A Visual Symphony - Works of Optimism by Lino Tagliapietra

This January, as we all miss seeing our friends at the Art Fair in Florida, usually attended with Lino and Lina, we have taken the opportunity to share his most recent works with you in this catalog.

While speaking to Lino recently about the music he listens to while working, he said yes, it does speak to him, and specifically music as it relates to color... it changes the mood.

the essay….

Written by Jeanne Koles

The French art critic Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) coined the term Orphism to describe the musical qualities of the paintings of Sonia and Robert Delaunay. The name references Orpheus, a poet and singer of Greek mythology thought to symbolize the ideal of the mystically inspired artist.

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Maestro Lino Tagliapietra is a choreographer in glass whose recent work absolutely sings; the striking colors of his vivacious murrini stretch in dynamic gestures on audacious forms, creating a spectacular visual symphony. Tagliapietra is a master of synesthesia—the confluence of senses in art. In this case, the purely visual creates an auditory response, one by which we can practically hear the colors and shapes.

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It is fitting that the universal language to describe musical terms is Italian, the native tongue of an artist who embraces cross-pollination of cultures and whose work is so incredibly expressive. A work like 'Murmansk' is “adagio”—quiet and easy, with colors that evoke the watery environment of this Russian port. As if seen in an aerial photograph, the earthy green and clear blue of 'Murmansk', highlighted in the unusual depression at the top of the vase, undulate like the spectacular fjords for which they are named.

Even the sound of the word Murmansk feels hushed.

Detail of Murmansk.

Detail of Murmansk.

Works like 'Jalisco' and 'Maracaibo' are “vivace”— exciting and lively with the hot colors, actions, and sounds of Central or South America. 'Jalisco' embraces the entire rainbow of colors in various designs, all culminating in dramatic stripes on the neck. Words like Jalisco and Maracaibo evoke the fiery passion of Mexico and Venezuela just by being spoken. Sound has always been inspiring to Tagliapietra, whose creative process is galvanized as much by hearing a unique word as by witnessing a beautiful place.

The kaleidoscopic exuberance of many recent works by Tagliapietra shows a man with an unparalleled zest for life and creation. 'Florencia' is a smooth and clear canvas for exploration of color—turquoise abuts violet, yellow encases orange, hot pink, royal blue, lime green, and deep red crisscross in varying-shaped murrini.

A set of five miniature 'Fenice' is a thoughtful configuration of related figures and contours, complementary voices in an overall harmony. Negative space between the sculptures creates an infinity of experiences as one moves around the grouping.

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In addition to their like forms, color is a thread of connectivity between the distinct elements. Lines of continuity are created as colors seems to extend from one piece to the next, while exciting moments of contrast occur when the colors of one element come in visual contact with the disparate colors of another.

Sometimes the boldness of Tagliapietra comes from melodic juxtaposition of assorted colors, but sometimes it comes from stunning simplicity, like an aria of a single color. The daringly monochromatic 'Cayuga' offers a new perspective on the uniquely sculpted forms he has made in homage to the Finger Lakes of Upstate New York. Instead of feeling limited to water tones in works about this lake region, Tagliapietra introduces an unexpected crimson as the blazing murrine reach an intense crescendo at the mouth of the vessel.

"La Ville de Paris" (1911). Corbis Historical / Getty Images

"La Ville de Paris" (1911). Corbis Historical / Getty Images

Of a mural he made of The Three Graces for the 1937 Paris Exposition, Delaunay wrote, “these are based on studies in the transparency of color, whose similarity to musical notes drove me to discover the movement of color.” Tagliapietra similarly believes that musicality in his art specifically depends on the color of the piece, which has a direct relationship to its mood. Tagliapietra’s personal interest in music varies from Beethoven to the Blues, and his artwork can be experienced as an expression of the passion and gusto of masterful musical compositions. He is indeed the Maestro, and his is a visual symphony articulated in an explosion of color. This collection of work by Tagliapietra, mostly executed in 2020, contains an exhilarating spirit of vibrant colors that play a particularly poignant and joyful note in these times of struggle.

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STUDIO FOCUS | SIDNEY HUTTER

towards the light

For our first Studio Focus of 2021, we caught up with Massachusetts glass artist Sidney Hutter, who can usually be found in his Boston area studio listening to Bob Dylan or Wilco, researching new methods, and creating new work. The studio is Hutter’s favorite place to be. He used these difficult Covid times to refine his studio practice and cold-working glass methods to create new works, finding a silver lining in the fact that the slowing of the business side of art allowed him to ramp up his creativity.

Sid Hutter in his studio during Schantz Galleries New England Studio Tour.

Sid Hutter in his studio during Schantz Galleries New England Studio Tour.

Hutter is well versed in hot glass techniques but most of his pieces are cold worked. After a fire rendered the hot shop at MassArt unusable in 1978, he began an adaptation to these circumstances that led to his innovative new technological methods for creating glass art. “It is amazing to behold how far the contemporary glass movement has come over 55 years or so,” he says while reflecting on the evolution of his medium since he began this artistic journey in 1974. Over the years, Hutter has never stopped innovating and exploring new ideas, even now through these unpredictable times.

Hutter studies materials and technologies often meant for other industries such as automotive or printing. He then repurposes them for application to his artistic practice. Since many of his vendors and services are deemed essential businesses—like the machine shop that makes medical devices—they have continued to be available during Covid without any significant stumbling blocks.


