Over the weekend I attended SOFA NY at the Park Avenue Armory, visited new friends and even managed to squeeze in some time with my daughter (who will complete her graduate degree in May – I’m so proud of her!). A full and joyous weekend. So full that I thought Friday was Saturday (all day, even when reminded numerous times that it was Friday) and didn’t post on DAM. Hope you all forgive me. Perhaps two posts today will help?

Nang Ga, 62″ x 36″ x 38″
mold blown and cast glass, oil paint, mixed media

The pictures in this morning’s post are Oben Abright‘s sculptures from the series “Portraits of Loi Tailang Burma” as seen at SOFA.  I walked the floor of the show several times, always coming back to the Echt Gallery booth to look more closely at this compelling work and to capture images of the blown and cast glass figures to share with you. Karen Echt did a magnificent job displaying the figures – I wanted to know more, to get close enough to see inside of each sculpture, to step back and marvel at the way the lighting highlighted the color and transparency of the lifesize works at the same time. Stunning.

The 31 year old artist traveled through Burma to document and bring attention to the under-reported genocide of minority groups in the region. His sculptures are based on the photographs he took of orphans, widows, amputees, soldiers and civilians inside the conflict zone.

Tun Yee, 25.5″ x 24.5″ x 13″
mold blown and cast glass, oil paint, beads

Abright, who explains his decision to translate clay portraits into glass saying, “Glass is an integral part of the subject – I try to make transparent those people who are marginalized in society,” has given us powerful, haunting three dimensional images that demand to be seen.

Read a more detailed account of his time in Burma here, and this article describes some of his process as well as the inspiration for several of his sculpture series.

Picture of the artist at work via Floating World Projects

“Human emotion is a subject of infinite artistic value. My work portrays the faces and experiences of people around me. As a sculptor working in clay I wanted to show more internal imagery behind the still face of a figure. This desire to reveal the interior has led me to pursue the transparency of glass. A glass figure conveys fragility and communicates through light better then one in any other medium.” Oben Abright

One of the things I became aware of during my internship in DC was that while I loved to study and share the best in contemporary glass art (and I have fallen head over heels for the guys at Washington Glass School), I didn’t gravitate towards glass as a medium for my own art making.

click on images to view large

Encapsulation, 12′ x 41″ x 6.6″, kiln formed glass, fusible film

Fascinated by the different processes, I was lucky enough to try my hand at fusing, lampworking and dry plaster casting while I was there. The experience left me in awe of those who devote themselves to glass, but also believing that there wasn’t a place for it in my own artmaking.

Silenced, 23.5″x6″ glass, fusible film, apothecary jar, barbed wire

And then. . .a few days after leaving DC I came across Joanne Teasdale’s work and had an ‘Aha’ moment. Teasdale, at one time an abstract painter, recently began combining photography with kiln formed glass using a fusible film.

Weaken Desires,  3.5″ x 28.5″ x 3.5″,
kiln formed glass, fusible film, antique compact

Yes. Beautiful. My head is spinning with ideas. And I know, without question, my internship at WGS gave me the opportunity to explore enough so that when the ‘Aha’ moment happened, I was ready for it. I am sure there will be many more moments like this that come as a result of my time with all of the artists from the DC internship and for this, I am deeply grateful.

The Cradle, 16″ x 21″, kiln formed glass, fusible film

I will be at SOFA NY this weekend and I look forward to seeing Teasdale’s work in person at Jane Sauer Gallery’s booth.

Will you be at SOFA NY?  Let me know and I will stop by to say hello!

Ephemeral, 37″x47″, glass, fusible film, 25 pieces

“An energy circulates between the three mediums that I use, and they influence each other.  When I work with the camera, I am partly shaping what will be created with glass and when I work with glass, I often consider how I will use the camera.  This interrelation also includes my paintings: an atmosphere in a glass piece will find it’s way to the canvas and a painting concept will be transferred to the other mediums.” Joanne Teasdale