PRESENTERS & BIOGRAPHIES

Presenters

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Presenter Biographies

Rebecca Arday received her BFA from the School of American Crafts at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2008. That same year she was a Pilchuck Emerging Artist in Residence and also participated in the RIT Student Exchange at the Bullseye Glass Factory. Her work references Victorian sentiment in relation to the body and creates historical allusions to ritual, culture, and perceptions of beauty.

Emerging Perspectives in Kilncasting from RIT

Howard Ben Tré is internationally recognized for his unique sculptures and large-scale works of art for public and private spaces. Ben Tré is a pioneer in the use of cast glass as a sculptural medium whose breakthrough technical innovations have extended his mastery of cast glass and allowed him to create monumental sculptures that can survive the rigors of outdoor installation. His work is included in more than eighty-five museum and public collections worldwide.

From the Privacy of the Studio to the Realm of Public Art

Heike Brachlow is a native of Germany who started working with glass as an apprentice in a small studio in Rotorua, New Zealand. She subsequently earned a BA from the University of Wolverhampton in 2004 and an MA from London's Royal College of Art in 2006 and is now engaged in PhD research into color in glass. As an artist she draws inspiration from travel, human interaction, architecture, and geometry. Her work aims to physically engage: the viewer becomes toucher—invited by words or form, boldly or guiltily.

On Colour, Glass, and Light

Chick Butcher's objects are not only a visual experience but also trace his emotional states of being. He creates environments through the deliberate placement of works, which demand a feeling or response on an emotional level without the reliance on imagery or objective representation. Each of his objects is a result of months of work and deliberation and is never reproduced. Chick's works are held in both public and private collections throughout the world.

Beyond the Object

Shane Caryl was born and raised in Syracuse, New York, where he made a point of experiencing everything the suburban life had to offer. He attended the Rochester Institute of Technology and there he found and fell in love with glass. Under the mentorship of Michael Rogers and Robin Cass, he focused on casting and coldworking, as well as some hot shop techniques. Shane has recently moved to Portland, Oregon, where he plans to set up a studio.

Emerging Perspectives in Kilncasting from RIT

Daniel Clayman lives and works in East Providence, RI and has been working with glass since 1979. While attending the Rhode Island School of Design he began working with plaster-based investment molds to produce his sculptures. Beginning with small-scaled pieces based on personal narrative, Daniel's work has evolved into large-scale studies capturing light and shadow. His solo exhibition White Light, Glass Compositions by Daniel Clayman is on view at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma through June 2009.

Challenges, Ideal Casting Kilns

Jaqueline Cooley lives in rural Shropshire, England, where she has been working with kilnformed glass for over twenty years. She divides her time between studio work, public art commissions and arts development work. At present she is coordinating Making Moves, a UK touring crafts exhibition, and Same Difference, an international exhibition of British and Bavarian glassmakers that will be on exhibit in Corning, New York, during this year's GAS conference. Jaqueline was winner of a second place award in Bullseye's e-merge 2006. Since she and Marshall Hyde met as assistants for Jiri Harcuba at Pilchuck, they have collaborated on public art projects in the UK as “JaMa A+D.”

How to Cast Glass Across the World

Linda Ethier is known for her pioneering, innovative work with fused and kiln-cast glass, and has been working in glass since 1969. She has created numerous public art commissions and successfully balances her career as an exhibiting artist with innovative, site-specific glass works for public spaces. Visit her website at http://www.lindaethier.com/

Mold Making and Kilncasting, Mysteries of Lost Wax Revealed, Portland Studio & Home Tour

Deborah Horrell received her MFA from the University of Washington in 1979. After working as a ceramist for many years, Horrell participated in the Pilchuck Glass School's visiting artist program in 1994. A residency at the Bullseye Factory followed in 1996 permanently changing the trajectory of her career. The artist has shown her work, both ceramic and glass, in museums and galleries throughout the country. Visit her website at http://www.deborahhorrell.com/

Portland Studio & Home Tour, Taking 2D to Glowing 3D; Pâte De Verre

Melanie Hunter is the glass casting technician to artist Nicholas Africano, assisting in the creation of glass and mixed media figurative sculpture since 1993. During this time, she has developed specific techniques particular to figurative glass casting and fabrication, creating substantial and diverse collections of work, exhibited throughout the U.S. Concurrently, she creates her own sculpture in cast glass, metal, mixed media and found objects. She received her BA (Honors) in studio glass and ceramics from Sunderland University, England, and an MFA in glass from Illinois State University.