When Hutter began his long love affair with the cold-working process, there were not a lot of other glass artists using this approach. During college he worked alongside, and learned from, fellow Schantz Galleries artist David Huchthausen. Much of Hutter’s methods are self-invented. His studio space is constantly evolving alongside his work and is as unique as the pieces of art that come out of it. “If I need a tool to make something, I will get it or make it. I am definitely a tool guy. I don’t do as much hand stuff as I used to, but I facilitate and do all the testing and research on equipment to get it where it needs to be.”

A child of two college professors, Hutter is naturally inclined to the pursuit of knowledge. “ If I get interested in something, I start to pursue and research it, then I start making phone calls to source the materials. It’s an itch I have to scratch until I figure it out, then onto the next itch.” Hutter is currently researching and testing new adhesives and materials from 3M. While not all of his research goes according to plan, his successes result in eye-catching pieces that merge new technological breakthroughs with classical ideas of art and beauty.


While Hutter’s innovative work looks modern, it often carries a storied past. He often repurposes salvaged glass in addition to using new plate glass. He tells one story of how he was able to recycle glass from the Hancock Tower in Boston:

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 ““When I was at MassArt, a fellow student, Joe Upham, knew Jerry Ellis, the owner of Building 19, who had bought remnants from insurance companies to resell. He had acquired all of the damaged glass from the Hancock Tower, warehousing it in Lynn, MA. We used to take the school truck to get the broken sheets of glass that were unsalable. We then melted the clear glass in a furnace for blowing. Joe was making goblets, which he then took to the Hancock Tower to sell to the building employees. I was using the mirrored glass with a reflective coating for making my sculptures. The Hancock is probably my favorite building in the whole world both because it has so much personal meaning while also it is an amazing architectural obelisk of 1970s construction. Or failure of architectural technology, I suppose, since the reason I ended up with the glass is that they miscalculated the stresses on the windows from the wind factors.”

Examples of Hutter’s Light Works through the years…

View Ner Tamid to music by Pink Floyd!

 

While all of Hutter’s objects, from his functional lighting work to his large sculptural pieces, are interesting and complex, his classic vase forms most often catch the eyes of visitors to Schantz Galleries. They are primarily constructed of cut, ground and polished plate glass which Hutter assembles using pigmented colored adhesives, which results in overlapping planes of color that appear to fill and empty his vessels depending on your viewpoint. Hutter pursues this juxtaposition with intention and thought. “The genesis of the plate glass vases was that I couldn’t blow glass but still wanted to make vases. When I started to work with that concept it became about how a vessel can be reinterpreted as something it isn’t. When people say “that’s a vase but you can’t stick a flower in it”—that’s right, but you are also looking at a volume that is describing an object- classical yet both utilitarian and decorative. My vessels are shaped like an amphora from Greek and Roman times yet they are reinterpreted in many different ways.” Hutter sees possibility in simple origins, saying “My philosophy of art is that there are 3 shapes and 3 colors; there are squares, circles, and triangles, and there is red, yellow, and blue. That is where it all comes from.” Within his obvious appreciation for the foundation of art, his own way of interpreting these simple ideas brings a complexity and interest all its own. This is how he creates such unique works. He says “the thing I pride myself on most is when people say, ‘Wow I have never seen anything like that before’.”

 

Because the vessels contain overlapping colors, new hues emerge from various viewpoints as secondary colors emerge from primary ones interacting with the planes and bevels in the glass. The science of the eye plays a large role in Hutter’s use of vibrant color, one of the most eye-catching aspects of his work. Amazingly, Hutter is red/green color blind, “ which makes you want to use [bright] colors you can see!” From his days as a glass student at Illinois State, color has played an important role for Hutter as an artist. He remembers how “back in the day at Illinois State they used to unload the annealer of blown vessels and they would have to wear two pairs of sunglasses when they pulled out my pieces because they were wild combinations of colors”. He wears color corrective EnChroma sunglasses at times to see the full spectrum, and describes using color for him as being like a kid in a candy store.

Detail of the White House Vase #6

Detail of the White House Vase #6

Among his many accomplishments, Hutter joined the ranks of a rare few American artists and craftsmen when his piece White House Vase #1 was acquired by the White House Craft Collection during the Clinton administration. The piece is now at the Clinton Presidential Library as part of the National Archives, in a collection that acknowledges the important role of glass and other crafts in the echelons of fine art. Hutter explains that there “were many related showings of the collection afterward including one at the National Museum of American Art. It was the first-time crafts were shown in the “big” museum—the Smithsonian.”

 

Hutter is a fitting choice for the collection, the definition of the innovative American trailblazer. While he never forgets to reflect on the past, he is ultimately a forward-thinking artist and individual. He believes art is a part of how we may heal as a nation from the recent hardships brought on by the pandemic and political upheaval. “When the country rebuilds, I am hopeful a priority will be placed on the arts as a way to move forward” Hutter says. He is always keeping an optimistic eye on the future, both in glass and in life. “I think everyone is going to come out of this with a revitalized hunger for expression, culture, and beauty and all that glass is. We will all have seen the light and that is what I am doing with glass—dealing with the light.” Surely all of us can benefit from following Sidney Hutter into the light.

 

A short video interview with Sid.

 

Video created by Charles River Photography

 

Available works.

 

___________________

Catalog of Sidney Hutter retrospective at the Sandwich Glass Museum in Massachusetts.

STUDIO FOCUS | KAIT RHOADS

weaving her world with glass

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Seattle based glass artist Kait Rhoads is currently customizing the garage of her new home to be her studio, her primary workspace where most of the labor on her pieces occurs. While she customarily uses an offsite hot shop to blow vessels and make murrine, the laborious process of fire polishing and weaving together the elements of her soft sculptures happens in the solitary space of her studio. The murrine are usually hexagonal and open in the center, geometric shapes sculpted together to celebrate organic forms. From its inspiration and meaning, to its execution and final presentation, her work has a sense of the order found in nature, born through the creative process.

