News:

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.