Practice What You Preach – Truths Illuminated
Work Statement: Personification of current social issues in the guise of stained glass windows, including factual negative information on current conditions due to inaction.
Project description: Series of three illuminated stained glass windows depicting some of today’s social issues.
Outcomes: To educate and make public, social and economical issues affecting citizens in our society. Stained glass windows have historically told stories of the past. These stories were told primarily with imagery, though some stained glass stories also include a limited amount of text. Here I tell stories of the present to raise awareness of the injustices.
Methods and Materials: Project will consist of three stained glass ‘windows’ displayed as a triptych. Biblically, the number three represents divine wholeness, completeness and perfection. This idea and aesthetic contrast the subject matter represented. Windows will be surrounded by decorative wood frames and lit from within, to give the feeling of a window in a house of worship. The light will illuminate the images and text will relate to a specific social issue. Each window will be labeled with a brass plaque – Justice, Tolerance, (not sure of the third). The informative text on the glass relates to the plaque label. Tops of each arched window will have a mirror for the viewer to self reflect.
Window sizes will be approximately 13.5″w x 41″h
References and sources of inspiration:
Sagrada familia, stained glass, late 19th century – Antoni Gaud
Pop art painting, CRAK! 1963-1964 – Roy Lichtenstein
Art nouveau poster, Reverie, 1897, by Alphonse Muchabelow are links to artist I follow that have inspired the aesthetics of this project:
Joseph Cavalieri – https://www.cmog.org/bio/joseph-cavalieri
Anika van der Merwe – https://www.instagram.com/writeanika
Jennifer Hacket – https://www.instagram.com/glassbybutler
bella tile mosaic – https://www.instagram.com/bellatilemosaic
Psychedelic concert posters
Artist unknown, “The Ark, Sausalito Dance Concert”
Fillmore concert poster by Bonnie McClean
Fillmore concert poster by Wes Wilson
INITIAL PHASE
I had some pieces of a rosewood room divider in my garage from years past. We had no use for the divider, so it was taken apart with decorative pieces saved. The sketches were made considering parts of the divider, and scrap wood available to me.
The shape of the middle sketch seemed the most iconic. From there, a digital sketch in Illustrator was made.
A digital layout was done in Illustrator.
The panel design has gone through several reiterations, and currently looks like this. I’ve added some historical context to the panel by including symbols. The blue bird was the Massachusetts symbol for suffrage in 1915. The scales (upper right) represent the unbalanced justice system. Etchings depict how women were often painted and represented Western culture. The women’s portraits will be hand-painted and fired in a kiln.
The arched window on top with a mirror is still part of the design (not shown). On it, I will paint a scene from The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan. This story, written in the 1300’s during the Middle Ages, was an educational tool for woman, which advocated for them as valuable members of society.
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| current redesign of first panel |
Field Trip – Education, Artist references
The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY is a museum devoted to glass art, history and science. In addition to displays there are live educational demos on melting, forming and fusing glass.
Glass is transformative. It can be melted, shaped, reshaped, poured and flattened. It has been created and used throughout history for utilitarian, scientific, and artistic purposes.
Below are some pieces I photographed and found especially memorable. The text included here came directly from the museum.
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| Nocturne 5 Karen LaMonte (American, born 1967) Made in the Czech Republic Mold-melted glass, grit-blasted, acid-polished |
This statue is part of a series of sculptures in dark glass representing Karen LaMonte’s contemplation of the idea of night. You can still see the impression of a body, once there but now gone, in the empty dress.
| Endeavor Lino Tagliapietra (Italian, b. 1934) Made in the United States, Seattle, Washington and Italy, Murano 2004 Blown, hot-worked glass, cut, battut cut; steel cable |
A flock of birds, a school of fish, a fleet of boats–the abstracted shapes of this sculpture lead us to find meaning and beauty in form, pattern, and repetition. Here Lino Tagliapietra was inspired by the fleet of ornately decorated gondolas that gather in the Venetian lagoon for the Festa della Sensa (Feast of the Ascension of the Virgin).
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| 13 Crows (cropped photo) Michael Rogers (American, b. 1955) Made in Japan, Seto, Aichi, 2002 Cast glass, lampback; Japanese newspaper, glue, steel wire |
While living in Japan, Michael Rogers observed the bodies of crows hanging in the fields intended to scare off other crows and protect crops. The crow has been both a symbol of foreboding and of craftiness throughout history. The 13 birds in this sculpture are covered inwords from Japanese newspapers, which may convey good news or bad.
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| Zoomorphic Stone Stanislav Lienský (1921-2002) and Jaroslava Brychtová (b. 1924) Czechoslovadia, Železný Brod, designed 1962 and made in 1965 Mold-melted glass, cut; steel frame |
This is one of a series of twelve sculptural panels designed for the International Railway Union (UIC) Hall in Paris.
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| St. Anastasius Gerhard Ribka (German, b. 1955) United Kingdom, Lincoln, 1992 Cut, enameled, stained, and lustered, assembled; lead came |
The depiction of the martyrdom of a saint is given a contemporary treatment in this panel. Saint Anastasius was a Zoroastrian Persian soldier who converted to Christianity and became a monk. While traveling in Turkey, he was captured by the Persians. Refusing to renounce Christianity, Anastasius was strangled in 628. HIs body was thrown to the dogs, but they left it untouched.
From the historical section:
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| Chinese-Style Cameo Vase (from the historical section of the museum) Possibly Thomas Webb and Sons, Amblecote, England, about 1890 |
Wood Surround – Cutting and assembly
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Glass – Testing techniques
Recently, I found a cheap tabletop kiln on Facebook Marketplace with just enough shelf space for my pieces of glass. the plan is to paint and fire the glass in the kiln to produce a permanent image.
Online, I found information on two painting techniques both using Reusche powdered (fusable) powdered paint. Below are two quick line drawings I did. One using the powdered paint mixed with water and propylene glycol water (blue glass), the other with water and gum arabic (amber glass). The kiln is set to fire at 1250 F at a climbing rate of 570F per hour, maintaining the temperature for 5 minutes, then allowed to cool naturally with the kiln closed to avoid temperature shock to the glass. Both painting techniques produced positive results. Even with an Exacto knife, paint would not scratch off. The propylene glycol technique produced darker, continuous lines. The gum arabic produced more textural lines.
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| testing: painting techniques. Left using gum arabic, right using propylene glycol |
| Glass – foiling, painting, grinding and soldering
FOILING
PAINTING
GRINDING  SOLDERING
The foil is then brushed with liquid flux and soldered (those are my husband’s hairy hands – he helped me out with this part).
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| Window top and art references
Window top and art references |
Window top and art references
Panel TOP
I wanted to include more history to the panel. Blue glass was selected to avoid overpowering the ‘modern’ female images on the lower portion of the window. The scene is from the book The Book of the City of Ladies. The woman to the left is the author, to the right – Lady of Reason, Lady of Rectitude and Lady of Justice.
PAINTING REFERENCES:
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| Africa, Nicolas Eurstache, fiche |
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| Le Concert champetre, Titian |
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| The Awakening, Henry Mayer |
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| drawing from book The Book of the City of the Ladies |
Completion of Window 1 (EQUALITY)