Ephyria, 2019, in the artists studio.

Ephyria, 2019, in the artists studio.

Rhoads fits together the conical formed hexagonal murrine like the keystones of a Roman arch and thinks of each bead “as an architectural unit” coming together to form something greater, like how cells come together to form a living organism. Rhoads is fascinated by what she calls the “fractal expansion” that happens in this process. “For me to understand how these units go together to make a form, feels like I am discovering a growth pattern in nature. That sort of biology is very exciting to me.” The combination of an asymmetrical aspect of growth systems found in living forms, with the mathematical geometry often found in the order of nature, is the brilliance within her work.

Within the slow process of forming her structural creations is a repetitive weaving action that incorporates a feminine energy. Rhoads has spent as many as three hundred hours on a single piece, intricately working each small fragment of glass into a larger whole, all the while meditating on nature and striving shed light on, through her art, the destruction humanity has wreaked upon the natural world. Her work is an act of loving healing, but it also honors the traditional, matriarchal act of weaving itself. Historically, weaving was considered the lesser form of “craft” and not “art”. This was because women were often the weavers (and “women’s work” could not be “fine art”). For feminist artists like Rhoads, weaving becomes an empowering act of rebellion that directly challenges the ideas of historical acceptability in the world of art.

Often underestimated or left out of the world of glass because of her gender, Rhoads is no stranger to gender discrimination. She does not let this take away from her passion, instead she uses it as fuel. She embraces the culture of her femininity as something that gives her power, instead of something that takes it, and by extension rebels against those who would marginalize her because of her gender. She takes great inspiration from Eva Hesse (1936-1970), the German-born American sculptor and textile artist.

Detail of Verdant, 2019

Detail of Verdant, 2019

Art critic Lucy Lippard, speaks of the process in the work of Hesse:

The most salient features of Hesse’s art can be related to her fascination with repetition: “It’s not just an esthetic choice,” she said. “If something is absurd it’s much more greatly exaggerated if it’s repeated. Repetition does enlarge or increase or exaggerate an idea or purpose. I guess repetition feels obsessive.” The wrapping and binding and layering process is also repetitive and makes the viewer relive the intensity of the making in a manner far from the abstract or didactic way in which process is used by most men.

Women are always derogatorily associated with crafts, and have been conditioned towards such chores as tying, sewing, knotting, wrapping, binding, knitting, and so on. Hesse’s art transcends the cliché of ‘detail as women’s work’ while at the same time incorporating these notions of ritual as antidote to isolation and despair. There is that ritual which allows scope to fantasy, compulsive use of the body accompanied by a freeing of the mind. … Repetition can be a guard against vulnerability; a bullet-proof vest of closely knit activity can be woven against fate. Ritual and repetition are also ways of containing anger, and of fragmenting fearsome wholes.

-Lippard, Lucy. Eva Hesse. New York University, New York, 1976. Pg. 209.


“When you look at my work you see the repetition of my linking the glass together with the copper wire, which I have had to develop my own way of doing and I am constantly refining.” Rhoads began learning to macrame around the age of six, and tied decorative nautical knots as a child, particularly in the six years her family lived on a boat in the Virgin Islands. “When we moved onto the boat, I did utilitarian decorative knot tying for the railings, helped my mother maintain the fish nets.” She learned to sew from her grandmother and began her education in costume design (the fluidity of the textile and the slow methodical process attracted Rhoads to working with fabric) before finding glass. Instead of working only in her studio, she brings her work with her to different rooms in her house—like a seamstress works on a garment. This gives her the benefit of seeing the glass in different lights and spaces, so she can play with light to find the right balance. During her process, she keeps in mind that “when you take a piece home, you don’t place it on a pedestal, it often goes on a shelf or furniture.”

Another beautiful aspect of the natural conservation efforts behind Rhoads works is their unique malleability and adaptability. Because of the way she weaves her works, the glass is very strong, embodying the geometric engineering principals of R Buckminster Fuller. She explains that “they are designed to be indestructible, and if something breaks, I can cut the wire and fix it. It has this repairable quality”. In fact, almost nothing goes to waste in the Kait Rhoads studio. She uses “every single little piece” and says “It is part of the Whole Elk Theory, espoused by Dick Marquis, especially these days with the concept of recycling and zero waste. I really like that I can use every little scrap, and nothing is really a throw away—that makes me feel good.” Aware of the environmental impact of her studio, Rhoads reuses and recycles the plastic bags she uses in her process.

This variability in her technique also means that when Rhoads is not pleased with the direction of a work, she can go back, redo, and repurpose materials. This diverges from the more common method of “trashing” or breaking works an artist may feel are not up to par. Rhoads sometimes spends hours on a work only to turn around and dismantle it entirely and begin again, which offers a good explanation as to why she only creates a few pieces each year.

 In addition to her woven vessels are her blown Peacock Vessels with simple sloping shapes and wild eye-catching patterns. Inspired by traditional Italian patterns done with murrine, Rhoads conceptualized these works in 1999, and they remain among her most popular and sought-after pieces. Rhoads is inspired by Italian glass patterning tradition, but she doesn’t want to copy directly from her inspiration. “I want to create work that honors those that I have learned from and is truly different [from their work]”. In her Peacock Vessels, she plays with color, pattern, and light in ways only Rhoads truly can. The peacock design, which is her signature, moves with fluid grace and is a reminder of undulating aquatic landscape she grew up in.

