Glass microbiology

[Brad Walker]

Flameworked pieces, but really fascinating. http://www.lukejerram.com/projects/glass_microbiology

[Nina Falk]

Valerie Adams and I saw these in person last week at the Heller Gallery. They were beautiful.
If you are in New York. this is a great time to go. They had some of everything, including the inspiring Lino, always in a class by himself. There was also the work of a German artist with an Italian name, with evocative portraits of a young girl, combining photos on glass with painting. Anyway, these "microbiology" pieces are so varied in texture and depth, you don't miss color.

[Valerie Adams]

I was surprised at how little color there was on display.

Sibylle Peretti's pieces are the amazing portraits Nina's referring to; ethereal, beautiful and even disturbing:
http://www.hellergallery.com/artists/pe ... /index.php

[Nina Falk]

the one I liked so much, and still think of, is "Cherry Blossoms" with the blossoms emerging almost as the child's breath.

[Shereen Timmerman]

I'll be going to the Naval Academy reunion - I hope the exhibit is still on at the Heller Gallery.

[Nina Falk]

it probably is---you can look up their exhibit schedule online.

[Morganica]

I really enjoy Jerram's work--it's infinitely pettable. Been seeing a lot of science-related work lately, some in glass, some not. (If you haven't seen Julian Voss-Andrae's metal sculptures--he's a physicist who reproduces molecular structures on a huge scale--you should. They're amazing. http://www.julianvossandreae.com/)

Here's macrobiology from a completely different perspective, for example: At the last meeting of the Oregon Glass Guild's Portland Chapter, we got a hands-on look at the work of John Sollinger, a biology professor and geneticist who has taught himself to make mosaics with BE and Uro glass on a float glass substrate.

His designs come from photos he takes on his field trips (mostly), and demonstrate aspects of plant growth patterns. If you get a chance to see his work in person, it's really amazing--some of the glass shards he uses are pinhead-sized. He took best-in-show at the Mosaics International, first time he entered a competition with his work.

http://roguemosaics.com/home.html

[judith]

Thank you for posting that link, Cynthia. Sollinger's work is spectacular!

[Morganica]

They are even more spectacular in person (and they're huge and heavy). From about 10 feet away they look like impasto oil paintings, and then as you get closer you realize those are individual pieces of glass cut to mimic brush strokes. When you're close enough to touch, it's kinda dumbfounding--he's shading and shaping on an amazing scale. They also tend to glow with a backlight, since they're built on a sheet of clear glass. The fun thing about this is he had a basic mosaic class but developed all of this on his own and found out "the rules" later.

He's interested in figuring out how to get a similar effect with tackfusing--I can't wait to see what he does with that.