MUSINGS OF A GLASS ARTIST...

It's JUST craft... a bit of a rant!!                                                    July 2024

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Terminology in the art world annoys me!  I struggle with the divisions between 'fine' art and all the other art, as well as the split between art and craft. I absolutely hate the terms 'crafters' and 'crafting', which lump everyone from enthusiastic beginners to skilled professionals into one group.  It's also weird that my work is often called craft when it's 2 dimensional, but it becomes 'sculpture' when it's 3D!

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As a stained glass designer and maker I consider myself to be an artist who uses craft skills to bring my ideas to fruition. However, to some people (art purists?) what I do is a Craft - a manual process with little or no artistic merit. They view what I do as being in the same category as fitting double glazing. OK, so I'm  exaggerating this for effect, but I have overheard many conversations at mixed art exhibitions where it is very clear what certain visitors and other exhibitors think. This not only annoys me, but it makes me sad when so many amazingly creative, artistic, people are written off because of the media that they use.

 

I am privileged to be a member of the Gallery at the Guild, an amazing cooperative gallery in the English Cotswolds. My stained glass hangs among a plethora of high quality art created by fellow members. It doesn't matter whether the methods used are based on paint brushes and canvas, or wood, glass, stone or mixed media, it is all art. Our visitors do not comment on the art/craft split; in contrast they admire the skills of the artist makers, taking joy in the variety that they see. 

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I'm certainly not an expert, but I suspect that our use of art terminology has evolved from the need to make a clear division between the art school trained fine artists and the artisan plying their trade in the houses of the wealthy upper classes. To me it's an artifice that we can do without. Let's celebrate the arts, whatever their form and encourage artists of all shapes and sizes to continue to make the world a more interesting place.

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Artist or juggler?                                                               May 2024

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Before I became a professional artist my view of the artist's life was based on observations of the famous (and/or dead!) artists I'd come across in galleries and on the media. Usually eccentric, often poor, and definitely not quite in the 'real' world that most of us inhabit. Of course this is a caricature, but for me artists were mysterious creatures whose world was very different from mine.

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As I followed my studies at Bristol School of Art I began to realise that there is no such thing as a typical 'artist'. There are people who follow artistic pursuits, who have specialist skills and talents that they use, but they are as varied as any other group in the population. Rather than being locked away in studios creating art all day, I discovered that professional artists are multi-taskers with an extensive range of jobs that fill their time. As my own practice developed I realised that juggling multiple different activities was vital if I was going to make my art business a success. It's the same as any small business; without some skills in accounts, marketing, sales, purchasing, strategy, IT, etc to back up all the artistic work there was no point in making anything. Then there are the physlcal skills - everything from building exhibition stands to loading a vehicle efficiently (and lugging boxes for miles!) Making ends meet for most artists also involves having other sources of income, often teaching, to supplement the art sales. It really is a juggling act, trying to allocate enough time to creative activity while keeping everything else ticking over. 

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​​How did it all start?                                                February 2024

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I'm often asked how I started working with glass, as my professional life before glass was very different. The answer (and this comes with a warning to fellow craft lovers!) was that I went on a weekend course and got hooked. My part time job was heavy on brain work and although it was intellectually stimulating, as my children grew up I felt that it was time to take some time out for me. I'm sure this is a familiar story to lots of people - the middle aged period when life rolls on from day to day in the same pattern. The choice at Prema, (a wonderful local arts centre near Stroud in Gloucestershire - look it up!) was between a textiles course and a stained glass course. It really was a 50/50 decision for me. Both courses involved learning new skills and, best of all, working with colour. So I could have ended up as a textiles artist! 

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Needless to say, I loved the process of designing a stained glass panel, cutting the glass and joining it using lead and solder. The result wasn't too bad, although I still see the wonky bits whenever I look at it. I realised that stained glass made me happy in many ways. It played to my technical strengths, from engineering training a love of maths (very necessary to make a stained glass window fit the hole!). It also gave me access to a whole new world of colour, that was  changing constantly as the light varied throughout the day. 

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So my journey started there and it hasn't stopped since. One of the other wonderful things about working with glass is that there is literally a whole world of glass artists out there. The internet means that I can communicate with and learn from a huge group of fellow artists, so I'm always discovering new ideas.

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