The healing and protection of the beauty of nature that Rhoads honors in her work is a creative gesture rooted in fierce feminine energy. Rhoads is careful to pay close attention to each part of the work, large and small, to create something extraordinary. As her new sustainable studio evolves, it will be wonderful to see the new and exciting creations to come.

Typhon, 2015

Typhon, 2015

 

“How does she do that?”

Hollow Murrini Process Demo with Kait Rhoads…

… and A Very Quick Weaving Demo!

 
 
 
 
All rights reserved. ©2016 Museum of GlassVisiting Artist Residency: Kait RhoadsDirected, camerawork and editing: Derek KleinDates of the residency: November...
 

Available works

 

Kait Rhoads received her BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1993, and her MFA in Glass from Alfred University, NY in 2001. She has been an Artist in Residence at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, WA, and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Doug and Dale Anderson Scholarship, The Anne Gould Halberg Award, and a Fulbright Scholarship for the study of sculpture in Venice, Italy. She has worked as an instructor at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine, the Penland School of Crafts, the Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass, Alfred University, and the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, where she was a teaching assistant for Lino Tagliapietra.

Education

 1999-01 MFA in Glass, Alfred University, New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred, NY.

1989-93 BFA in Glass, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI.

1985-89 Atrium Baccalaureate in Creative Arts, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL.

Public & Private Collections

Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, PA.

Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY.

Glasmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark.

Museum of Glass International Center for Contemporary Art, Tacoma, WA.

Museum of Northwest Art, LaConner, WA.

New Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, CA.

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA.

Toyama Institute of Glass Museum, Toyama, Japan.

  

Selected Exhibitions

2019 Salmon School Ambassadors, Schack Arts Center, Everett WA.

Solo Show, Scheipers Gallery, Hasselt, Belgium. 2018

Glasstastic, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA.

NO GLASS Ceiling! Women working in Glass, Part 1 Palm Springs Art Museum, CA.

Making our Mark, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA.

2017 Selections from the Anne Gould Hauberg Collection. Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA. Revering Nature, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge, WA.

Into the Deep, Tacoma Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA. 2016 LifeForms

2016, Pittsburg Glass Center, Pittsburg PA.

LifeForms 2016, Ceder Gallery, Corning, NY.

Into the Deep, Tacoma Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA.

The Nature of Glass, Chesterwood, Stockbridge MA.

2015 All Natural, Curator and participant, The Schack Arts Center, Everett, WA.

Sculpture Walk – Wandering Diatoms, Temporary public art, Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

Game Changers: Fiber Art Masters and Innovators, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA. 2014 Lake Effect, Saugatuck Center for the Arts, Saugatuck, MI.

Tidal, Chihuly Collections, St Petersburgh, FL.

Shattered: Contemporary Sculpture in Glass, Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, MI. Accreted Terrane, Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA.

2013 The Cutting Edge, Racine Art Museum, WI.

Fluid Reformations, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY. 2012   50 Years of Studio Glass, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY.

2011   Contemporary Glass, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA.

2010   Transformation 6: Contemporary Works in Glass, Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN.

2009   12th Annual Whidbey Island Glass Invitational, Museo, Langley, WA.

           BIGG:  Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass Exhibition, OSU Urban Arts Space, Columbus, OH.

           As Below, So Above, Northwest Museum of Art, LaConner, WA.

           Beautifully Crafted, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK.

           Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Northwest Art, LaConner, WA.

           Transformation 6: Contemporary Works in Glass, Western Gallery at Western

           Washington University, Bellingham, WA.

2008   Transformation 6: Contemporary Works in Glass, Philadelphia Art Alliance, PA.

           Beautifully Crafted, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK.

           Glorious Glass: Translucent and Opaque, the Arts Center, St Petersburg, FL.

           A Clear Mind: Glass Invitational, Figge Art Museum, IL.

  2007   Shattering Glass, New Perspectives, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY.

           Transformation 6: Contemporary Works in Glass, Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA.

           Viva Vetro! Glass Alive! Venice and America, 1950-2006, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA.

           Behind Glass:  Creativity and Collaboration, The Arts Center, St Petersburg, FL.

           Glass Lover's Weekend, Milleville, NJ.

           SOFA Chicago, New York and PB3.

2006   Brilliant: Celebrating Pilchuck Glass, Sea-Tac International Airport, Seattle, WA.

2005   Brilliant: Celebrating Pilchuck Glass, Sea-Tac International Airport, Seattle, WA.

2004   Italian Influence in Contemporary Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY. 

           Vetri. Nel mondo. Oggi, Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arte, Venice, Italy.

2003   20/20 Vision, Museum of American Glass, Millville, NJ.

2002   Peacock Vessels, Vetri International Glass, Seattle, WA.

           Under 40, Scuola del Vetro Abate Zanetti, Murano, Italy.

2001   Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, Alfred University, Alfred, NY.

           Visionary Women, Bausch & Laumb, Rochester, NY.

           Distractions, 171 Cedar Arts Center, Corning, NY.

2000   Solo Show, Northwest Museum of Art, La Conner, WA.

Studio Focus | Dan Friday

offering gratitude through creativity

Dan Friday, with a blown glass canoe paddle.

Dan Friday, with a blown glass canoe paddle.

A member of the Lummi Nation, Dan Friday has grown up around traditional Native American and Lummi Tribe artistic practices his entire life. In his own work he immortalizes these traditional artistic practices in the new contemporary art format of glass, making his work both of the moment and grounded in the past.

Having studied under the very best at Pilchuck, Friday moved to work at the highly established Chihuly Boathouse Studio, Pilchuck Glass School, and Tacoma Glass Museum Teams. In 2007 he began his own studio, Friday Glass, in Seattle’s historic Fremont district, a fitting home for this lifelong Washington State resident. Here in his studio he creates his own work often influenced by his Lummi tribal roots and artistic family traditions.