Made with the Assistance of...

Marshall Hyde is a curator and mixed media artist working primarily with glass since 1990. After graduate studies in architecture and nearly a decade of working in museums, he earned an MFA in glass and sculpture from Southern Illinois University. His work ranges from flameworked glass to 9-foot bronzes, and was recently featured in the Penland Book of Glass. In 2005 he curated the touring exhibition, The Exquisite Corpse in Glass. Hyde is a co-chair of this year's GAS conference in Corning, NY, where he lives and operates a studio. Since meeting Jaqueline Cooley at Pilchuck they have collaborated on several architectural-scale public art projects in the UK.

How to Cast Glass Across the World

Janet Koplos is a New York City-based art critic, lecturer, and curator. For 18 years she was a Senior Editor at Art in America magazine, where she is now a Contributing Editor. Koplos has written for numerous national and international publications and has also authored/co-authored nine books, including the forthcoming Makers: A History of American Studio Craft and Murano/Venice: Three Artists Three Visions. Her broad expertise encompasses contemporary art, contemporary American crafts, contemporary Japanese and Dutch art, Mingei and American folk arts, architecture, and design.

Keynote: What Does Glass Want to Be When It Grows Up?

Alicia Lomné, who has studied fine arts and glass kilncasting nationwide, has dedicated the past ten years to exploring techniques in pâte de verre. She shows her extraordinary work in galleries across the U.S. and has taught pâte de verre workshops at Anla Glass (Denmark), Creative Glass (Switzerland), Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Crafts and Bullseye Glass Co. Lomné lives and works on Whidbey Island in Washington State. To view her work, visit Bullseye Gallery.

Pâte de Verre, Methods to Form By

Jessica Loughlin, who graduated from the Canberra School of Art in 1997, is an independent studio artist in Adelaide, Australia. Her work is exhibited regularly in the United States, Europe, and Australia and is represented in major collections around the globe. Loughlin is widely recognized for her unique and considered approach to kilnformed glass, for which she has won a number of prestigious awards—including the Tom Malone Art Prize and Australia’s RFC Glass Prize. To view her work, visit Bullseye Gallery.

Fat Bottom Box—One Glass: Multiple Techniques

Geoffrey Mann was born 1980 (UK) and lives and works in Edinburgh. He studied 3D Design at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, and ceramics and glass at the Royal College of Art, London. He is a self-titled “Product Artist” who uses new technologies to explore the possibilities and impacts on the physical form of digital media. His practice Studio*Mrmann has exhibited Nationally and Internationally at MoMA New York, International Bombay Sapphire Prize 05/08 and the European Glass Context in Denmark. Awards include the World Craft Council Europe Award for Glass. In 2008 his Attracted to Light was acquired for the MoMA permanent Design and Architecture Collection.

Think Slow - Make...? The Evolution of a Hybrid Practice

Lani McGregor is the Executive Director of Bullseye Gallery. Prior to joining Bullseye Glass Co. in 1984, she operated a glass studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that specialized in kilnformed and flat architectural glass. In 1990 she established Bullseye's Research & Education Department and developed its initial teaching programs. Today, with partner Dan Schwoerer, she shares a home that doubles as a private museum and laboratory for the study of architectural kiln-glass. In 2005 the couple shared the GAS Lifetime Membership Award. McGregor has served on various non-profit glass art and craft boards and is currently a director of North Lands Creative Glass in Scotland.

Portland Studio & Home Tour

Clifford Rainey was born in Northern Ireland and received his MA from the Royal College of Art in London, where he served as a lecturer from 1977 until 1984. Currently, Rainey is the Chair of the Glass Program at the California College of the Arts in Oakland, where he has taught since 1991. Rainey’s work is exhibited in numerous public collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In addition, Rainey has undertaken major public commissions in Saudi Arabia and throughout the UK.

