AN EXPLORATION INTO THE GLASS

Working with Colour Bars is a time for reflection and experimentation and to go beyond your comfort zone. Most of all it is about growth and the unlimited possibilities waiting to be unearthed. Stephen Proctorfrom Australia wrote: “Where the sky meets the Sea: that we are all intersections with life, representing a point where life happens, where there is change there is interest.” This inspiring quote has made me consider how we view glass and how it is able to evoke emotions. I wish to capture the viewer's interest and create an emotional reaction to kiln-cast glass landscapes. For the last twenty years, I have lived and worked in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The beauty of the mountains, particularly in the Banff and Jasper National Parks has been my inspiration. I love the challenge to creating large panels that relate to one another through the horizon line, and bring the eye across the expanse of a landscape.

Like peeling away the layers of an onion, the color bar technique gives us the ability to strip away the layers of color, and then use that colour to create paintings of light in glass. I wish to further expand on this technique by placing different types of reactive glasses together such as copper bearing glass, silver and reactive cloud glass, and I really hope to experiment with the colour bar technique. I want to achieve a unique and unusual aesthetic and begin to evoke different seasons and climates to the viewer. It is important for me as an artist to continually challenge myself.

After years of teaching at world-renowned education facilities such as Pilchuck Glass School and the Corning Museum of Glass, I feel I have also acquired the skills necessary to help others in their glass practice and hope others will learn a little from these kiln cast glass pieces for their own creations in glass.