“Creativity was fostered in me by my family from an early age. Living without TV and knowing our rich cultural heritage of the Lummi Nation, meant that making things with our hands was a regular activity.” 

In Friday’s studio, these long practiced traditional tribal art forms are adapted; totem poles and baskets take on new meaning and form along with animals of importance to the Lummi Tribe. All now made to last for generations in the medium of glass and creating a new method of storytelling. Much of Friday’s work also memorializes his family in making these pieces and are full of history and personal meaning.

“My great-grandfather, Joseph Hillaire, is a pretty well renowned totem pole carver, and he is a large influence on me. I do some work in totems...obviously they are not the same because of the nature of working with glass. That is one of the things I really enjoy quite a bit about glass - being able to explore these forms and ideas. I say it is a contemporary medium, but also that in this area, (Seattle), it also has such a long history. “…Like when I studied at the Corning Museum of Glass for my recent residency, you go in there and look at a 4000-year-old face of Cleopatra that looks like it could have been made yesterday. Even though glass is considered fragile, it has such a resilience. Many of my grandfather's totem poles have returned to the earth just through decay, that is just the nature of artwork of native people in this area.”

Going on to explain, “it is exciting to think these glass creations I make will live on for quite a while. Whether or not they break or come apart, they will not deteriorate. There will be a glass totem thousands of years from now with my name scratched on it and that is an interesting feeling.”

 Friday’s great-great-grandfather was also an influential Lummi tribal artist. He established a popular dance troupe in the 1930’s who went on to perform at the World’s Fair in 1962, where he also had a Totem Pole commissioned and displayed.

Dan’s aunt continued the tradition of artistic expression through her baskets and was a Lummi Master Weaver, some of her blankets can now be seen featured in the Smithsonian in DC. In Friday’s own work, a series of woven glass baskets forever pay homage to his aunt and are known as Aunt Fran’s Baskets Series.  

Aunt Fran James with some of her baskets.

Aunt Fran James with some of her baskets.

“The Basket Series is something I started after my Aunt, Fran James, passed away about 6 years ago. I really wish she could have seen them, because she was so paramount to me when starting my career.” Dan says of his Aunt’s encouragement to make his pieces and explore his own creativity (instead of following a career as a hired hand on various glass teams). “She was paramount in saying “you have got to find your own voice” and I can’t thank her enough (for that).”, he says with fondness.

Likewise, his statuesque bear figures stand as shining glass symbols of his family. “We are the bear family.” He told us, “Named for my great-grandfather Frank Hillaire, it is the “Hillaire Bear”. He was not a chief, but a very prominent member not just in our tribe but the whole region. As he got older, he would say ‘keep my fires burning’.”

 

Keeping those creative fires burning is something Friday takes to heart in his molten works of bear and other animals significant to the tribe such as owls and ravens. These pieces dance with of color and patterns, often in unexpectedly delightful ways.

“A lot of it comes from my time working with Dale.” Friday says of his inspirations and the way he has come to see color. Friday has been a glassworker at the Chihuly Boathouse since 2000, helping bring to life Dale Chihuly’s designs and working with one of the largest teams in glass. “He (Chihuly) is famously quoted for saying ‘there is no color I don’t like’ and he uses all of them within the color palette. And that has definitely broadened my appreciation of just the large spectrum of color.”

Going on to explain the lessons he has picked up from working with Chihuly, “...part of the trick is how to apply colors so they complement each other, I used a load of colors and I like to use a lot of vibrant colors, but I also like them to have harmony to them too... Sometimes it isn't even a color combination that initially you think will go together, but you have to look at the proportion of a color. Like 98% of something, then just a pinstripe or accent of another color. You can get colors that may not mesh well together to find a way to fit if you are patient enough.”

 

This riot of color, which can be as seamlessly free flowing as the aurora borealis or a precise pattern of caning work, is what so often attracts viewers to Friday’s pieces. All of which have a certain soft, circular simplicity to their silhouette, which acts as the perfect form to showcase all that color.

 

Owl Totem

In addition to paying tribute to his roots in his work, Friday makes sure to include a little piece of himself in each work. In addition to his signature which he signs each piece, Dan has added his own personal symbol somewhere on each. One circle inside of another, it is an abstracted eye he considers his mark.

“It is a symbol I have been drawing since I was a little kid, and it has been drawn since my first carvings as a kid. It is an eye and it is typical in north west coastal works. I like to think of them as planets too. I enjoy how all things want to be round, especially when you work with glass, things spinning, that centrical force.”

As new life is breathed into tradition inside the walls of Friday’s glass studio, a new type of Native American relic is created to be passed down and tell the stories and traditions of the Lummi Nation for many years to come.

~Katy Holt

 
 

Working at the Museum of Glass

STUDIO FOCUS | ADAM WAIMON

carving moments of natural beauty…

The artist conversing with nature.

The artist conversing with nature.

Each piece of Adam Waimon’s glass art has a life of its own. “I create a relationship with my work, these pieces - believe it or not - travel with me. They will come from the studio with me to my home, so they can sit on my table, so I can look at them and really connect with them.” Waimon told us in our recent Studio Focus interview “It just allows me to spend more time with them. And seeing them in different settings and in different lights, that allows me to really find the right balance of the engraving and how I want to carve it.”

Adam Waimon is a young glass artist living and working in Rhode Island. Inspired by nature and often the majesty of the Rhode Island coastline, Waimon creates abstract pieces that recreate the fleeting moments of beauty he finds in nature through flowing shapes of color and texture.

