Enlightenment

Over the past five years I have worked to combine glassmaking with the immediacy of painting. My goal is to bring the techniques of painting to lampwork glass.  The concept is simple:  To make a painting out of a strand of glass beads.  My goal is to bring the techniques of painting to lampwork glass.  The concept is simple:  To make a painting out of a strand of glass beads.  The result is a "glass painting."

 

I follow no set rules and use expression and imagination to create my glass. I often mix molten glass colors directly in the fire like mixing paint on the canvas.  My primary focus is on the color and energy I find in a landscape. I intensify my colors to more closely resemble the brilliancy of glass blowing colors. I believe that glass is the perfect medium for a colorist because of its ability to transmit and reflect light. The glass beads are the result of this stylized landscape, reimagined by fire. 

 

The inspiration for this art glass jewelry comes from the myriad colors and textures of Provance in Southern France. In particular, I follow the footsteps of Vincent van Goah to experience what he experienced to learn his methods and teachings.   I incorporate the bright pale yellow and veridian of the open sky and jagged Alpilles, the gold greens and celadon of olive groves, and the wide prairies and marshlands of the Camargue. 

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During his time in the “Yellow House”, Vincent dreamt of creating a colony of artists in Provence and wrote to his friend Émile Bernard about the profound influence this landscape could have on a painter. “When you come down here you will see for yourself and you will most certainly become a painter of the ‘Crau’,” he said. Though Bernard never made it to Arles to realize Vincent’s dream, I believe he would have shared the same deep affection and inspiration that I felt.