exceprt from "A Touch of Glass" by Leah Lopez Schmalz

published in the Guilford Courrier June 2006

Lisa Koch, a scientist turned artist out of Madison, Wisconsin, has three pieces in the Biennial Exhibition of North American Glass; one of which was an award winner (Device for Walking on the Ceiling) and two of which were among my personal top picks. In History of a Molecule, glass wood and decals combine in a shadow box that frames a molten Terminator-like blob of glass and surrounding four maps - each provides a shapshot of the particle's "life" path. It Is A Part of You is a set of smallish boxes constructed of glass, wood and negative space. Sheets of aqua glass line up to create a sliced facade. All of those individual panes unite to capture what is by definition not present. Negative space - and artist's best friend; the thing that by the very nature of not being there manages to define what is.