I haven’t been blogging. I just can’t find the time.

Life has been such a party lately. (Insert cynical Smiley)

Like this week. We went to the grand opening of  The Nines, Portland’s newest luxury hotel. Hundreds of revelers bouncing around decadent monuments like tequila and martini luges. Pretzel-boned babe bungie-bouncing from sky-high balloons.

I kept looking out the windows expecting to see Rome burning. But no. Just little old Portland, gritting its gotta-love-‘em teeth in the face of our freaky future.

And tucked amid the revelers is the real reason we go to stuff like this.

Designed by Melody Owen, fabricated by Elements Glass, three floors of LED-lit handblown glass cascading down a marble stairwell.

The Nines has engaged with the local arts community to bring original art into the public and private spaces of this major hotel.  From the print faculty at Pacific Northwest College of Art to a galaxy of independent local artists and studios, The Nines is a feast for art lovers. Original idea? Well, no….we’ve previously reported on the Hotel Murano in Tacoma, one of a number of arts-based properties developed by Provenance Hotels. “Art Hotels” are good business.

But for those of us in the arts, “trend” may trump “original” on this one. It’s what we all so dearly need right now: recognition for the value of original art in defining identity. Whether personal or corporate, on all levels, art is the manifestation of our human side. And just cause for celebration.

So, look up, guys. We’re going to get through this one.

Dan & friend watching dangling damsel. Behind them: “Bloom” - over one ton of kiln-glass designed by Portland artist Ellen George.

I’ve been back in Caithness, Scotland at North Lands Creative Glass for a few weeks this summer…awed as ever by the quality of the light here at the 58th parallel and equally awed by the glass people I meet in this remote corner of Britain.

On a dash through the North Lands kiln-glass studios I spied an interesting set of tests at the worktable of an artist in the Bullseye Forum.

By purposefully casting wedges of varied colors together she’d created remarkable fades at the interfaces along the edge.

(more…)

Yes, it’s approaching four weeks….and just when I thought it was safe to go out , I got a Google alert  a couple of days ago that shot me right back to GAS – a favorite, often-edgy Canberra based blog with delayed coverage of the Moje demo at GAS.

I snagged this snap (apologies for the thievery, Megan) in order to answer a couple of questions that I got asked daily during the conference:

Q#1. What’s the story behind the cool Moje T-shirt?
Q#2. Where do I get one?

Why not get it off your chest? Better yet – put it on. Klaus Moje and Yoko Yagi make a sartorial statement at GAS Portland.

(more…)

I know I promised to write about the GAS conference. You’d think that I’d have something to say about a project that consumed over a year of my life.  Maybe a simple BESTS & MOSTS list like Cynthia’s.

Oddly though, my BESTS were a little too much like my WORSTS. Stuff like:

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED GLASS FANATICS…

…craning for a view (the bleached head in the upper right-hand corner of the frame is me), I can’t deny the rock-concert allure of mobs watching really good blowers (and Paul Cunningham doing a Moje roll-up fills that bill brilliantly).

But somehow, conversing through a bullhorn lacks a certain intimacy.

…even if Dan seemed to enjoy the hell out of herding hundreds of compliant souls around the factory.

I appreciate the organizational steroids it takes to manage a project of this size, but I came away from  GAS  with a heightened appreciation for conferences on the scale of Ausglass‘ or North Lands’, where human contact doesn’t mean having your hand ground into the steel bleachers by some kid’s Doc Martens as he scrambles for a seat.

OK. Clearly I’m still in GAS rehab. I WILL try to find some less curmudgeonly BESTS in a day or two.

For now, I’m off to confer with the most appealing crowd in THIS neighborhood.

It’s been exactly two weeks since GAS ended.

My exploded water pump seemed an oddly appropriate way to cap the Year of GAS.

I certainly didn’t manage to cap it with any running commentary. Sorry. It was just all too overwhelming. And - as usual - Morganica covered so much of it so well. I really liked her BESTS and MOSTS.

I promise to post a list of my own…soon. But right now I need to get to Helmsdale. Right now I’m 9/10ths of the way there.

And here comes my train. Later.