creatures. You might bring your expertise from another field to your work, or from many different disciplines and have a fresh approach to it, but as the artist Judith Schaechter said to paraphrase ‘why would you want your work to be a knock off of someone else?’ Tim said “If a person does work recognizable to someone else’s, they will certainly change. No one wants to be the second person making a sculpture. Who would want to hear , “your work looks just like…..” Yes, indeed. So if you are inspired by another person’s work, the technique is fair game, in a way. If you can’t figure out the process, take a class by that artist. I really don’t know that many who don’t teach. As to narrative, you can certainly be inspired by the same things… like birds, you know? But if you finish the piece, and it looks like someone else, don’t pass it off as your own. Don’t ignore other artists websites in an effort to not be influenced by them. Peruse them in an effort to push yourself to be fresh and innovative and NOT like anyone else. I know that can be difficult, but if you live by that kind of philosophy, your voice will come through. And you won’t have to worry about copying someone else.

The other night as I watched my daughter introduce her husband to her grade school art teacher, someone that influenced her very much, I was remembering a certain parent/teacher conference where the teacher asked me how I was managing to raise such free-thinking kids. The question caught me off guard because I never thought of it that way. All my children are quirky in their own ways with talents and issues all their own, but it calls to mind that nature over nurture debate again. I am still not sure how it happened but when I saw the movie Moonrise Kingdom by director Wes Anderson, I instantly recognized my own household. Everyone was in their own space, doing their own creative pursuit. I remember hearing artist Stephanie Sersich giving a speech at a bead convention in 2003 talking about growing up in a household where creative activities were encouraged and how that shaped her own development as an artist. It was the kind of environment I wanted my kids to enjoy, even though I don’t think I was as successful at that as I hoped I would be. Knowing that every household is a microcosm unto itself and every family makes up it’s own sets of rules, I often wondered if having stricter rules on how free time was spent, and how much of it would be structured would have had an influence on that thing the grade school art teacher called ‘free-thinking’. We had rules, truly, but didn’t push them to be anything other than what they were inclined to be. They all seemed to wander in and out of goals and interests, like most kids.

Rules are important in society, to keep us from hurting each other, obviously. But when is it good to break the rule? And how do you know how to break it if you don’t know what it is? Especially when it comes to art?

In Marcel Duchamp’s time (Marcell Duchamp was a French Artist. (July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968), The Salon was the reigning rule-maker when it came to art in France. Having your work accepted by The Salon meant you were ‘in’ and could count on making a decent living. But when Duchamp painted one of his most iconic paintings Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 in 1912, his work evoked a negative response and was dubbed ‘scandalous’ because it was not a ‘nude’. Nudes don’t look like that! However Duchamps work survives as a milestone in art history because he broke a rule. He didn’t make the nude look like a nude. Much of the work accepted by The Salon at that time is lost to history, as it broke no rules, although certainly some of it was likely quite brilliant.

That brings me to our own ‘rules’. The flame working community has them as well. Specifically bead makers. I have seen people be critical on social networking forums of other peoples’ work that doesn’t seem to fit the standard we have self imposed. Mind you, there is no Mount Siani of the bead making world and no commandments have been issued, to my knowledge, but we do continue to admire precision and mastery of the glass. I too admire this ability and have collected many pieces, even if tight and precise is the opposite of my style. I am more organic, messy and flowing. In some ways, I have chosen to break some rules. And my comments beyond this is not to defend my style of work, as I am very comfortable with it. My point is to defend your right to grow with your own flow.

I used to admonish my students and tell them never to make a green leaf in my class. I used to push them to go for the unexpected. I don’t do this anymore as I don’t want to impose my aesthetic on them as much as I want them to use this technique I am teaching to help them achieve their own artistic goals. In other words, make it their own. And their ‘own’ may well be a green leaf!

Following the rules can help you navigate the playground in grade school but Western civilization rewards the rebel, the revolutionary. I don’t think that means throwing caution to the wind and living out your hippie fantasies ( I have seen the disaster of that on the life of a kid). I am saying, be a student of the rules, follow the rules and know them before you venture out to break them. Picasso once said: “”All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” His thinking was that it’s easy to rule the kid and ruin the artist, but why can’t they go hand in hand? Take a look at this piece by Picasso in his early career:

The chicken is nice and precise. Picasso knew the rules and how to apply them well. He could master the accepted techniques of the day. But this is not the work you remember him making. He is known for making more like this:

To me, the second chicken is the one that speaks to me. It’s rule breaking and out there. Full of crazy chicken emotion. I want to keep looking at it’s weird chicken attitude. It creates interest in my mind. But you can see that Picasso mastered the rules before he broke them.

