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Christopher Ries and a Sea of Glass

 

Wendy Ramshaw Chain of Tears for a Weeping Woman
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Wendy Ramshaw Chain of Tears for a Weeping Woman.

Stratoz and I were invigorated by 4 days of jazz at the Rochester Jazz Festival, a fortuitous visit to the Memorial Art Museum exhibit “GlassWear”, and our annual stop at the Corning Museum of Glass.

We stopped by the Memorial Art Museum and were greeted by glass!  A travelling exhibit from the Museum of Arts & Design with pieces such as Wendy Ramshaw’s Chain of Tears for a Weeping Woman.

The Corning Museum of glass had an exhibit of pieces from the Heineman Collection, Voices of Contemporary Glass.  The Heineman’s gave their fabulous collection of art glass to the Corning Museum, and shared it with the world.  Stratoz took a wonderful picture of Spirale by Lino Tagliapietra, and it’s a great example of a volute!

Lino Tagliapietra's Spirale
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Lino Tagliapietra’s Spirale, Corning Museum of Glass. Photo by Wayne Stratz.

Getting home to my mosaic studio, I had many inspirations and ideas.  I felt a bit of glass withdrawal, but discovered that Christopher Ries was exhibiting at Misericordia University’s Friedmen Gallery, August 22nd to October 25th, 2009.  Dallas, PA is close enough for a day trip from Lansdale!  The exhibit is called Guiding Light, and features some of his large glass sculptures.  Ries is important in my evolving into a glass artist.  I first saw an exhibit of his work at the Glass & Light show at Everhart Museum in Scranton, in 1996.  The room was darkened, and the sculptures lit from below and I was mesmerized as I walked around each one, and witnessed the reflections, the changes, the transformations that the glass went through.

The Golden Egg by Christopher Ries
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The Golden Egg by Christopher Ries via afagen on Flickr.

I was so moved by the glass, that I wrote a poem about it, called “Sea of Glass,” as I was a poet at that time, not a mosaic artist, but the glory of the glass spoke to me in a way beyond words.

Related Posts:

Embrace:  The Glass Sculpture of Christopher Ries

My First Poetry Reading in a Long Time

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