My work has been chosen to be in the exhibition which celebrates "Fiber Philadelphia". The show is called "Uncommon Threads" and is on exhibit at Temple Judea Museum, located in Keneseth Israel (KI) in Elkins Park, PA
I will be showing different NEW works at each of these venues this Fall and hope to see you at one or all of the following. If you can’t attend the opening, contact me and I’ll meet you at your convenience.
Sculpture venues:
Snyderman/Works Gallery: Found Objects 2 Invitational
Oct 2 (“First Friday” opening5-9pm) - Nov 15, 2009
Sat, Oct 3, 2009: 5 pm (reserve tickets now!)
Dec 4, 2009 – Jan 23, 2010
One-of-a-kind Jewelry & small painting venues
2 Saturdays: Nov 14 & Dec 12, 2009 noon-5pm
This past weekend I attended the International Flameworking Conference in Salem, New Jersey and entered MOM in an exhibition held at the conference. And...I won a prize! All very exciting since she is clearly made of media in addition to glass. The flameworking world community is pushing the limits and off we go...
So here is the latest baby.
In case you have NO idea what you are looking at, I'll explain:
Take an antique toaster and spread its wings,
attach it to a roller skate with glass wheels,
and add a glass bandaid for a propeller;
place the queen (with a glass eye on the back of her head) on top of a vintage hand drill
so she can rotate 360 degrees in space and see all,
and fill her wings with all kinds of tools fabricated from glass:
a needle and thread, drinking straw, pencil, thermometer, umbrella, toothbrush, an extra hand, paintbrush, fork, toothbrush and some extra eyes just in case.
In fact, add a fused glass eye on top and a beautiful necklace cause it's a girl...
Now she is prepared for anything...she is: Mom to The Rescue!
I am very excited to announce that 3 of my glass/found object sculptures have been accepted into a highly acclaimed gallery in Pittsburgh, PA called the Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery. I am privileged to be exhibiting with many of my favorite celebrated artists such as Mark Abildgaard, Tina Betz, Carmen Lozar, Beth Lipman, Christopher Reis and Kari Russell-Pool. What a kick! Why don't you go to the gallery website and discover a whole new world. If you have a chance to get to this outstanding gallery, please tell Amy Morgan that I sent you. You won't be disappointed with the quality and variety of work there. I was so captivated by work at the gallery that it was difficult to leave.
"Growth Where You Least Expect It"
11.5”h x 18”w x 4”d
Flameworked glass tubing, aluminum “t”, silicon,
grass (fescue) seed
...and my artist's statement:
Wikipedia lists 16 pages of extinct plants. As we continue to poison our environment and contribute to global warming, everyday symbols of nature may become a distant collective memory. This work pays homage to the common fescue seed that is the beginning of the life cycle of a blade of grass. Entitled “Growth Where you Least Expect It” serves as a tribute to the stamina of nature under dire circumstances. Let’s hope that is does not become symbolic of the grass we used to know.
Well, I've been tagged by Shibori Girl, so I'd better step up to the plate. Let's see if I can meet up to the standards! I need to follow these rules:
1) Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog
2) Share 7 facts about yourself, some random, some weird
3) Tag 7 more people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs
4) Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs
7. I am obsessed with making things using glass and mixed media.
This is the lastest work I completed. I began with a volume of an Italian encyclopedia, deconstructed it and created "MaMA" using all kinds of parts from household appliances. This piece was inspired by a cast-off doll I retrieved from the side of the road. "Mama" is the first word that children from all countries, backgrounds and eras can pronounce (ok, maybe "Dada" is the first...) and its universality struck me.
I went to visit an longstanding family friend who had just lost his Mom (yes, with a capital "M"). He lived with her and has to sell the house which is the only one he has known all his life. I left him and went to the Farmer's Market where I bumped into another longstanding friend, a realtor. You know how you hear people's stories when you first meet them and then it's 20 years later and you need a refresher course?
