The ‘Glamour’ of an Artistic Life
Creating art is a journey. It is equal parts rewarding, frustrating, educational and messy. In this blog post I thought I’d give you a behind the scenes glimpse of some of the less glamorous aspects of what I do.
Blood loss – As a glass artist, I can assure you that literal blood was lost in the creation of my larger glass works. Sometimes the smaller ones, too. Glass is a sharp, pointy media that oftentimes ends up sticking straight out of my fingers or slicing across my hand. I always have a nice selection of band-aids at the ready so I can just patch myself up and carry on with my design work…. provided I don’t faint.
Power tool maintenance – It’s heart breaking when I hear a saw belt slip, see a saw blade break or have my kiln completely crap out on me. I don’t embrace the mechanical/electrical component of this job, but I can say with certainty that I’ve learned a ton about both. It takes some intestinal fortitude to take a screwdriver to my kiln controller and rip out the relays or, even more terrifying, replace the controller board. But I’ve done both and successfully fixed equipment I never thought I would try to maintain myself. And I figured out how to use a voltmeter…. cool.
Weather – Just three days ago, I was sitting in my booth at an art fair when a storm blew in. All of the displaying artists were aware this was a possibility but when the storm actually arrived it came with a fury. Exceedingly strong winds actually picked up my tent and blew it into the shelving that held my large glass bowls and plates. If it weren’t for the generosity (and quick thinking) of the art fair attendees who grabbed the legs of my tent and held them down, much of my art inventory would have been destroyed. Thankfully I was able to get all of my glass safely tucked away in plastic bins without any loss. While I have had wind related loss in previous shows, it has been minimal. Such is the danger of selling glass art in an outdoor setting!
And then there are the failures – I can’t even begin to describe all of the failed glass pieces that simply didn’t turn out as I had hoped. They cracked, bubbled, stretched or devitrified while firing. These pieces are stacked up alongside my kilns in the hope of using some part of them in future works. I think that the recycling process would make an interesting blog post by itself. When the kiln hands you lemons, make lemonade.
I hope this little glimpse helps everyone appreciate that piece of glass art just a little bit more. Thanks for reading!