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June 28, 2020 :::::: AACG Wisconsin Artists Lecture Series - pandemic edition

The Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass organized a Wisconsin Artists Lecture series, which got off to a great start... but then the pandemic hit. Many of the scheduled artists, myself included, have devised a way to give a talk online instead. You can find links to the talks that have already happened on BMMOG's facebook page, and watch for the future talks that will still happen.

The series includes: Wes and Wesley Hunting, Stephanie Trenchard, Lisa Koch, Jeffrey Stenbom, Deanna Clayton, Kristin Thielking and Lisa Beth Robinson, Beth Lipman, and Keith Clayton.

Oct 20, 2019 :::::: Wisconsin Ideas, Global Influences show at BMMOG

My piece, Pale Blue Dot, that now belongs to the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass is featured in the current exhibition called "Wisconsin Ideas, Global Influences" which focuses on the impact of WI artists on the studio glass movement over the last 70 years, as well as new meaningful works.

The exhibit includes the work of artists Eoin Breadon, Beth Lipman, Chuck Savoie, Deanna Clayton, Keith Clayton, Stephanie Trenchard, Michael Meilahn, Wes and Wesley Hunting, John Littleton and Kate Vogel, Kristin Thielking and Lisa Beth Robinson, Jeffrey Stenbom, Lisa Koch, David Huchthausen, Kent Ipsen, Harvey Littleton, Audrey Handler, Marvin Lipofsky and Doug Johnson.

It runs through Feb 22 2020, so go visit this wonderful museum!

Mar 10, 2019 :::::: BMMOG Acquisition of Pale Blue Dot

I am honored that the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass has decided to acquire my picee, Pale Blue Dot. It has been shown at BMMOG in the recent exhibition "Sharper Edges", as well as in the innaugural exhibit at the Museum of Wisconsin Art called "Contemporary Wisconsin Glass".

The piece refers to our earth, the pale blue dot, and references this with circular blue maps and silver clouds that shift and change through the lens of glass. You'll be able to see it in futur exhibitions at the Bergstrom Mahler!

Nov 17, 2018 :::::: Sharper Edges exhibition at BMMOG

I'm showing five pieces in an exhibition at the Bergstrom Mahler Museum of Glass. The show is called "Sharper Edges: Women Working on the Edge of Glass" and features Audrey Handler as well as:

Stephanie Trenchard, Lisa Koch, Kristin Thielking, Susan Taylor Glasgow, Deanna Clayton, Beth Lipman, Carmen Lozar, Lisa Beth Robinson, Jennifer Caldwell.

I'm thrilled to be showing with these amazing women. We also held a panel discussion the evening of the opening and got to spend a little time togehter which was fantastic.

Aug 28, 2016 :::::: Gleam at Olbrich this summer

Here are a couple photos of my piece at Olbrich Gardens. It is a part of the show GLEAM: Art in a New Light, running from Sept 1 - Oct 28. We had a preview opening night party August 26 where the artists were present and had a graet turnout.

My piece is called Yahara Waters : Yahara Clouds, and is two cloud forms that are made based on the shape and topography of our local lakes (depth is exaggerated). The idea that the water that is a part of our lakes moves about, maybe in the form of clouds and connects us all.

There are some fantastic pieces installed this year, ranging from projections to glowing forms and experiences. GLEAM at Olbrich alwyas makes for a great summer evening activity so go check it out!

May 21, 2016 :::::: Wingra Waters installed at the Library

My piece is up at the Monroe Street Branch of the Madison Public Libraries! It is called Wingra Waters, and references the spring fed Lake Wingra close to the library. Each of the drops has etchings on it that recall some part of Monroe Street's history or something having to do wtih Monroe Street today - including the lake itself, the mounds, the stone circle, the Oak Savannah, native plants and flowers, and more. The colors of the drops were chosen to accent the colors of the Monore Street Library and the vibe of the neighborhood, as well as the Madison Public Library's logo.

It was Dedicated in an event on May 20, 2016 and we packed the library wtih attendees. Lighting will be installed soon, but you can go see it any time now!

