house and home: janis miltenberger’s lampworked sculpture

We are moving in a few days, several months after buying a fifty year old house some distance from where we live now. Over the last four months we gutted half of the house and significantly ‘greened’ each room as we renovated. We look forward to hibernating for awhile before beginning the next stage of renovation in the spring after a long winter’s rest.

Love’s Sacrament, 37″ x 10″ x 10″

Nearing the end of the first phase of the remodel, I have started to think about how to make this house a home and my natural inclination is to gather inspirational images from many sources. My quest has uncovered several artists with works that speak to house and home.

Janis Miltenberger’s lampworked glass sculptures feel dramatic and quiet at the same time. Initially drawn to her Houses and Cages series, ultimately it was the artist’s Chair sculptures that kept me rooted in my own chair as I scrolled through the images.

Passive Voice, 36″ x 9″ x 10″

Passive Voice, detail

The chairs, with their rich colors and delicate details, are a nod to nature’s bounty and look as though they would be at home on a forest floor, waiting for one of Mother Nature’s creatures to come along and sit for a spell.

Upright of Heart, 36″ x 11″ x 10″

Miltenberger, who has been working with glass since 1978, began her career as a glassblower making functional objects like goblets and pitchers. She credits later studies with three glass artists – Susan Plum, James Minson and Cesare Toffolo Rossit – as a pivotal point in her relationship with glass and the impetus for the shift that eventually helped her find her own voice. That voice is strong and lyrical. The work is sumptuous and her keen ability to tell a story with the glass is something to celebrate.

Our Waxing Light, 34″ x 8.5″ x 8.5″

Many of my ideas derive from myth and biblical stories, creating analogies between ideas, words, heart and actions. I believe that this vocabulary of archetypal images exist in all of us, like seeds of ancient shared understanding, each viewer comprehending this unconscious language. Janis Miltenberger

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