I’m headed out to the airport soon.  This has been both an educational and inspiring week.  And it has been huge fun.

For my blog readers in Texas, just a early heads-up that I’ll have lots of slides and more this coming Fusing Friday.  I’ll include what I learned at Richard Whiteley’s “multi-point annealing”.  I can see your eyes already dilating with anticipation.

Also, just to tease you, within a week or so we will be announcing our next round of visiting lecturers.  No more details at the moment, but I promise you’ll see some names of people who, while they’ve been regulars at places like Corning, Canberra, and Bullseye, have never taught before in our area.

If you aren’t already on the Helios email list - and you want to know who is coming as soon as we announce - then you should sign up soon.

Helen Stokes has developed am ingenious technique for creating plaster silica mold with less weight, more strength and easier annealing vs solid molds.

I have always admired Silvia Levenson’s work - but today’s lecture and slide show really hit home for me how important and talented she is as an artist.  I’ve tried to think of another artist working in glass whose work has the potential to change the viewer - not only at the moment when they stand in front of the art - but long after they have left and, perhaps, even forgotten the work. 

And the amazing part is that this relationship between viewer and art usually starts with a laugh at the wit in almost all of her work.  But if you linger past the humor you will find there is always a deeper message - somewhere between commentary and observation - that is touches at some of humanities deepest pain points.

Someone at the conference made the comment that art is a kind of visual poetry.  If that is true (and I think it is), Silvia’s works are each a visual haiku - pleasant at a glance, yet so dense with meaning that you feel only after many return visits and readings can you start to understand what the work communicates.

Here’s one example:

There is something ludicrous in hanging glass knives. 

But when you consider the scene - a sort of sketch of an unremarkable living room - and you realize that the knives, ghostly clear in glass, are the shadows of past horrors - horrors within the should-be-safe home - the scene immediately loses its humor.  When you cannot be safe at home where do you go?

This, for me, is the most remarkable kind of art.

Kirstie provided a nice history of her work, discussing the things that have distracted her from making much new work in recent years. 

That is changing and the change is welcome - I have long been a fan of her simple forms, her use of gradient color (visible in much of her “tine” themed work and now in her Outside/Inside, door-themed work).  The few pieces on display at the Bullseye Gallery had a Libensky quality in their use of sharp, thinning edges to capture light and fade color.

Here’s another:

Here you go Lani

Many of you have heard me rave about the cameo engraving work by April Surgent.  If you haven’t seen April’s work before here is a small, stunning example (this is the birthday “card” she gave her dad):

Her lecture took us through how she ended up working with this form or glass, her ongoing mentorship by reknowned Czech engraver Jiri Harcuba, and an overview of the process she uses today.

She included a live demonstration of her working on her portable Merker engraving lathe:

Another truly inspiring GAS lecture.

Wow. Just finished the first session of the day with Jessica Loughlin.

Jessica spent the first part of her lecture talking about Australia, the landscape there and what inspires her. Hearing her talk about the stillness and space that she tries to capture makes me enjoy her work more. Is it just me, or do these artists from down under seem more comforable (and maybe skilled) keeping their themes uncluttered? I’m also thinking of Kirstie Rea and how her work is inspired by the everyday scenes and objects she saw growing up on an Australian farm.

Jessica spent the second half of her lecture taking us through the process she uses to create her box form pieces. These are large scale works that have both thick, cast parts and thin walls. Too much info to type into the iPhone now, but I will organize and share in our next Fusing Friday.

(Btw, the guy behind Jessica in the photo above is Klaus Moje.)

It is late - and I’m exhausted from a very full day - so here’s a quick list of other events from today:

• Lot’s of catching up with some wonderful people I haven’ seen and/or spoken to in a long time - folks like Steve Klein, Steve Immerman, Delores Taylor, Doug Randall, and Gil Reynolds.
• GAS recognition of Laura Donefer and Henry Halem - I’ll post more on those tomorrow - but for now enjoy Laura’s outfit:

• The Klaus Moje exhibit at the Portland Museum of Art

Lot’s on the agenda tomorrow - so it is off to bed!

(This post was updated late Thursday evening.)

I’ve never seen Paul Marioni before but he has quickly become one the people I’d want on an island where I was marooned. His work is wonderful and original, his sense of humor is awesome.

Most of his work is kinetic - the viewer is expected to rock them (which must give gallery owners heartburn).

The movement is more than just a novelty.  Paul discussed the importance of how light moves through glass in his (and I think most glass artists) work.  To appreciate that movement, though, the viewer usually has to move around the piece.  With his rocking pieces, the work moves - and thus the light moves within the object. 

Here are some photos - but for a better view of his work you can visit here:

http://www.uroboros.com/index.php?page=featured-artist—paul-marioni 

The last piece above (”Machine”), by the way, was purchased by Elton John.  I turns out the Sir Elton is quite the glass collector.

Paul talked about piece in terms of how long the rocked once started.  He also explained that some pieces made noise. One, for example, was finely serrated along the rocking edge so that it hummed when moving.

His process is interesting - he casts the approximately 2 in thick pieces flat and then slumps them.  This cuts his time down significantly vs. casting them in their final form.

He also described an interesting method of making his originals.  He constructs them from the pink foam board used for insulation - then coats that with wood glue.  It is something I intend to try.

There were a lot of good quotes from Paul’s lecture - and some are probably not appropriate for a family friendly blog - but here’s a good one:  “Watching me make a mold is a lot like watching a snow shovel rust.”

(This post was updated late Thursday evening.)

I am in the first session - Susan Longini is talking about how (and why) she chooses to make large-scale work from small pieces.

Some of the things she’s talking about:

- the importance of the negative space between the elements.

- the “reconfigurability” of work created this way - ability to make one installation work in different spaces by changing how it is arranged.

If you’ve never seen her work, here’s an example from her “Vase Analogy Series”.  This is a photo of a slide show - for a much better look at he wonderful work visit her site here: http://www.susanlongini.com/

Below is Susan demonstrating some of her techniques for making her glass leaves.

Almost all of her work is tack fused (1275-1325) Bullseye #1 frit with custom blends of powder.

The best quote from Susan’s presentation:  “I’m scared of shiney.”