For years I’ve had ideas about how photography and glass might work together to create unique images and objects—- hybrids that carve out new artistic ground. My recent work is a direct result of that effort.

This piece functions as a camera obscura and includes four main sections: a 27 lbs. kiln cast white glass sculpture; a blown glass, suspended light shade with 40W light bulb; an internal, all-glass diorama made of float glass, glass rods and tubes; an optical construction that uses a lens, a mirror and a ground glass focusing screen.

What started out as an acknowledgement of the impermanence of memory ended up as a memorial to the World Trade Center. My guess —- and it’s only a guess — is those who served witness, either in person or on television, to the death and destruction on 9/11 might see the cityscape on the dark side of the “Moon” from a slightly different point of view than those who didn’t.

I have several new pieces under construction that use optics and image-forming lenses as critical components of the final pieces. 

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“The Land of Lincoln” 2024

The piece, “The Land of Lincoln” is my response to the idea that history can be revised and reworked to better align with one’s own convictions ––– no matter how impossible, appalling, or insane those beliefs might be –– to arrive at place where one is no longer responsible for factual truth.  Forget the truth, it’s inconvenient, make up the facts as you go along.  With this principle (or lack thereof) as my guide, “The Land of Lincoln” ––– where half-truths reign and mine to re-invent –– draws from the original images of Civil War photographers Brady, O’Sullivan, and Gardner.

As my story goes…… It’s a little-known fact that Abraham Lincoln was given a Polaroid Land Camera, “The Land of Lincoln” by good friend Matthew Brady. As photo compatriots they frequently travelled together sharing both subjects and equipment. What is not well known: Lincoln was a brilliant photographer and every bit as proficient as Brady. In fact, Lincoln’s portraits were of such high quality that they were often mistaken for Brady’s. Had Lincoln not become President he would have lived out his life as a photographer. As it was, he made a series of glass plate Polaroids, recording a wide range of subjects: battlefield death, his first love (Emily Brown), circus animals, soldiers, natural world, socialites, street musicians, cats (Lincoln loved cats). Lincoln recognized the ability of the photographic image to empower. Warriors, Candace Rivers and Abigail Wright were his favorite subjects.

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“The Land of Lincoln” Installation DescriptionThe installation consists of eighteen, 3”x 5” single weight, glass plates, a kiln-cast replica of a Polaroid camera, and a 60”H oak tripod that supports the camera. The images on the plates were scanned primarily from the images of Civil War photographers, manipulated in Photoshop, printed on decal material in the square format of a Polaroid print, and fired. The camera was cast in three sections and held together with steel and magnets. When assembled the three parts: lens board (with lens), bellows, and film back create a functional camera obscura.

The glass plates, the “Polaroids”, have fused decal images on their front sides; the backs have been sandblasted to help diffuse light. The plates slide in and out of their wooden bases which are attached to the wall with steel brackets.  Set in their wooden bases, the plates are fixed exactly 4” from the wall, thereby using the reflected light from the wall as their primary source of illumination.

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The camera is made up of three separate sections of cast glass that are held together by powerful magnets and is hollow when assembled. With a lens in the in the front and a ground glass at the back, the camera is a functional camera obscura and the viewer can see what the camera sees.

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The Lincoln Lecture 2023

Sculpture (arm) and slides: kiln-cast glass. Images and text:fused decals on flat glass

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PUZZLES

The puzzles represent my first attempt to combine kiln cast glass with fused enamel imagery (decals). Each puzzle piece is individually cast, fused with a decal, cold-worked, and is designed to be interchangeable with pieces from other puzzles, thereby allowing the meaning of the artwork to shift with the addition or subtraction of new content. Pull a puzzle piece and add a new one, and the narrative or context can begin to change. (The pieces are held in place with magnets)

“The Golden Girl”  2019, kiln cast glass , attached to a steel plate (20″H x 16″W x 1″D

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“The Girl in the Golden Gown”  2019, kiln cast glass, attached to a steel plate (20″H x 26″W x 1″D)

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“The Man of Many Lips”  2019, kiln cast glass, attached to a steel plate  (20″H x 16″W x 1″D)

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“One Becoming Two”   Kiln cast glass on steel plate  (22″H x 28″W x 3/4″D)

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detail (the white edges reveal the opaque glass underneath the fused enamel images)

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“Islands for the Colorblind”

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“The Thinking Man’s Son”

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CAMERA OBSCURAS

For thirty-five years I’ve been building cameras and optical devices and teaching workshops and classes in the same subject. This is my first all-glass camera obscura. The head is a single piece of kiln cast glass, the lens is made of optical glass, and the film plane (where the image comes into focus in the interior of the head) is made of  ground glass.

“The Camera Man”  2019, kiln cast glass w/ lens and ground glass, on a steel base 20″H x 12″W

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GLASS JEWELRY

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Included in my research of kiln cast glass I’ve created a series of wearable glass jewelry that incorporates either fused dichroic surfaces or hand painted oils.

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hand painted kiln cast glass 2017

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hand painted kiln cast glass popcorn