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| Richard Royal Demo |
Coming from NCAD’s glass programme in Dublin, I was excited
about the opportunities that going on student exchange at Southern Illinois
University would bring. One of these opportunities was to attend the annual
Glass Art Society Conference, held this year in Chicago. The conference ran
from March 19-22 and was hosted across a few venues in Chicago. The lectures
took place in the Palmer House Hotel near Chicago’s busiest area, the Loop. Demonstrations
from artists took place in Ignite Glass Studios and West Supply Glass Studio. I
had the fortune to stay at the Palmer House with the students from Southern
Illinois University; I already knew this would be the nicest hotel I would stay
in for a long time! Day one began with a welcome note, Lifetime Achievement
Lecture and the Keynote Address in the Grand Ballroom of the Palmer House. What
a beautiful surrounding for some great talks! Demonstrations were held during
the latter part of the day in West Supply and Ignite Glass Studios. Marc
Petrovic demonstrated his iconic birds in West Supply while Richard Royal
tested the capacity of the glory holes in Ignite with a massive glass
ball. The opening reception was held in
the Grand Ballroom later that night, with delicious signature food and punch
from the Palmer House served on silver platters, no expense was spared!
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| Karren's lecture |
It was an early start for the second day of the Glass Art
Society Conference in Chicago. The Emerging Artists talks are often one of the
most popular lectures at the conference and this year was no exception, the room
was filled with early birds. Jiyong Lee, currently on the Board of Directors
for the Glass Art Society, and head of the Glass programme at Southern Illinois
University introduced the three speakers; Steven Ciezki, Charlotte Potter and
our very own Karen Donnellan. Karen, the only Irish speaker at the conference,
received her Bachelor of Design from the National College of Art and Design
(NCAD) in Glass, her Master of Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology
(RIT) in New York State and is currently aArtist in Residence at NCAD. Karen
begins her presentation with “Dia daoibh”, a friendly Irish phrase for my Irish
ears. She apologises for the early start
as there were a few tired heads from the opening reception held the night
before, but nevertheless looking bright-eyed herself. She explains that she is
a qualified Reiki practitioner. The influence this has in her work becomes
apparent as the lecture continues. When
Karen was an undergrad, she also participated in a student exchange at Southern
Illinois University. She discusses the
work she developed there based on Chakras and shapes associated with feelings
of being grounded and low centres of gravity.
Karen admits that colour for her was a language she used freely at an
undergraduate level, but whilst studying in RIT she challenged herself not to
use colour and thus found a new language in texture and form. This language can very much be seen in the
work that follows. Her work has a
meditative quality. Donnellan discussed how she signified this in her work 21 Days: this being the required timeframe to complete the healing process in
Reiki cleansing.
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| Karen Donnellan 21 Days |
Quite refreshingly, Donnellan shows a video of some glass-making
processes, the audio of ringing solfeggio tuning forks filled the room,
uninterrupted by any audience member. Again her focus on meditation can be recognised
in this piece. Much of her lecture consists of talking about her time spent in
an Emerging Artist Residency in Pilchuck Glass School in Seattle. She talks
about the collaborative work she created with John Hogan. This work is more
recent and explores the light and optics of glass. Recently she has been invited to have a solo
exhibition at the National Craft Gallery in Kilkenny. She talks about her
interest in sound and the grant she recently received from the County Council
to employ a sound technician.
Donnellan mentioned other achievements but unfortunately one
could only write so fast. She is an emerging artist with huge potential and is
beginning to be recognised on the world glass art stage. Her pathway from
undergrad on exchange at SIU to Emerging Artist at the GAS conference is a colourful,
busy and a successful example for Irish glass artists.
After Karen’s lecture, I headed to the demonstrations later
that day. I got the chance to see two marvellous demonstrations in Ignite and
luckily for me I had a good vantage point of both lampworking and blowing
studios. Chris Carlson demonstrated marble making with colour chip pick-ups and
Martin Janecky also tested how large a piece could fit in the glory holes with
a huge bull head. Both demonstrations
were heavily attended.
Chris
Carlson making marbles
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| Martin Janecky making a giant bulls head |
At
5 o clock the Gallery Hop kicked off. Unfortunately I was not able to
participate but the feedback was excellent. The hop featured many of Chicago’s
exciting galleries such as the Made Gallery.
The last day of the conference had an early start with demos beginning at 8am. I
attended Kiva Ford’s lampworking demonstration in West Supply where he maticulously
created a bottle within a bottle using blown borocilicate tubing.
Kiva
Ford Flameworking demo
The
Student Exhibition was open to the public later that evening and I took the opportunity
to present my work in this show. Another highlight of the evening was the Neon
Exhibiton also held in the Palmer House. Other services were available on the
last day including the portfolio review open to all students, where one had the
opportunity to have their body of work reviewed by a panel containing some of
the Board and the demonstrators from the conference. The closing night party
was held in Chicago’s Culture Centre and no better place to gather all these
glass fanatics together than under its famous Tiffany glass dome.
The
conference took place over three days and the schedule was jam-packed with
demonstrations, lectures and several educational resources. The Glass Art Society offers a discounted
conference ticket price to members so it is definitely worthwhile becoming a
GAS member. It also allows you to apply for scholarships to attend their
conferences. It was announced this week
that the GAS Conference 2015 will be held in San José, hopefully there will be
more Irish glass artists out in full colour there!
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| Myself, Karen Donnellan and Jennifer Mulligan, all GSoI members at the Closing Party |
Written by Laura Quinn, GSoI Student Rep Dublin
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