david bennett’s glass sculptures: liquid motion

Trapeze artists appear to be flying through the air, horses galloping across open fields, and gymnasts look as if they are performing impossible twists and turns. David Bennett’s glass and bronze figures capture both the shimmering, liquid qualities of the glass and the motion of his subjects.

Tumbler in Amethyst

Welding bronze rods to create cages for his figures, Bennett blows hot glass into the metal molds, later embedding LED lights into the sculptures to enhance the luminosity of the glass.  Read more about the artist’s process here.

Dancing Stallions, blown glass and bronze, 39″ x 37″ x 16″

Red and Turquoise

Bennett gives new meaning to the idea of reinventing yourself, and hope to anyone who thinks it is ‘too late’ to begin again.  Almost twenty years ago the former Army-Captain-turned-lawyer was on vacation celebrating his 50th birthday when he met a glassblower who spoke to the litigator about his life – that conversation made Bennett question his own path and he set out to chart another course. Read this beautifully written excerpt from the 2007 American Style magazine article about the artist.

Brown Galloper, blown glass and bronze, 22″ x 36″ x 14″

Hoops Lady

David Bennett with one of his sculptures

“Artisans have been blowing glass into metal forms for two thousand years. We are pushing the technique. We can make complex forms in glass and bronze that we could not do in either medium alone. As we’ve stretched the technical processes of blowing glass into metal, I’ve had more and more artistic freedom. Our figures can be lighter and wilder in their motions, and we’ve become able to manipulate the glass around its armatures in increasingly playful ways.” David Bennett

See an out-of-this-world Bennett chandelier here (click on the images to view them larger).