With Marlene Rose in the Studio, Part 6, In Which a Horse Stands Up

Long Before This…

Long before we began the casting process, we made many sketches that became computer drawings of how the Horse might be presented. Thomas’ previous life as an architect comes in handy… The computer drawings were quite incomplete, just good enough to see that it could be good enough!

Now, it is one thing to make a beautiful piece of glass, and quite another to present the glass in a way that does honor to it, that shows it without distracting from it.

The job of a stand is to hold the glass off the floor in a way that enhances the glass. Show it and don’t get noticed!

But the stand is not a nothing. It must be a coherent statement in itself, not so attractive, or unattractive, or just plain ordinary, that it gives nothing to the glass.

People say that a distinctive feature of my work is the continuous dialogue between the glass and the steel of the stands she puts them in. I liken the stand to a physical body, and the glass to a representation of something beyond the beyond the physical, something almost spiritual.

This dialog between the corporeal and spiritual, this counterpoint between hard steel and the ever-changing glass breaks down to this truth — The body can be attractive, but the true beauty is in the spirit, in the glass.

Ready to Weld, Sir!

Once the glass is born and brought home to the Gallery, I can finally figure out what the stand really needed to be. Thomas uses bits of clay to get the exact shapes. It takes quite a while but eventually a very simple solution for holding the complex shape of the Horse presents itself, get drawn up on the computer, made into drawings ready for the welder. and sent off.

Like I said a few blogs ago, glass making is a team sport. No less a member of the team is Tony who assisted us in the Studio for many years and now heads his welding team. He has a great feel for how the steel should be put together. Neat, but not too neat, a little rough around the edges but well put together… Again, no analogies to the team!!!

Eventually the stand arrives in the Gallery, and for the first time, completed glass meets completed stand. Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts? Is it fine art glass sculpture? It had better be! Or we start again!