Some interesting thoughts from "The Art Spirit" by Robert Henri. Go read it!

"There are mighty few people who think what they think they think." p. 89


"Today must not be a souvenir of yesterday, and so the struggle is everlasting. Who am I today? What do I see today? How shall I use what I know, and how shall I avoid being victim of what I know? Life is not repetition." p. 115


"Appreciation of life is not easy. One says he must earn a living - but why? Why live? It seems as though a great many who do earn the living or have it given them do not get much out of it. A sort of aimless racing up and down in automobiles, an aimless satisfaction in amassing money, an aimless pursuit of 'pleasure,' nothing personal, all external.... It takes wit, and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish, and spirits must flow. There must be courage. There are no easy ruts to get into which lead to happiness. A man must become interesting to himself and must become actually expressive before he can be happy." p. 141

Visiting Artist

Thursday and Friday evening of last week were occupied, respectively, by an artist talk and a hot glass demo by Karen Willenbrink-Johnsen at More Fire.

These were awesome.

Karen was warm and affable, very pleasant and compelling to listen to. During her talk she showed images of her alternately quirky and lifelike glass dogs, tree branches, flowers and owls. The owls and birds were of particular interest to one of the More Fire girls, who brought in three live ones to spread awareness about the not-for-profit Wild Wings program, which I believe she co-directs. From their website: "Wild Wings is a not-for-profit educational organization that houses and cares for permanently injured birds of prey (raptors) which are unable to survive on their own in the wild any more."

I really wanted to take the class that was being offered with Karen over the weekend, but unfortunately there was no way I could afford it. I did return the following night to watch Karen's two-hour demo, during which she went the route of gaudy and vibrant as opposed to realistic and lifelike, which makes sense since the realistic things she makes take way longer. In two hours she cranked out a surfboard, a bulldog, a poodle, and a wave, and put the surfboard on the wave, the bulldog on the surfboard, and the poodle on the bulldog dominatrix-style. It was amazing how well she got the proportions down! She made the head of the poodle first (and probably the bulldog, but I missed that one), kept it warm in the garage, and then made the body without having any size reference other than straight-up memory. And when she put them together, they were perfect. Crazy. I didn't get very good photos, but maybe if you look closely you can get some idea of what this thing looked like. (Click to see full-size)

The Help

I just got back from a five(ish)-hour stint lending an extra pair of hands at More Fire Glass Studio in Rochester (off of East Ave). After meeting and speaking with its owner Elizabeth Lyons just a couple weeks ago, I was very excited to have the opportunity to help out occasionally on an as-needed basis. While it might not sound like much - and perhaps not actually be much - I am a bit bemused at just how excited I am about this. I am SO happy to be doing things in a hot shop again. The two women I worked with today are so friendly and super chill. Reminds me why I love glass folks. You'll occasionally run into a "glasshole," but most glassblowers I've met and worked with are particularly wonderful, laid back, good-natured and welcoming people.

And hey, I might not actually get to be the gaffer for free for a while - probably not while I'm in Rochester; not until I find someplace where I can exchange shop assistance for blow time (Philly? Portland?) - but ya gotta start somewhere. And as long as I'm using this summer to do whatever I want while I still can, I might as well milk the hell out of it.

Which reminds me, again, how much I want to create a setup for my torch in the garage. It's just so full of stuff. Even when my room gets messy and I don't know where to start cleaning it, I just sort of start moving things. The space in the garage though... I literally do not know how to begin. There is no place to put anything. When I pick something up I just end up putting it back in the same spot I got it from. I think I need help - it's a big job for just one person. Once it's all set up though, it's gonna be good. Let's disregard for now the fact that I don't have an annealer.

10 Days Part IV: 53rd Venice Biennale

Actually, we just stumbled upon the Biennale. I didn't know exactly what it was, and Dad even less so - I don't even think he'd heard of the Venice Biennale. So the idea was sort of bouncing around in my head, but I wasn't intent on seeing it. We happened upon a doorway in a very plain-looking square one day, and dad went through it into a small courtyard and started talking to the lady at the desk. It turned out to be not only an art exhibition, but one affiliated with the Biennale, so we took a pamphlet and a map of all the other exhibitions, which led us on a voluntary scavenger hunt all over Venice to small galleries and venues - most of which were in really old buildings with beautiful architecture! We ultimately ended up at Giardini, which is a huge garden at the south-eastern tip of Venice, and probably the largest concentration of artwork in the Biennale. Here is some of what we saw (not quite in chronological order):

10 Days Part III: Murano, Venice

The last and least ordinary city we visited during our ten-day jaunt in Europe was Venice. We spent four days wandering around the tiniest alleys I've ever seen, feasting on hazelnut and lemon-basil gelato, soaking up the sunshine and, of course, checking out the art and the glass. The island of Murano alone, not to mention the rest of Venice, was pretty saturated with glass. There were even glass statuettes of the Virgin Mary.
Unfortunately, we weren't able to get very good photos of the glass that we saw in the shops and galleries because the people in them don't allow photographs to be taken. I did manage to get a few though. It helped to talk to the people in the galleries and tell them that I had been studying glassblowing - with modesty of course, since I'm only fresh out of college, and the glassblowers on Murano started doing it when they were tiny and have been doing it for years and years and years - but when I showed them I wasn't interested so much in the product as the process, their manner seemed to change. One of the galleries even had a guy come fetch us from the store, lead us out the back and through some small alleys to their production shop, where we watched a couple of guys making pieces for chandeliers.
Nothing huge or fancy; production stuff, but it was still very cool to see. Note that the above photo is a great contrast to most of the other hot shops we saw in Murano, which were a part of the tourist attraction and had guys whipping out quick vases and pulling cats (something I have never been able to do, granted I've only tried a few times, is pull a pony) accompanied by abrupt commentary. However -This is the small window outside Cesare Toffolo's gallery and shop, which should give you some idea how ridiculous his work is - super thin and precise. Toffolo Studio was on the bottom floor, a shop for which the products are I believe designed by Toffolo and produced by himself and other glassmakers, and Cesare Toffolo's personal gallery was up a flight of stairs. His work looks incredible when it's right in front of you.
I don't know if I'm allowed to put this photo online, but chatting with the nice lady that took us up to his gallery and asking nicely, I was allowed to take ONE photo, and this piece wasn't on his website at the time I think, so I chose this one. You can see it big if you click on it. It's hard to see the images inside the balloons - it's really not a very good picture - but they were done painstakingly by graffito, and there are little men inside the balloons gazing proudly at them or painting them. I think my favorite pieces, though, are the ones of the little glass men inside the hourglass and the pitcher, pouring out (which are on his website). Rock on, Cesare.
We also visited the Museo del Vetro on Murano, which was no Corning Museum of Glass, but very historical and informative, and it did have a bit of contemporary glasswork. They didn't allow photos in their either, and I wasn't motivated to try and sneak any, except for this last one which was one of two lonely-looking sculptures in the garden behind the Museo. Still, if you're ever on Murano, I would reccommend stopping in. Back on the main island of Venice we saw some of the 53rd Venice Biennale at the Giardini location and in small galleries all over the island, which I think I will post a photo update of later.