April 18, 2016 :::::: Library Commission, new GLEAM exhibition

I have been selected to be one of the artists exhibiting public sculpture in Olbrich Gardens new exhibition at the end of the summer. The show is calle GLEAM: Art in a New Light, and will feature pieces designed specifically for Olbrich by seven artists or artist teams. All of the work will be luminous, and we will work closely with Olbrich and a lighting designer to coordinate the ambiance of the piece. Here's a short video with last year's pieces.

The piece for the Monroe Street Branch of the Madison Public Libraries, called Wingra Waters, is almost ready! We're set to install in mid May, wiht an opening reception date set for Friday May 20 at 7pm. The glass drops are all blownand polished and we are working out the details of the frame and mounting. Looking forward to seeing it in place!

Dec 15, 2015 :::::: Madison Public Library Project

I'm excited to announce that I've started work on a public art project that will be installed at one of the Madison Public Libraries! I was asked to create a permanent work for the back windows of the Monroe Street Library earlier this year and we've been working on getting the design finalized, and we obtained matching grant money from the City of Madison arts commisison to make the project that much bigger.

The project will have to do with the community and history of Monroe Street, and its posisiton near downtown and near Lake Wingra, which has been an important body of water for a very long time, to many peoples. The piece will be a celebration of the springfed waters and the wonderful community. The glass has been blown, and now its time to finish the frame and the details, for installation in late winter.

May 1, 2015 :::::: Neon and Light show on top of the Madison Children's Museum

This spring there was a Neon and Light exhibition on the rooftop of the Madison Children's Museum. The rooftop there offers fantastic views over the downtown and Wisconsin State Capitol. I installed my EARTH piece again, wtih a backdrop of the Capitol dome, as well as a squid, and a few other smaller pieces.

The show was an invitational and consisted of students from many art schools as well as professional artists and alumni. The glow of light based art at dusk is a magical thing, and many people came by to enjoy it.

May 1, 2013 :::::: Contemporary Wisconsin Glass Exhibition and more

I'm excited to announce that I'm in an exhibition called "Antifragile, Contemporary Wisconsin Glass" at the Musuem of Wisconsin Art. It is the first show in their beautiful new buildilng. The show includes 15 glass artists including myself, Stephanie Trenchard and Jeremy Popelka, Mick Meihlan, Beth Lipman, Audrey Handler, Steve Feren, Stephan Cox and more! I highly recommend going to see this show. Its a great variety of the amazing things that are going on in this state 50 years after studio glass began here. The MoWA also has a fantastic permanant collection of Wisconsin art worth seeing.

This winter, I had a solo show at the MacRostie Art Center in Minnesota. It was great fun to go visit, snowshoe and relax while visitng with the lovely people of the Arts Center. Currently, I also have an exhibition, Molecular Reason, at the Janet Carson Gallery in Eau Claire WI. Check my Events page for exact dates.

Sept 30, 2012 :::::: Upcoming 2013 shows, working with students

I wrapped up the semester at UW last May with a special weekend session of assembling glass using the torch and garage (pix). I'm proud of the great bunch of students who showed up on a Sunday morning/early afternoon to learn, it was a great expereince for them, and I had a blast working with them. I can't wait to see what they all do next semester. I'm not teaching this fall, so I get to focus a little bit more on my own work and some studio improvements.

In other news, I have a few exhibitions coming up. I'm in a group exhibition at the Freeport Art Musuem from Nov-Feb, will be in a group glass exhibition at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend in 2013, and will also have two solo exhibitions in early 2013. One will be at the MacRostie Art Center in Minnesota, and the second solo show at the Janet Carson Gallery in Eau Claire WI. Check my Events page for exact dates.

Feb 8, 2012 :::::: New Glass Review, Ossuary

A couple of quick updates. I'm excited to announce that one of my neon installations that is a part of my Commodification Series, has been selected to be published in the 2012 New Glass Review, an annual publication organized by the Corning Museum of Glass. New Glass Review is an annual juried survey of glass in contemporary art, architecture, craft and design created in the previous year around the world. It comes out this spring.

