Category Archives: Glass

mauro bonaventura’s glass spheres and cages

Sign up here to receive the DAM newsletter.

Italy’s Mauro Bonaventura uses the Murano glass of his homeland to create intricate spheres and cages with glass figures trapped inside. Threads of glass twisted and rolled, joined with a torch. Be sure to watch the two videos at the end of this post to see the artist at work.

{Click images to get a closer look}

The Human Condition

Sphere

Medusa’s Head

His Lunettes are pretty awesome too – check out the artist wearing a pair of the decorative lenses.

Mauro Bonaventura wearing Lunettes

Lunettes

The artist at work

 

 

 

 

 

sean hennessy: tattered, stained, covered and encrusted

Sign up here to receive the DAM newsletter.

He’s a quiet man. Thinks before he speaks. Ponders the questions you ask before he responds. I like this about him.  Sean Hennessy creates thought provoking sculptures in glass and concrete, casting narrative glass panels that he paints and trowels with concrete, then stains with pigment before framing the glass in steel.

The Difference Between Usglass, concrete, steel

“Tattered and stained. Covered and encrusted. Yet the glass, our humanity, and the narratives of our lives still shines through.”

This piece is backlit by LEDs that will last at least 25 years!

During my apprenticeship in DC last year I had the opportunity to see Hennessy’s work and I can easily say that pictures don’t do the work justice (as lovely as the photos are. . .).

Afterlife

“I liken the presence of glass in my art to the ethereal aspects of our lives, our spirit, and our hopes and dreams. I equate the concrete with the realities of earth, and life, and the shell that we use to protect ourselves from exposing our soul to the world.”

It Requires More Than Yourself

“My pieces are interpretations and psychological landscapes of the unseen forces in our lives—being judged by others and ourselves, finding inspiration and will, and dealing with obstacles that may hold us back.”

Sean Hennessy is participating in the much awaited Artomatic festival/show/event along with many of my friends including Michael Janis, Erwin Timmers and Tim Tate. From May 18th (yes, that’s today!) through June 23rd, more than 1,100 artists and 5,000 pieces of art take over an 11 story building in Crystal City, Virginia. If you are in the area, be sure to check it out.

Sean Hennessy’s webite

Read more about the artist and see work in progress photos here and here.

Hennessy is also known in DC for his faux and decorative painting talents. Check it out here.

 

 

david & melanie leppla: kyoto lanterns and cairns

Sign up here to receive the DAM newsletter.

I’m really smitten with these Kyoto Lanterns and Cairns from glass artists David and Melanie Guernsey Leppla. The glass rock formations and functional Japanese lanterns are simply lovely to look at and meditate on. I can imagine basking in the glow of the low light thrown by the blown glass sculptures.

Red Berries Kyoto Lantern

Green Buds Kyoto Lantern

Orange Berries Kyoto Lantern

“Kyoto Lanterns are a series of sculptural lighting that capture the studied beauty and simplicity of the Japanese aesthetic while utilizing the perfect relationship of glass and light. Layered surface patterns of different hues and opacities allow a subtle transmission of light within to accentuate the qualities of the glass while creating a serene and meditative focal point.”

Red Cairns Group

Amber Cairns Group

“Cairns have held deep significance for millennia. These Cairns, born of glass in heat and light, capture a brief moment in time when the elements are in balance. Each unique composition represents accomplishments, knowledge and experience gained, difficulties overcome and guidance for pathways yet to be traveled.”

David & Melanie Leppla’s website

 

 

 

helen otterson: dis.ease. and how to get your work seen by daMuse

Sign up here to receive the DAM newsletter.

More biomorphic sculpture today, this time from ceramic artist Helen Otterson, who mixes ceramic forms with cast glass and most recently bronze. Otterson’s interest in biomorphic forms is rooted in her interest in our experience of disease. Dis.Ease.  Personal experience has as much to do with this fascination as her studies of microscopic slides of human tissue.

Floral Burstceramic, cast glass

Disease is an experience that radically transforms life through its ability to force a debate on human suffering and survival.

Due Feuilles, ceramic, bronze

My work is a hybrid of human cells and plant forms that share the pursuit of survival and beauty of the natural form.

Physiologia, ceramic

Untitled, ceramic, cast glass

Work In Progress

Pastel Botanica, ceramic, cast glass

Equilibrium At Odds, ceramic

My goal is to illuminate the precious balance of life and beauty of the natural world, while revealing the temporary symbiotic relationship between health and malignant cells.

 

Helen Otterson’s website

 

Want daMuse To Showcase Your Work?

The best, best ways to have me find your work are easy and effective:

1.  ‘Like’ the DAM page on Facebook and comment on posts there – I very often look at profiles/websites of people who take the time to comment on my FB posts and I have found many artists for DAM posts that way.

2.  You can also post comments on the blog here  - I always check websites of commenters on DAM.

3.  Another easy, effective way of having me find your work is to embed a link to Daily Art Muse on your own website – when traffic comes in to this site from another website I check out the website it’s coming from.

Yes, you can also write to me and I LOVE hearing from you, but please know that I receive dozens of emails every day, including artists asking me to post about their work, galleries who want me to post about an exhibit, questions from readers regarding how and where to purchase work they saw on the blog, friends of artists who hope that a post on DAM will give their friend a boost in sales. . .you get the picture.

Though it might take me a few days to see them if I’m in ‘very busy’ mode (like now when I’m teaching a class), I do read all of your emails, but because they come in at such a rapid rate they fall off my radar screen quickly – even if the work is something I would post on DAM – it’s just the nature of the beast that email has become.

Unfortunately I don’t have time to respond to most, as emails from students, advertisers and others in my network must take priority.  I hope you understand.

I do want to see great contemporary fine craft from YOU and your colleagues – because I want to share it with all of DAM’s readers. Really I do. So find DAM on Facebook, comment there or on this blog and link to the website – I’m watching, I promise! It’s how I found Helen Otterson – it could be how I find you.

jeremy maxwell wintrebert: blown glass vessels

Sign up here to receive the DAM newsletter.

While recovering from a near-fatal car accident that left him hospitalized for months, Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert began reading about glass art and glass blowing. Once recovered, the Paris-based artist studied with master glass artists in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Czech Republic and Venice. After more than a decade honing his craft, Wintrebert is preparing for his first solo show in the UK at Vessel Gallery, May 9 – June 30, 2012.

In addition to selling his vessels, I think he could also sell prints of the detail photos. Yes?

Big

Big, detail

 

 

 

From the Spirit Fruit Series

 

“I create pieces I like that have a contrast with a space. The result seems to call up a feeling of “nature” in these often very geometrical, minimalist spaces.” Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert

The short video clip below is a fascinating glimpse of the man and the artist.

Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert’s website

Vessel Gallery

Read more about the artist and his Spirit Fruit series here