So dear reader, I am admonishing you now to forge on and master this material called glass. Learn the rule book and live it until you are ready to break tradition and then show us your rebel. I will be first in line to applaud you. Something to consider here in the first chilly days of spring……….

This weekend, while attending the International Flameworking Conference at Salem Community College in Carney’s Point, NJ, I had the chance to reconnect with old friends in the glass forming world. It was also an opportunity to learn new things and have some heady discussions. I think it’s important to spend time networking with your fellows from time to time. No artist or craftsperson is an island, even if you think you exist in your own creative bubble, you really do not.

That brings me to an age old discussion that I have heard from the mouths of many of my glassy peeps as well as experienced myself. One friend told me she received an email from another glass person who stated that the blue bead with white designs on it was ‘her’ creation and my friend must stop making this type of bead. To that, I have to say:

Come now dear readers. If you believe a color combination is really your signature, especially one as lovely, timeless and repeated throughout history like blue with white, I think it’s time to expand the perimeters of your playground. If you take the time to write a cease and desist email to someone along this line, you need to educate yourself. It was shocking to hear this but it also signals that you might be isolating yourself too much. There are many, many books to investigate beyond the tutorials you find on the social networking website. I suggest you start with Dr. Robert Liu’s book called “Collectible Beads: A Universal Aesthetic”. It will afford you the kind of historical perspective that will guide you out of this dilemma.

I hate to even give credence to this type of behavior but it might just be a cry for help. I think all of us tap into a universal stream of consciousness that often causes us to think of an idea at similar times in history. How many times have you heard a songwriter say that the song ‘just came to them’ from some unknown source. I believe that happens to all of us. The danger of thinking it’s only ‘for us’ can be tricky. It’s up to us to filter it through our own personal experience to put our own spin on it.

So, dear readers, you might look at this post and be offended. If you are, you might have some self examination to do. If you are not offended, it just doesn’t apply to you but maybe you have heard similar conversations in your adult life. This reminds me of a piece I found on the Internet by Zara Khalique:

Might be time to move out of your blue and white comfort zone and experience more!

I get this question a lot in class. “Where do you come up with this stuff?” I often offer some quick answers in the classroom just because people are there to absorb as much as possible. Not only technical information but inspiration information as well. Today, I would love to expand on that.

So, standing at a show this weekend in Atlanta, GA, I was asked again and again by the serious art collectors to ‘tell them about this piece’. This should be easy to do if the piece started with a thought beyond just the technical part. If you learn how to follow your thoughts backwards and forwards, this part should be a cake walk.

Let’s start at home…. What is that feeling you get when the flight attendant says “If you are from (insert name of city here), welcome home”? For me, when he/she says “Welcome to Kansas City”, it evokes a wave of calming emotion. People often take this for granted, don’t give it a thought, or say to themselves, ‘great, now on to the next task’. I would ask you to ruminate on that for a while. Because making your art personal is how you move beyond ‘pretty’. Remember pretty is nice but not significant. I took a course in college called World Lit. It was taught by a brilliant woman from a french speaking African country that I can no longer remember. She focused on literature that was created in the time period after a country was invaded to the point of revolution. In essence, the class was about protest literature. One week we examined the concept of home and how that is different for everyone. If you are born in a place, but never lived there, it still can become part of your persona and how you define yourself. Everyone has this imprinting. It is how revolution is often sparked. In order to go to war for your country/place of birth, you have to evoke a sense of nationalism. This part of yourself that is from that place, must now protect and defend that place. As you move through your life and add experiences and acquaintances, loves, family, friends, you often define and redefine this sense of home. I found it interesting when I used to travel with my husband and people would ask where we were from. Because I loved Kansas City and have lived here longer than anywhere else in my life, I would say Kansas City. Because he continued to feel like a transplant, he would say Dallas. As we were clearly married, we would get some odd looks. I was not born and raised in KC, so it is not my hometown, but to me it is my home (town). He did not have the same emotional connection to this place. So, we all have this imprint, it is just different for all of us.

Floor of the Kansas City International Airport

I know a girl whose father works in glass (actually I know many!) and loves to travel to Venice/ Murano to teach, work, take class and feels steeped in the culture. She also identifies with this and has learned to speak Italian, etc. Her connection to her father makes her not only American by birth, but Italian by association. And in turn, this colors and informs both his work and hers.

I have another friend who lived in Paris during her adolescence and while she is American by birth, some part of her feels Parisian. This experience colors and informs her art work.