Also, I currently have a piece exhibited at the Chazen Museum of Art as a part of 'Ossuary', a project organized by Laurie Beth Clark. The Ossuary project is being exhibited there as a part of the Faculty Exhibition, Compendium 2012. Check the ossuary website for future exhibition locations as they become available.

 

Jan 24, 2012 :::::: Solo at MWA Through April, Spring Semester Begins

My solo exhibition "A Collection of Fleeting Moments" opened in January at the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Also showing in the galleries at MWA are Bernard Gillardi and Alison Stehlik. MWA is a great museum in West Bend Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. They host fantastic exhibitions as well as a really wonderful permanent collection.

Not much down time after the show opened, because the Spring semester began. I'm teaching beginning glassblowing again at UW-Madison's Art Dept. I've got a great new crop of undergrads, and am also happy to see that almost all of my students from last semester have continued in the glass department to take advanced glass or neon. Some are even taking both! Its really fun to watch them continue to grow with their artwork.

 

Dec 4, 2011 :::::: Current and Upcoming Exhibitions and Honors

Three of my pieces were selected to be in the Freeport Art Musuem's Regional Juried Exhibition this winter in Freeport Illinois. One of my pieces, "Two Weeks in October" was awarded first place in the exhbition. Also honored was Alice O'neill, a fellow Madisonian, who received second place for one of her beautiful prints.

I'm also excited to announce that my next solo exhibition which will take place at The Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend WI, and it begins in January of 2012. I visited the Focus Gallery recently (where my show will be) and the work of Dean Meeker stood out beautifully against dark blue walls. I'm quite excited about this. My show opens January 18 2012 and runs through April 1 2012. An opening reception is planned for the show on Sunday January 22, 2012 from 1:30 to 4pm.

 

Sept 20, 2011 :::::: Back from Pilchuck, Teaching at UW Madison

As always, working at Pilchuck Glass School was amazing. This year I helped run the cold shop under the expert tutelage of Ethan Stern. The faculty, staff and students were all top notch, in part because it was Pilchuck's 40th anniversary session. They brought back some important people in the history of Pilchuck to teach classes: Bertil Vallien, Ulrica Hydman-Vallien, Jiri Harcuba with April Surgent, Michael Glancy, Ben Moore with Adam Holtzinger. Plus, Lino Tagliapietra and Magdalene Odundo were there in residence.

I learned something from everybody there, faculty and staff, and loved every minute of it. I stayed in a wonderful treehouse, built by Buster Simpson out of old windows on top of a tree stump in 1972. It was so fantastic! Now I'm back, and teaching intro glassworking again as an adjunct in UW's Art Dept. Looks like I have a good group of students this semster, and I'm excited to keep working with them.

April 27, 2011 :::::: {Superposition} show in Seattle

I'm going to be a part of an exciting juried exhibition in Seattle this year. The show is called Superposition, and is organized by the great people at Hyperopia Projects. The show will open on the gallery hop night for the Seattle Glass Art Society conference and run through the month of June.

From Hyperopia: "This show features artists whose works inhabit so many places simultaneously that they might not fit into any of them. {SUPERPOSITION} consists of works that directly address this condition of being in multiple places at once, as well as projects produced by artists who inhabit the fringes of genres."

 

 

April 17, 2011 :::::: Biennial Outdoor Neon and Light Exhibition a success

"Light on the Prairie: Outdoor Neon and Light Art Exhibition" was held on the weekend of April 16. Despite the Wisconsin spring weather's attempts to slow us down, we were able to have a successful show. Visitors came from places including Alfred University, Atlantic City and Munson Williams Proctor Art Institute to exhibit their lighted artworks on a beautiful prairie south of Madison, WI.

This is a biennial event. In previous years it has been held at various locations in Madison, and on alternate years, students and faculty often travel to Alfred University to participate in the Museum of Luminous Phenomenon's exhibition.

My newest neon piece (pictured at the left) made its debut. I'm pretty excited about it.

Feb 19, 2010 :::::: Snow Sculpting again!