Adam Working in Josh Bernbaum's Studio.

Adam Working in Josh Bernbaum's Studio.

Waimon can be found in his studio space blowing glass with an assistant (or more recently solo due to COVID-19 circumstances) about once a week and spending most of the remainder of his time in the engraving studio painstakingly working on the surface of a piece. Going into the first stage of his process, the glass blowing, with an abstract and broad idea in mind and a few simple and loose sketches, he begins to create his ongoing dialogue with each glass piece.

“I have a good idea of what I want the final work to look like” he tells us “but the glassblowing portion of the process….it is so alive. There is so much movement that occurs and you have to adapt through the process.” Once a work is begun Waimon sits with it in a clean white studio space to sketch on it and study its shape before beginning his engraving process. Each work is carved uniquely to relate back to a balance within its own individual form. “That is really where a majority of the time is spent; I am taking lots of time removing the surface and trying to get a lot of depth into the surface of the piece”. Often cutting as much as half an inch of a silica soda lime glass away (which is much harder than leaded glass, and as a result much more time consuming and difficult to carve into). “There is always going to be some variation in the design” he tells us of his carving process “and I am open to that variation in the process”.

Golden Hour, 2020, (Detail) Blown and Engraved

Golden Hour, 2020, (Detail) Blown and Engraved

“Instead of trying to push it into what I want it to be” He goes on to explain the dialogue he has with each work,  “I try to work with the piece and learn how to make those uncertainties in the process work to my advantage. I think that is really coming through in my most recent work at Schantz Galleries. Though they are very much a series of work and cohesive, they are all a bit different. That comes from the variations of what comes in the process. And it can be as simple as using a certain color with a different working property, so I try to use those uncertainties to my advantage and see what comes of it.”

In his pieces currently on display at Schantz Galleries Waimon is moving into a new stage of his work, the use of color. “I always tried to use a minimal amount of color because I was always studying the glass blowing process and focusing on the form. And to do that I decided it would be best to keep my color palette very simple. As I have improved, and my artistic practice has become stronger I found it was time for me to start adding color” he told us. “You have to be an artist and a technician” he went on to say of the new challenges adding colored glass has presented to his work. There is an emotional charge to this new layer of dialogue presented in Waimon’s pieces on display at the gallery. The glowing colors and depth and emotion behind the textured surface that has been sandblasted then fire polished to mimic in both mood and visual presence of the shimmering glossy yet rigidly sharp surface of waves rippling over the ocean.

This is showcased exquisitely in Waimon’s piece Golden Hour, 2020 where the cascades of ocean blues and sunset orange dance together perfectly to capture the feeling of that moment where we all look our camera ready best and feel the soft glow of the beauty held in our own dialogue with nature. His other works in the gallery swirl with magnificent sea blues a viewer could get as easily lost in as an ocean. While color may be a newer theme in Waimon’s work, it is something he has been studying his whole life.

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Born in Connecticut to a family of artists, few people have spent as much time in an art studio as Adam Waimon. His mother is a painter and printmaker, his father a ceramicist, and his grandmother a painter and all of them exposed him to art and creativity from an early age. Prints and paintings by Waimon’s mother surround him at home giving him daily inspiration in color use. In fact, his family's artistic eye for color goes back many generations “my great grandfather worked at a hardware store in Harlem in the 1930’s that sold only a few paint colors but he would mix custom colors for customers before this was a common thing. Our family’s fascination with color spans nearly a century.” He told us. And it was on a family trip to Italy just before he entered high school that he found his love for glass. On this trip Waimon made his first visit to the island of Murano, known internationally for its time-honored traditions of glassmaking, and was instantly mesmerized with the malleability of the molten medium.

Some of Adam’s photos illustrate his source of inspiration, derived from his time spent at the edge of the land and water where they meet the sky.

In his own work Waimon draws stylistic inspiration from his mother's use of atmospheric coloring, his grandmother's abstracted depictions, and his father's use of 3D sculptural forms to create a style that is his own culmination of their influences to depict moments in nature that spark interest and inspire him. “I am interested in how land, water, and the atmosphere interact” seeking to depict a balance in each of his works that he finds in this natural relationship. Most often finding strong inspiration on the coastline of Rhode Island. Waimon finds inspiration in the colors and textures created by these fleeting moments of natural beauty that wash in and out with the ocean tides.

It was also Waimon’s family that introduced him to Schantz Galleries. Years ago, his family took a then young Waimon to visit the gallery on day trips to the Berkshires. Little did he know one day he would find his way back to the gallery as an adult, this time to showcase his own work.

Katy Holt for Schantz Galleries

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AVAILABLE WORKS BY ADAM WAIMON

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PROVENANCE 1995 - 2016 Featuring a Selection of Works from the Archives of Lino Tagliapietra

We are very pleased for this special opportunity to present these works from the archives of Maestro Lino Tagliapietra.

Several of these works represent the few remaining in a particular series. Some of these works have been included in museum exhibitions during the past two decades. These include the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; Museum of Glass Tacoma, WA; the Flint Institute of Arts, MI; Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Additionally, the three museum exhibits which Schantz Galleries helped support, include the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass, Neenah WI; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL, and the Morris Museum of Art, Morristown, NJ. It is true, that it would take another museum retrospective to bring the full oeuvre of his work to date into the broadest possible perspective, however, we have made this effort to share a collection of works from 1995 - 2016. We are honored to represent Lino Tagliapietra and hope you will enjoy this presentation.

Jim Schantz and Kim Saul

October, 2020

 

view works currently at the gallery…

Hopi, 1995 13.75 x 13.75 x 13.75

Hopi, 1995 13.75 x 13.75 x 13.75

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STUDIO FOCUS | VLADIMIRA KLUMPAR

a studio visit to the Czech Republic!