This is the perfect place to start with your work. My current interest in the birds is personal on many levels but for the most part, the birds are about the hierarchy of my backyard. We often look at birds and sort of take it for granted that they are sweet song singers and bird watching is pleasant and relaxing. However, in my backyard, these seemingly innocent creatures are territorial survivalists willing to kill. The more birds I create, the easier it is to transform the emotion I see created from instinct. It’s true, I give them human attributes. I do that because underneath the layers, filters and walls, human beings want the same thing: not only to survive, but thrive.

So today, dear readers, I want you to think about your home story and how you can translate that into your art object of affection. Your expression of yourself and your home will be personal. But since we all have this innate sense of home, many of us will relate to your expression on some level. Be well gentle readers. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

My friend Suellen gently pointed out that she ‘liked’ my blog. That would be past tense dear readers. She told me in the most subtle way possible that I stopped blogging. It’s true. I have been spending time building treasure in my private realm and less exploring the world. So, now I am back into the swing of the road and things occur to me that I would love to share.

We have had some stunning conversations about art, craft and all that lies in between. I think it’s important to human beings to not only categorize their own role in society, but feel comfortable in doing the same for those around you. This weekend at the American Craft Council show here in Atlanta, GA, a very sweet lady who came for the flower show and wandered into the craft show said she was shocked at how artistic all the work was. “This is not craft” she exclaimed. “Craft is doilies and toilet paper covers”. It’s true, the distinction is a tough one to decipher. Craft, to the average person implies ‘happy hands at home’. However, to throw everyone into the artist category just because they are creative seems too simplistic as well. People in my community talk about it for hours. I remember a speech given by my dear and knowledgeable friend, Lesli Mash at a convention a few years back. She very carefully assembled photos from artists and crafters that she loved. She explained that the difference is often as simple as function. Larry Scott, bead maker extraordinaire claims that a Leonardo da Vinci is a piece of art, a bead is not. Beads, are certainly functional. A painting is less functional unless you are using it to cover the stain on the castle wall. In the most simple terms, what you see at an ACC, Craft Boston, or Craft New York show is high end craft. 90% of it is functional. It’s beyond doilies but still not a da Vinci. There is a rich and exciting middle ground of high end craft being produced by highly imaginative and creative people. However, it will likely not be hung next to old Leo. So, dear readers, even though I am tired and a little edgy after a full 3 days of explaining this, it bears repeating here as well. Creativity does not automatically translate to art.

As Suellen explained, she had heard people say that you tell your child they are ‘an artist’ but not a doctor or a lawyer. You assume you must have training to become a doctor or a lawyer, but not an artist? Well, there is something to think about. I would not dream of telling what you should say to your child but she has a point there. Training is required to be labeled in certain fields, why not art> She then said, “Maybe everyone should just lighten up” Now, there is a worthwhile suggestion. I will leave you to ponder this question yet again dear readers. And now I shall go lighten up.

Juicy Lucy is now happy to call Atlanta, GA home

I am back from a week of bliss at the Corning Museum of Glass Studios. I think it’s important to suspend your reality every once in a while. Sometimes I take a class or sometimes I teach a class… but this time I was the teaching assistant to two mega-masters in the glass world. Paul Stankard from America, and Lucio Bubacco from Italy. It was great to combine my current skill set with some brand new ones. But it was also wonderful to be in an environment steeped with the love of creating glass objects. I highly recommend this to anyone wishing to expand their skill base in the making of glass art. It was a week of recharging, making new friends, reconnecting with old ones and learning much about myself. Time to light the torch I think.

The end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 has been super self reflection time. It has been a huge catharsis for me to open up and purge. It has not only been a time for confession but also seeking redemption. I think I impose very strict standards upon myself and somehow that spills over to others around me, sometimes with less than satisfying results. I am what I am, but I think I can be better.

One of the more curious parts of opening up and looking within is all the areas of self expression that seek a voice. Some of them are somewhat dark. While I would say my work has reflected my focus at the time, some people really get it and some just don’t. I think it has to do with where they are in their own journey and if my path is similar to theirs. We are all spiritual beings living a human experience, so of course we have much in common. But our understanding of artistic expression depends upon our own path. What painful lessons have we learned and how does that color our vision?

For me, the most cathartic things hit me in the solar plexus like a knife. I know instantly that I am touched by something. Sometimes whatever painful thing the piece of art touches is either consciously known or buried deep in the subconscious so far that the feeling has no language to describe it.

I am leaving these cryptic words for you dear reader to think about that. As I continue my journey and how I want to address these new/old feelings and how they spill into what I do is exciting for me. It’s like my dear friend, Lesli Mash has told me many times: sometimes you need to step into the unknown and trust that the next step is there, even if you can’t see it. One small step…….one giant leap.

I am off to the Corning Museum of Glass next week to be the teaching assistant to Paul Stankard and Lucio Bubacco. I am a lucky duck and a happy mushroom.