Today I got back into action with snow sculpting, by carving a block at Winterfest in Madison, Wisconsin! A few years ago, I was a sculptor in the Wisconsin State Snow Sculpting competition, and also have done some other snow sculputres around town, at the Kohl Center, and the State Capitol Lawn.

Today, my team consisted of myself, Hongtao Zhou and Jason Sandberg, both exceedingly talented sculpture MFA candidates at UW Madison. We sculpted a chicken sitting on top of a huge pile of eggs with a bit of nest poking out from under the eggs. It was a crowd pleaser. I forgot how much fun this is!

 

 

Nov 22, 2010 :::::: Teaching glassblowing at the University of Wisconsin Madison

I'm teaching Art 354, beginning glassworking, at the University of Wisconsin Madison's Glass Department this semester. I've got a great bunch of students. We are covering glassblowing, hot sculpting, coldwork, and touching on kiln work and casting.

So far, they've been working on two big assignments, as well as a couple small technical assignments. Its really fun to watch them progress - from the first day when it was a problem to even keep the glass on the pipe, to now seeing them working as teams, helping each other troubleshoot, and making things that they designed. I'm so proud!

 

 

Nov 15, 2010 :::::: fun with other artists

I've recently been making some more bell jars for artist Rosemary Bodolay. She commissioned me to make bell jars for her project in Forest Art Wisconsin a few years back and was interested in having some more. The bell jars turned out fabulous with their curvy feminine finials. She's great to work with and you can check her out here.

I also recently collaborated with Milwaukee based woodworker Mark Porreca on a project. I worked with a client to design a custom table to house and commemorate the first server that started their company. Mark did the amazing woodwork, and I did the photo-etching on the glass panel top, depicting some key code in an artistic fashion.

 

 

Aug 31, 2010 :::::: Working at Pilchuck Glass School

I just returned from yet another amazing year at Pilchuck Glass School, located just north of Seattle, WA. I can hardly believe that this was my 6th year going there as a Studio Coordinator. As the job title implies, we help to make sure the place runs smoothly by coordinating between instructors, students, TAs, and full time staff to make sure everyone is happy, well supplied and working hard.

This year while I was there, Cappy Thompson, Randy Walker, Deborah Horrell, Mel George, Kari Russell-Pool and Nancy Callan were teaching. It was such a fantastic group of people and I'm so glad I was there Session 5. In my free time, I got to do a little work with enamels with Cappy's class, which I really enjoyed, and hope to be able to incorporate into my work in the future.

 

June 17, 2010 :::::: Show at Wisconsin Academy's James Watrous Gallery, Overture Center

I'm very excited and proud to be installing a side by side solo exhibition at the Wisconsin Academy's James Watrous Gallery, located in downtown Madison at the Overture Center for the Arts. The gallery is an absolutely beautiful space, and shows some fantastic artists. Check out their website for info on the exhibition, and future exhibitions. The other artist having a solo exhibition there is Carl Corey, who has some really interesting photographs.

Opening reception and artist's talk will be Friday June 25, 2010; 5:30-7:30pm.

 

 

 

Feb 10, 2010 :::::: Finalist in Public Art Competition

I've been commissioned to create a design proposal for a public art project in the new Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. It is going to be really beautiful new building on the UW-Madison campus that is meant to foster collaboration between departments. It will be a public/private mix of research going on in the top floors, and the first floor will house a very welcoming series of meeting rooms, restaurants and think spaces. I'm super excited to be chosen as a finalist, since I am both a scientist and artist, and love the idea of connecting the two.

 

 

 

Jan 15, 2010 :::::: Forward: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now

I've been selected to be a part of the exhibit, Forward: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now. It is taking place at the Charles Allis Museum in Milwaukee, and was juried by Martha Glowacki (James Watrous Gallery) and Graeme Reid (Museum of Wisconsin Art). The exhibition presents a remarkable variety of artwork selected from some 300 entries. As a whole, the exhibit displays a substantial overview of the expert abilities of Wisconsin artists. The opening reception and awards ceremony will be Wednesday, February 24, 2010.