Wednesday 23 April 2014

Glass Art Society Conference Chicago 2014


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!



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.

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 

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!
Myself, Karen Donnellan and Jennifer Mulligan, all GSoI members at the Closing Party
                                       




Written by Laura Quinn, GSoI Student Rep Dublin