 

“Glass offers many secrets to unlock. You experiment, learn something new, and constantly educate yourself. But you can never be overconfident about what you know – about glass, or new cultures.”

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photo: Jim Schantz

 

“I grew up in the town of Potštejn [east of Hradec Králové]. As a child, I would roam along the banks of the local river. I had my own world, a microcosm of a family life, which, until I was fifteen, played out across an area of just a few kilometres.”

From Prague….

From Prague….

…to the studio in the north-eastern Bohemian town of Železný Brod, is a beautiful drive.

…to the studio in the north-eastern Bohemian town of Železný Brod, is a beautiful drive.

As a young woman, Klumpar worked as a jewelry designer for a glass maker, before joining the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. She studied at the Stankslav Libenský Studio, where she learned her craft and found inspiration from the famous glass artist Jaroslava Brychtová.

“For me, she was a model strong woman. Libenský taught us students in Prague, drawing and sketching designs for the couple’s architectural work, while Brychtová was in Brod working in glassworks, modeling, talking to the people in the factory, which was otherwise a man’s world. I really admired her.”

It was 1985 when Klumpar moved to the US with her infant son, Matyas, and her then husband, Michael Pavlik, also a glass artist. After learning how to adjust to the different working conditions in the States, the family moved to Massachusetts from Delhi, New York. “We purchased a house there with a large barn, where we built some studios, a superb cutting room, and we even built some glass melting furnaces.”

 
At the Novotny casting studio.

At the Novotny casting studio.

“From the individual parts of the process: creating a mould, through to the quality of the molten glass batch, through to setting the correct melting and cooling curves, all the way to cutting and polishing – all of this requires a team of people.”

Klumpar begins by creating a drawing, followed by a small mock-up in paper or other material.

Klumpar begins by creating a drawing, followed by a small mock-up in paper or other material.

This is a clay model in progress…

This is a clay model in progress…

…and here is a sculpture partially removed from the plaster cast.

…and here is a sculpture partially removed from the plaster cast.

 
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“…sometimes this [scale-model] is from clay, other times I use plaster. These models are then used to make a mould from a mix of glass sand and special plaster, which is then baked. For large models, an armature, wires and mesh are used to fortify the mould. The mould needs to be properly dried before placing in the furnace. Sometimes the process takes weeks. Afterwards, the mould is filled with molten glass, and thus begins a long process of computer-assisted melting and cooling.”

 

“The sculpture heads to the cutting room, where it is refined for weeks, or even months – until it is completed to my satisfaction.”

Klumpar works with the Novotný Studio, a highly respected casting and coldworking studio in Železný Brod.

Klumpar works with the Novotný Studio, a highly respected casting and coldworking studio in Železný Brod.

After the piece is removed from the plaster cast, it is ground and polished in the cold shop.

After the piece is removed from the plaster cast, it is ground and polished in the cold shop.

 

Over the years, Vladimira has lived in Mexico and Portugal, and continues to visit those places still. However, she has returned to her mother-land to live and work. “The more of these kinds of workshops and studios are founded here, the greater the chance that cast glass sculpting will be preserved for future generations”, insists Klumpar, whose son, Matyas Pavlik, also a glass sculptor, is helping to preserve the future of cast glass techniques learned in the Czech Republic.

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Thank you to the Kuzebauch Gallery in Prague for permission to share this video.

Video seriál magazínu Material Times o doteku ruky a matérie ::: 4. díl ze 4. série POD RUKAMA Video seriál magazínu Material Times o doteku ruky a matérie. ...
 

Works currently available at Schantz Galleries

 

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

• Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
• Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, FL
• Wustum Museum of Art, Racine, WI
• Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
• American Arts and Craft Museum, New York, NY
• Museum of Art, Liberec, Czech Republic
• North Bohemian Museum, Jablonec and Nisou, Czech Republic  

AWARDS and GRANTS

 • 1991 New England Artist Foundation Fellowship
• 1991 Massachusetts Artist Foundation Fellowship
• 1997 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant

COLLECTIONS

 Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
Seven Bridges Foundation, Greenwich, CT
Mikulově, Mikulov, Czech Republic
Glass Museum, Nový Bor, Czech Republic
North Bohemian Museum of Liberec, Liberec, Czech Republic
Museum of Glass and Jewelry, Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic
The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, FL
Racine Art Museum of Art, Racine, WI
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
American Arts and Craft Museum, New York, NY
Cafesjian Museum Foundation, Yerevan, Armenia

IN SPIRIT The Art of Lino Tagliapietra

May 29 - June 21, 2020

“...the idea is born, and sometimes it is very easy and sometimes it is very hard to go in a new direction and find the correct way. But the good things give you energy. Sometimes it is important to think a lot, but thinking can complicate things. Sometimes the good things are the simple things, but then sometimes the easiest things are the most difficult to do. You can have something perfect, but then you lose the spirit. Sometimes you have the spirit and sometimes you don’t. I still get so much joy from the work. It is still absolutely the best thing I know.”
— Lino Tagliapietra, 2020
Lino working at his February 2020 residency at the Museum of Glass.

Lino working at his February 2020 residency at the Museum of Glass.

 

Through the arts, we are all together, In Spirit. During these difficult times, we gain strength through helping one another. We also believe that art can be a source of hope and healing.

