(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.”