So I asked this realtor friend where he grew up. It was the same block of the same street of the house which needs to have a new owner. The realtor's parents sold every house on that street and in a five block radius as they began their business 40 years ago. And my friend would LOVE to go back to his family's beginnings and sell this familiar house on this familiar street. And by the way, I haven't seen him or his wife in a year. We also found out that we'll be attending the same concert tomorrow for a mutual friend Sharon Katz and the Peace Train who is raising monies for a sucessful music therapy program for children whose lives have been affected by AIDS in South Afica
It's really fun to continually bump into these coincidences.
TOWER OF INDUSTRY: GRANDMOTHER STITCHES
(flameworked glass, fabric, gold leaf, mixed media)
This sculpture has been juried into a Philadelphia Sculptors' exibition at West Chester University, PA. The images of my grandmother are from one of my oil paintings, the sewing machine and lace are glass that I flameworked, the bobbins and spool were my grandmother's. There is even a cloth replication of her ILGWU card which she proudly carried.
So, Philadelphia finally has a new mayor, Michael Nutter, who seems to be liked by many. Now that is a change for this city of Brotherly Love which holds the record for the past 2 years and it ain't for kissing. We had the highest murder rate of any city in the USofA. As soon as Mayor Nutter got into office, he declared an essential war on violence in the city and we all have a great deal of hope that he will be able to redirect all of this negative energy and pain.
In the meantime, one of my sculptures is being enjoyed by our new Mayor since it was chosen to be on exhibit outside his office as part of the Art in City Hall's juried exhibit by Mary Salvante entitled TOYING WITH ART . A perfect match for this artist who is currently working on a series of glass "toys"!
Now this is not your ordinary dollhouse, since there are no windows or doors. It's other name is "INCUBATOR" which is fitting for this houses an egg. You know there's something inside (there are some branches protruding mysteriously out of the corners) , but it's hard to see inside unless you are putting your eye right up to the peephole. It's a protected yet somewhat thorny and dangerous world inside and if you look really carefully, you can see your eye blink inside the egg.
inside the peephole:
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I hope Mayor Nutter took time to look inside. This piece reminds me of what it must feel like be a parent of children in a dicey neighborhood, where it's too scary to let them play outside, walk to the store or even go to school. We need to fix this immediately or we'll lose another generation of creative minds to violence and all of its repercussions.
My husband's cousins (for those who know him, he does have one in every port) from Washington, DC visited us for brunch today. They brought their adorable midgets ("2 3/4, 5 1/2 and 7 3/4 years old") who we have had the pleasure of meeting 3-4 times in their teensy lives. They walked into the house as if we were their long lost cousins (?!) and gave us each a big bear hug. The saying that "blood is thicker than water" rang true as they knew at their oh-so-young ages that we had special meaning in their lives. Yet we are essentially strangers who piggyback onto each other's stories that go way back.
PIGGYBACK (Prismacolor on paper)
Those genes are powerful stuff when you get right down to it.
The connections continue as one muse bumps into another.
Three years ago I was determined to use my art to make a difference in the Philadelphia community. I am a strong believer that if we had more art in the world...real hands on magic would develop. There is something so exciting and transforming about starting with nothin' and ending up with somethin'. SO I decided to gather a group of artists together and get to it.
Our mission is to teach stained glass to any interested 9-12th graders from a local city school's after-school program. We teach the kids to follow their dreams and make whatever they'd like. Glass artists and shops from the community have generously donated all kinds of goodies, and the church that hosts the after-school program helps out too.
None of the students has ever actually created something from glass. Most have serious learning differences. Most can't concentrate for longer than a nano-second...except when they are working on their projects. Suddenly, they are focused for 2 hours. They don't fidget. They wait their turn patiently. They are calm. They are pleasant. They are thoughtful. They are proud. And they come up with some darn creative ideas.
After only one session, each student is on a new road as they learn about themselves.
SKEWED VIEW (flameworked glass, mixed media)
I am about to embark on another unplanned and unpredicable voyage. Since my eloquent son, sister-in-law and artist bud each started blogs, I have realized that I need to express myself in words in order to maintain the ability to speak, a process which is rapidly diminishing over time. In fact, I used to be able to speak several languages and now find that English alone is a challenge. So I have made up my mind to create a trail of my travels and influences and the creations I develop as a result. In honor of my first post, here is a flameworked sculpture I made which celecbrates writing, painting, creativity...ART!