Schantz Galleries is pleased to present a collection of new works by Maestro Lino Tagliapietra, featuring his most recent innovations in glass. This weekend, May 29-31, we had planned to premier the new film on Lino “The Making of a Maestro” at the Berkshire International Film Festival. Due to the current pandemic, all cultural organizations, and most businesses in the Berkshires are closed for the summer. Although our physical space is currently closed, we remain committed to installing our planned exhibitions in the gallery to be shared virtually with our audience.

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We are happy to schedule a FaceTime tour of the gallery with our clients. Having the artwork displayed at the gallery gives us the opportunity to share the presence and nuance of each work. Many of our collectors enjoy the option to consider works from the comfort of home!

We know that the best way to experience art is in person, and will try our hardest to weather this storm in order to eventually open our doors again — with the belief that the outcome of isolation may be a renewed desire to see art in person.

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CATALOG ESSAY

Each artwork by Maestro Lino Tagliapietra is a physical manifestation of the artist’s emotions, experiences, and audacious imagination, communicated to the viewer without the assistance of language or verbal explanation. Endowed with unparalleled technical prowess, boundless creative insight, and a charismatic disposition, Lino commands a thoroughly expressive visual vocabulary that guides the viewer. We see and feel as each piece articulates and reflects the inimitable spirit of a very special artist and soul.

Masai, 2020, 55 x 26 x 4” photo, Russell Johnson Click through to Exhibition Page.

Masai, 2020, 55 x 26 x 4” photo, Russell Johnson Click through to Exhibition Page.

Despite the visual nature of glass art, there is a place for words and sounds in the experience. Lino Tagliapietra has traveled extensively, witnessing and absorbing the richness of different world geographies, cultures, and glass practitioners then thoughtfully integrating these encounters into his work. Another source of inspiration for the artist, however, is the realm of things he has never experienced materially. Many ideas emanate from his fantastical imaginings of unknown places, reveries ignited by something he reads or a captivating word or sound. As a boy, one of his favorite writers was the Italian action-adventure author Emilio Salgari, who never left Verona but wrote about pirates sailing the high seas to Borneo and outlaws fighting corruption in the Old West. In the case of Lino Tagliapietra, a work such as Masai conjures the flora, fauna, and culture of the African tribe so elegantly, it feels like the artist must have spent time there. In fact, he simply loved the sound of the word “Masai” and allowed this to be the spark for the work. A lover of reading—whether history, politics, or stories in both English and Italian—he says that what he reads and hears offer as much creative motivation as what he sees.

Kira, (detail)

Kira, (detail)

Nassau, (detail)

Nassau, (detail)

Aquilone, (detail)

Aquilone, (detail)

On the experience of being an artist-in-residence, Tagliapietra highlights the importance of being in the moment. He says: “in the beginning, you are rusty in the mind, the hands, and the spirit. But soon, these things begin to move in concert, you start to feel free, your mind fills with ideas and emotions, and the experiment of making the work takes off.”

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Lino never does drawings or sketches, saying he has no patience for it. Instead, there is a special alchemy that occurs between his mind and hands and the materials of glass and fire which cannot be predicted and for which there are no adequate words. The swirling Angel Tear, the serpentine Fenice, the florid Florencia, the exuberant Nassau, the sinuous Kira, the billowing Thila—each work is ultimately the expression of a single indefinable thing, the extraordinary spirit of Lino Tagliapietra. As he describes it, “the idea is born, and sometimes it is very easy and sometimes it is very hard to go in a new direction and find the correct way. But the good things give you energy. Sometimes it is important to think a lot, but thinking can complicate things. Sometimes the good things are the simple things, but then sometimes the easiest things are the most difficult to do. You can have something perfect, but then you lose the spirit. Sometimes you have the spirit and sometimes you don’t. I still get so much joy from the work. It is still absolutely the best thing I know.”

Excerpted from IN SPIRIT; the Art of Lino Tagliapietra, Catalog essay by Jeanne Koles.

See all publications on our exhibitions page .

Ten percent of each sale will be donated by the artist and the gallery to FEEDING AMERICA.

 
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Peter Bremers Featured in Destig Magazine

Scroll to page 50 to read a nice, well-written interview with Peter Bremers in this very large and creative magazine. Great photos!

8. DESTIG Awards 18. Hot Picks 30. Welcome to Hawaii 42. Danish Ceramics in Paris 46. Art and Glass Cite du Vin 50. Peter Bremers 60. Susie Hamilton 68. Donald Russel 76. Jonathan Swanz 84. Judy Aizuss 92. Sylwia Kramarz 100. Jordan Wade 108. Don Slocum 116. Lillian Turner Gracie 124.

A timeless reflection on the human spirit....

Bill Morris photo by CW Guildner.

Bill Morris photo by CW Guildner.

We are very grateful to have the opportunity to share this collection of works by William Morris, spanning between 2000-2013.

In the early 2000’s, we first witnessed Bill working at Pilchuck, which was his studio during the winter months when the school was not in session. It was there we saw him using some of the most unorthodox methods to create his Man Adorned figurative pieces. We watched enthralled as he sculpted a human head from the molten glass, pushing from the inside of the skull to build an ear, cutting into the form for the eye socket, fire blasting through the openings. It was not only his creative methods that amazed us, but his focus and his ability to channel energy, seemingly from another time and culture. He truly was a force of, and for, nature. His work brings us into a realm that connects us all, where we are all one and cultures share a collective relationship. We see associations to the writings of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Morris’s work is a timeless reflection on the human spirit.

Some of these works are from the Morris archives. There are also post retirement (2007) works that he has recently reconfigured from larger installations.

William Morris created a prolific oeuvre during his fertile and intense journey working in hot glass. He has left a legacy with his work and the school of artists he has helped through his mentorship at Pilchuck.

Jim Schantz and Kim Saul

October, 2019

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