Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Paul Marioni leads sand casting course at Palos Verdes Art Center (June 23-25)

Calling all glass students, inexperienced, practiced, and everything between: Paul Marioni is leading a three-day course in sand casting glass at the Palos Verdes Art Center, from June 23 - June 25. 


Paul Marioni with molten sand cast mask
Courtesy of Glass Alliance of Northern California


From the flier:


Sand casting is a process that is thousands of years old, known best in the metal working industry. Glassmakers have taken this knowledge and applied it to the hot casting process. One of the major benefits of this process is the immediacy and ease of manipulating the molds, including spontaneity and adding undercuts.

This workshop will focus on these aspects. We will be constructing molds from styrofoam and using ready made objects. We will discuss the process from making of molds, the preparation of the sand, ladling of glass and annealing. In addition to the technical aspects there will be lectures, demonstrations, and slide shows on  the aesthetics of cast glass and its implications as object and architectural elements. 

Open to all, no experience is necessary.

Monday-Wednesday, 6/23, 6/24 & 6/25, 10am-4pm
$630, Members $600

To register:  visit www.pvartcenter.org or call 310 541-2479
5504 W. Crestridge Rd. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275




Saturday, June 7, 2014

Last Chance... Seeing Into It: Messages in Glass closing June 28

The Craft in America Center had its first foray focusing specifically on the medium of glass, where our current exhibition, Seeing Into It: Messages in Glass, is on view through the end of JuneFeaturing the work of Paul Marioni and Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, the show is testament to the boundaries the two artists have broken: flat glass panels bedeck the walls like paintings; a conceptual approach infuses almost every work. While the strength of their work can stand alone, their historical backdrop makes them even more significant. Marioni was a pioneer of the studio glass movement of the 1970s; later that decade he inspired Stinsmuehlen-Amend to join the club. Both artists shared a mutual interest in challenging aesthetic trends and infusing their work with personal narrative, approaches that were unheard of in the historically-entrenched glass medium. Their use of glass as a form of expression, and their long friendship, are what brought this show to fruition.

Left: Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, Grocery Nude To-Do (Calendar Girl), 2013, enamel fired on glass
Right: Paul Marioni, The Visitor, 1984, painted and blown glass

Paul Marioni's impact on studio glass is inestimable. By the time he was invited by artist Dale Chihuly to teach at Pilchuck Glass School, he had already earned his reputation as a rebel of sorts. Glass was a medium that rested comfortably as a decorative art form, and Marioni was pivotal in repositioning it as a conceptual medium. Glass did not have to come in the form of a window or fragile sculpture; it could be expressive; figurative; political.

Here are a couple highlights from the show:

Self-reflection recurs throughout Marioni's work. In Looking Back, it manifests quite literally as a portrait of himself as a skeleton, staring back at his own, living face. The skeleton and man, friends, smile back at each other. What could be a macabre memento mori comes off instead as a happy form of introspection and a graceful acceptance of the inevitable.

Paul Marioni, Looking Back, 2001, enamel fired on glass
Marioni continues to challenge our expectations in Mad Man, a portrait of himself as a devil. Although he is bathed in red and flashes a ferocious set of canines, he looks anything but mad; just a little mischievous. Nor does the devil of his “rocker” portrait, Lickin, look fiendish. As the kinetic sculpture rocks back and forth, its outstretched tongue boasts playfulness and sexual energy.

Paul Marioni, Lickin, 2005, kinetic cast glass
Collection of Susan Steinhauser and David Greenberg

Stinsmuehlen-Amend's A Man's Chair (2003) is comparatively forbidding in tone. In this enamel-on-glass panel, an armchair rests against a backdrop of flames; an enraged face, Gorgon-like, sprouts out of the chair. Once belonging to Stinsmuehlen-Amend's father, the chair was forbidden among she and her siblings. This is an index of the dysfunction that riddled her childhood, a reality that she fearlessly confronts in her artwork.

In her Calendar series, Stinsmuehlen-Amend reveals the intimate details of adult life. She has copied entries from her planner onto glass panels, revealing words like "chemo" and "Dr. Skanky," relics of her mother's struggle with cancer. The accompanying scribbles, expressions of her subconscious, are a contrast to the more cerebral experience of recording in a planner.

Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, A Man's Chair, 2003, enamel fired on glass, mixed media on wood panels

Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, T.G.I.F./April, Calendar Notations, 2005, painted and blown glass

The bravura and self-awareness of Marioni and Stinsmuehlen-Amend are a perfect match for glass. The medium is tirelessly evocative: it plays with light like no other material; it reflects; its inherent transparency renders it a valuable metaphorical tool; and its long history as a decorative art form makes it all the more compelling from a conceptual standpoint.

Seeing Into It: Messages in Glass is on view at the Craft in America Center through June 28, 2014.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Glass-Artist Rebel Paul Marioni


Craft in America Center is proud to host an artist talk and screening with Paul Marioni, a ground-breaking glass artist and founding member of the American Studio Glass movement. His work is featured in our current exhibition, Seeing Into It: Messages in Glass, which is in its final month—closing June 28th.


Marioni was a filmmaker before being swept away by glass as an artistic medium. His 1972 film, Hole, a pseudo-documentary about a man’s obsession with orifices, has won several awards. The release of Holes coincided with his discovery of studio glass, which for him marked a point of no return. He found the material could express his voice like no other. We will be screening his 20-minute film, shot in 16-millimeter, in conjunction with his talk.

Lickin', 2005, kinetic cast glass
Paul Marioni is known for his innovative approach to glass, pushing his techniques to their limits: his glass “rockers” defy the conception of glass as a fragile medium not to be toyed with. He excels not only technically in glass, but also uses it as a powerful conceptual platform: his enamel portraits and glass-blown sculptures have existential poignancy. Marioni has been a mainstay in the studio glass scene since the 1970s: he was asked by Dale Chilhuly to teach at Pilchuck Glass School in its second year, and also taught at the Penland School of Crafts, among other schools and programs internationally. His artwork can be found in the collections of the Museum of Arts and Design, Corning Glass Museum, Oakland Art Museum, and the National Museum of American Art, among others.

Paul Marioni in his studio
Photo courtesy of urbanglass.org