On the Couch with Clifford

Nathan Sandberg earned his BFA in glass and ceramics from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His work has received critical recognition through awards and shows, including Art or Artifact in Memphis, and is held in private collections. Now a member of the Bullseye Research & Education team, he teaches, assists classes, tests new glass styles, and helps with fabrication of visiting artist projects. He enjoys helping students grow creatively and taking glass art to new levels, using unconventional processes. View his work at http://www.bullseyeglass.com/aboutus/now/ and http://www.nathansandberg.com/

Considering Color

Jeffrey Sarmiento is currently the Research Councils UK Academic Fellow at the University of Sunderland. A Filipino-American artist, his work centers on constructed ethnicities, expressed through collisions of layered images within glass. His research has led him to work widely in the US and Europe, and he has received fellowships to UrbanGlass and the Creative Glass Center of America, and a Fulbright to Denmark. His work was recently featured in Milan in the 2008 Bombay Sapphire Prize exhibition and in a solo exhibition at Bullseye Gallery.

Thick with Images (session), Thick with Images (workshop)

Ted Sawyer received his BA in art with a focus in ceramics from Lewis and Clark College. From 1992-1993 he was the artist in residence at Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery in Portland, Oregon. In 1997 he joined Bullseye, where he is the Director of Research & Education. He teaches and lectures internationally and exhibits his work at galleries around the world, including Bullseye Gallery. To view his work, which was featured in Corning's New Glass Review 28, visit Bullseye Gallery. You can also see a sample of his work at http://www.bullseyeglass.com/aboutus/now/

Stress Out! Avoiding Painful Breaks and Strains

Daniel Schwoerer is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (BS, Civil Engineering; MS, Engineering Mechanics) where he also worked in the art department as graduate assistant to Professor Harvey Littleton in 1968-69. He then moved to Portland, Oregon where he set up a glassblowing studio and later founded Bullseye Glass Co. with partners Ray Ahlgren and Boyce Lundstrom. He and Lundstrom co-wrote Glass Fusing Book One. In addition to his tasks as CEO of Bullseye Glass Co., Schwoerer continues to research and write technical articles on glass and to investigate leading-edge issues in kilnforming.

Portland Studio & Home Tour

Drew Smith was born in Nurnberg, Germany, and currently attends the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he is working toward his BFA in glass sculpture. Although Drew has explored many glassmaking techniques, his most recent work involves cast components and found objects, which act together to form small collections describing individual personalities. His work may be found at the Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh; during BECon 2009 Drew will be showing at Bullseye Gallery.

Emerging Perspectives in Kilncasting from RIT

Cassandra Straubing's sculptural work addresses issues of domestic and industrial labor, using multiple mediums, processes and a wide range of glass-forming techniques. Currently the head of the Glass Department at San Jose State University in California, she is refining the program to its full potential. She received her MFA in glass in 2007 from Rochester Institute of Technology, and her BFA in studio art from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, in 2002.

Emerging Perspectives in Kilncasting from RIT

Richard Whiteley is Head of the Glass Workshop at the Canberra School of Art, Australian National University. A British-born Australian, Whiteley has taught at Sydney College of the Arts (Australia), North Lands Creative Glass (Scotland), and the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass (USA). His practice is dedicated to making kilncast and coldworked glass, and he maintains an active exhibition program. His work can be found in public and private collections around the world.

Kilncast Glass, On the Couch with Clifford, Stress Out! Avoiding Painful Breaks and Strains

Erik Whittemore earned his BS in art with a focus in sculpture from Eastern Oregon University. He teaches kilncasting and coldworking classes at Bullseye that were developed, in part, from his experience assisting visiting artists. An instructor/technician at Bullseye since 2004, he has assisted Richard Whiteley at Pilchuck, presented at BECon 2007, and attended Clifford Rainey's Master Class at North Lands Creative Glass. When not at Bullseye he can be found in his studio, creating mixed media works. View his work at http://www.bullseyeglass.com/aboutus/now/

Considering Color

We regret to announce the cancellation of Ann Wolff’s presentation at BECon 2009.

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