The Cultural Echoes exhibit presents a collection of glass art that focuses on the themes of home and nature. These works are examples of flawless and complicated design techniques used by B. Jane Cowie and Dominic Fondé, founders of Art Glass Solutions (AGS) in Singapore, a glass art and design company.
Creativity of Glass Art
The display features blown glass and engraved glass pieces that form a coalescence with the shadows, and even special cakes created to mirror the delicacy of glass making by chef Joyce Seet and B. Jane Cowie.
Ideas for glass art or any other type of project are generated by a vast amount of possibilities, including the physical process of creating the art itself as with Dominic, who is a glass blower and writer. Dominic also discovers many of his ideas through music, as he plays both the guitar and mandolin. "Music gets me in the mood to start writing and drawing," stated Dominic in a personal interview held on November 15, 2010. He is also predisposed to think in words more than pictures, making observations of the everyday world and engraving those stories onto glass objects.
He did exactly that with his Light and Shadow owl engravings, influenced by his vision of a feather, representing his search for a new direction. "I love birds, find them intrinsically beautiful creatures," he continued. Among Dominic's pieces at tcc "The Gallery" are his owl engravings and his Simply Red bottles blown by Brian Corr. "Dominic has simple and beautiful ideas that go beyond time," stated Jane in the same interview.
Jane, on the other hand, is influenced more by her notions and memories of home. Some of her engravings include swatches of wallpaper to represent the landscape of her childhood. For a beautiful effect, her Wallpaper series includes additional work by artist Michelle Zheng, who engraved a Chinese landscape on the wallpaper within Jane's design. Furthermore, her Doilies series reminds Jane of her grandmother, admitting that she has even enjoyed learning the history of the doily which was developed in the 1800s in Ireland, where women crafted them by hand.
Her pieces continue to represent women's work in the household, with some works including kitchen utensils. "Women's work and where the work is done," stated Jane, ". . . . as a woman having a career, there are things I appreciate in a different way since I am not in a family." Jane is also inspired by individual homes, temperature and climate.
Hot Glass Studio by AGS Anticipated in 2012
AGS is planning to open the first local, open access hot glass studio by 2012. Educational and enrichment programs will be offered to build the art glass community and assist with community growth here in Singapore.
Education is especially important to Dominic, whose turning point for continuing with AGS and the studio came after listening to an Elvis Costello radio show program. The program included an interview with former United States President Bill Clinton discussing the No Child Left Behind Act. Clinton continued to converse about the importance of art in a child's education. "If you don't teach them about art, they won't be able to manage emotions and learn to be creative and think around the problem and become a well-grounded person," stated Dominic, while discussing Clinton's comments.
He agrees with them 100%. "As soon as you are given a pen or pencil as a child you are encouraged to draw, then all of a sudden when you turn 13, you are discouraged from it. Art is fundamental to communication and relationships," he continued.
AGS needs an additional S$1 million to open the hot glass studio, which has been in development for three years. They are still looking for land, space and investors. By the time the studio opens, they wish to accommodate at least 20 students at any given time.
Please click on link to see article on Sun Yu-li's exhibit at tcc "The Gallery" earlier this year.
Julie Maggiacomo Carrera - Julie's writing career began back in college in the 1990s. However, she considers herself a new writer since she has put this profession ...
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