Happening this Week: the Penland School of Crafts Annual Benefit Auction

This weekend, Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, will be hosting its 30th annual benefit auction. The sold out event will feature (and auction off) some of the nation's best in clay, glass, fibers, artists books, sculpture, photography and mixed-media. The two-day fête, which I am thrilled to be attending, includes cocktails and dining. Each year, Penland features an artist to produce the signature piece for the auction and this year's, by Susan Taylor Glasgow, is a stunner!

[Below] is Penland's  description of this amazing piece:

Our featured artwork, specially commissioned for the 30th Penland Benefit Auction, is the remarkable Coral Chandelier Dress by Susan Taylor Glasgow. This piece is a supreme example of an ongoing body of work that uses sewn glass to create sculptures based on traditional domestic skills. As Susan explains in her artist statement, “Somehow I embraced domesticity in feminine spirit but not in action. And, of course, I feel guilty about not being a good wife. Misguided domestic talents eventually grew into concepts of sewing an unyielding medium, baking inedible creations, and stitching glass clothing no one can wear. Housekeeping is last, while instead I cook, arrange, and sew glass.”

In conjunction with this auction, fiber artist and Penland instructor Jo Stealey wrote about Glasgow’s work: “Susan Taylor Glasgow re-examines the utopian concept of ‘domestic bliss’ and the ‘complex dichotomy of women’s roles within the household’ in the 1950s United States through the lens of twenty-first century feminism. Her work comments on history as much as on today’s nostalgia for a flawed but fetishized past. Her sculptures are three-dimensional glass and mixed media collages. They are often embedded with advertising text and imagery appropriated from magazines, movies, and media-related memorabilia, which highlight the domestic standards of the time.

“Glasgow started her creative career as an independent clothing designer and seamstress before delving into work with the slumped, sewn glass that has become the hallmark of her oeuvre. She says of her glass fashion: ‘I have always seen a similarity between glass and fabric. I am attracted to the fluid nature and transparency of both materials. I work with glass in the same way I would with fabric. Imagining how the glass will drape and flatter the form, I select color, components, and sometimes text to create a mood or narrative. I enjoy incorporating feminine ideals and skills to a material that is hard and unyielding yet seductive at the same time."

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The Auction: Penland 2014

I'm honored to be speaking this evening at a private screening of a short film I co-produced about the remarkable Penland Annual Benefit Art Auction. Designer Master Silversmith Julia Woodman, who's featured in the film, will also be talking about her collaboration with glass artist Kenny Pieper and the signature piece they've created for this year's auction. The exquisite tea service (above) by Julia, is in the High Museum's permanent collection. The Penland Annual Benefit Auction is held every August at the beautiful Penland School of Crafts in Western North Carolina.

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ART: Judson Guerard Hot Glass

I own a couple of these beautiful handblown goblets. Over the years I have given plenty of them as gifts. In 1988, when I moved to Penland, North Carolina, I met Judson Guerard, the hot glass artist who creates these magnificent pieces. Judson, his wife Sally and I have remained good friends for more than two decades! After numerous visits to their home and studio in Bakersville, NC I thought it was time to feature Judson's art work.

How did you get introduced to hot glass?

Well, the simple cute answer was that I didn't have a focus and [hot glass] it appealed to me. I liked the process and the work that you can make. This particular way just appealed to me. I took a weekend class at Blake Street Glass in Denver and I found the process was likable.

At what point did you make that transition from student to artist?

When I made those goblets. That's when I first felt that I had some potential. And even though I never took any art classes, I did have a background in aesthetics from grad school.

How do you describe your design aesthetics?

There are times I wonder what the hell they are (joking)! The underlying thing for me is there's a luminescence glass can have that I find very appealing. Its always elusive to find the form that it works together with so for me its the quality of light. The way it gets diffused and becomes mysterious and ethereal. Luminesce keeps me fascinated and engaged.

Tell me about the "Chaos" series.

They have a sculptural element. It was a way for me to do several different processes through glass than just making a vessel.

Why Chaos?

Is the universe ordered or chaotic? On one extreme, God manages everything. That's one extreme of understanding the world and the other extreme is that all the universe is random and that these are just a happen chance of molecules that create the world. I'm somewhere in between. Life is intelligible but there's also a randomness to how things occur. And so the vessels tend to have a round symmetrical shape while the surface tends to be more random and weathered looking with different textures. Chaos is my way of visually presenting the orderliness and randomness that's in the world.

Your current works, titled "River Rocks" go in a different direction than the Chaos series. Can you talk about them?

They're more emotive than thought driven. A French philosopher named

Bachelard

who said something to the effect that the challenge was to make new metaphors out of old metaphors. In a sense that's what these [glass] river rocks are... taking something as simple and primal as a worn river rock and in a sense making it precious by creating the image out of glass, giving it the desire to touch it. I also keep coming back to luminosity, the quality of light. Translating the meditative quality of watching, in a way, and abstracting the rocks themselves to light in form as they are when they are in the river.

Tell me one specific aspect about hot glass that appeals to you?

Fluidity... things that are liquid are fairly hard and frustrating [to work with]. The fluidity of glass appeals to me. When you can trap that fluidity and catch it spontaneously you get a real representation that transcends the simplicity of the action you're describing.

Visit Judson Guerard hot glass on line at

Guerard Glass

. If you're traveling, these galleries carry Judson's work:

Pismo Glass Gallery

in Colorado, Twisted Laurel in Spruce Pine, NC and Bella Vista Gallery, Asheville, NC.

Judson designs a beautiful collection of ornaments. I've got mine on display year round!

The man behind the art, Judson Guerard at work. I gained a higher level of respect for the process after trying to blow glass during my visit. Anything but easy!

When I need to escape the "speed" of the city, this is where I go, Judson and Sally's home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Feeding the llamas! Not something I get to do everyday in Atlanta! They also have a dog, cats and reportedly, a mountain lion that prowls around the area!

If you're ever in the Western North Carolina region, think about visiting Guerard Glass. Judson is always working in the studio so chances are you'll catch him in action, blowing glass.

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